North from Poland and onwards towards St Pertersburg

Well from Morski oko i ventured up to Krakow where i took the car to a auto service to get it looked at, Ended up costing me a bit as needed the drums replacing and one of the valves had gone also, but at least the brakes work now and the cars in good shape to tackle the cold.
Whilst the car was in the garage i wandered around Krakow for a few days trying not to spend any money, I did however go to a recital of Chopin's music, went around most of the city's major sights but didn't get to the Salt mines or Auschwitz, which just gives me an excuse to go back at some point.

An Irish lad also named James who I'd meet in Zarkopane joined my wanderings and after the car was fixed we decided to drive north to Warsaw, unfortunately this coincided with the Poland Independence day festivals so stopping in Warsaw was going to be expensive as all the cheap accommodation was all booked, after very little thought we decided it best to keep driving so after 24hrs and lots of miles on bumpy roads with suicidal truck drivers we ended up in Riga, which has along with a nice old town has one of the highest rates of automobile accidents and fatalities in Europe, and where everything except the accommodation appears more expensive than in Poland.

However tomorrow i will venture forth to Russia where i will need to avoid the police bribes and everyone else who will inevitably try to rip me off. (such is life in eastern Europe).

I have just updated flikr with loads more photos, from Budapest and Poland.
With luck i will get to St Petersburg at some point late tomorrow evening. as for now I'm going to try and take some photos of the old town and have an early night in preparation for the long drive and perhaps try to learn a bit of Russian for the inevitable getting stopped by police.

P.S . Graham the lasses are, as in poland, easy on the eye.