How far East?
We have been travelling across the North of Europe and are now really far East - or maybe not ...
We were told in Lithuania that a small town close to our route has in fact been designated as the centre point of Europe (North to South and West to East). Geographical Europe is defined as stretching across Russia to the Ural Mountains. So when in Lithuania we were only half way East across Europe. And had we been in Northern Europe much? No, as the 'Far North' is a very long way north we were only just back over into the northern half. Mind blown!
In Latvia we met a Dutch couple who had just come from Narva in Estonia on the Russia border. They told us how there was a castle there and a sister castle on the other side of the river in Russia and you could wave to the folk on the walls of the castle on the Russian side from the Estonian side. It had always been our aim to take Paddy to Russia one day, so although we cannot get into Russia without visas, we thought we'd like to go to this Eastern edge of the EU.
So we had reached the Russian border and travelled just over 2600 miles in three weeks. How to celebrate? An Irish coffee in Narva's Irish Bar. Then a night in a carpark with a portaloo and instant noodles for dinner. Living the life? Yes seriously.
If you'd like to keep track of where we are in real time, click on this link https://www.polarsteps.com/EmilySimmons2/26494238-europe-northern-loop?s=67a882f5-c20d-4434-a37b-20976048cf89