From here to eternity

Granted: eternity is a bit of a stretch, but from Kutaisi (Western-Georgia), where we are now, to Helsinki is still quite a long way... Next Saturday, if all goes well, we'll be taking a ferry across the Black Sea from Poti to Ilychevsk near Odessa. The weather is great down here (20 degrees, sunshine, cloudless sky), so we hope the ferry keeps its schedule and arrives next Monday in Ukraine - but shipping schedules are there to be adjusted.

We'll spend the last two weeks of our "heroic trip" (sure, whatever) in Eastern Europe, mainly hopping capitals: Kiev, Warsaw (or Minsk, provided getting a transit visa in Kiev goes super-smooth), Vilnius, Riga and Talinn. From there, another ferry will take us to Helsinki.

So it seems that out "overland" aim of crossing the Eurasian continent will be achieved, if "by sea" is also admitted as overland travel (which we of course believe). With borders between Georgia and Russia sealed and the Azeri-Russian border open only to locals, going by sea is anyway the only sensible option: going round through Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania is quite a detour, and flying just isn't cool enough for us!