Paris to Rīga

On the way to Tallinn for a friend’s stag weekend, but going the long way round. Stayed in the Nord Hotel, a rather shabby two-star place right by the Gare du Nord. Not as plush as the neighbouring Hotel Terminus Nord, but fine for the half an hour I spent there awake. Wandered down to Maison Berthillon and had dinner at the Place d’Italie, a slightly soulless square on the southern side of the city, with a massive cinema.

Then a long train journey to Warsaw, made all the longer by a nasty cold, and a night in the plush and fairly reasonably priced Novotel Centrum, on Al. Jerozolimskie by the central station.

Finally, a long overnight coach via Eurolines from Warsaw’s tediously remote central bus station to Rīga, via Kaunas.