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Question - Which key on the keyboard do you use the most often ?
Answer - the space bar of course

And why did I start with this strange question ? Because that is the key on my laptop that has decided to stop working. It means that I have to hit it two or three times every time I want to insert a space. I like to consider myself a very patient man (although those that know me might say otherwise), but this is really starting to $#@& me off.

In spite of the difficulty with the misbehaving space bar, I will do my best to keep up with this blog.

The day actually started quite poorly. The location of the Hotel Chmielna is in a precinct that is filled with a lot of youth hostels and guest houses. The people that stay in those sort of establishments are often more interested in getting drunk than learning anything about where they are. Apparently there was some sort of soccer match between Poland and the UK which attracted a horde of unruly supporters across for a drunken weekend in Warsaw. What followed would have made wonderful viewing on an episode of "Brits Behaving Badly".

From early evening the amplified techno "music" combined with the shouts of drunken louts at earsplitting level. In spite of the heat in my room, I had no alternative other than to close all the windows and swelter inside. Even with the windows closed the noise still permeated. One particularly obnoxious Brit obviously had a vocabulary consisting solely of one four letter word. This he uttered every few seconds at the top of his voice for hour after hour. I assume he was practising his barracking skills for the upcoming match.

The audio onslaught continued all night long until sunrise the following morning, when they finally decided that they had interrupted everyone else's sleep enough and probably went somewhere to collapse into a coma. Somehow I did manage to get some sleep, but the stuffy room made the final night in Warsaw a night to forget.

This morning it was time to bid farewell to Warsaw and start our journey to Vilnius. I had arranged for the same driver who collected us at the airport to drive us back again. Once again,the sparse Warsaw traffic allowed us to reach the terminal very quickly. Even quicker was the speed that we were able to check in our luggage. How wonderful it would be if all airports worked like this.

Since we had some time to spare, we all settled down in a quiet corner of the Costa Coffee shop and chatted. It soon developed into a sort of "truth or dare" as each revealed secrets about our past that we had not told anybody before. Of course Bob excelled by telling of his famous previous life as a sharp shooting bank manager.

Our plane was delayed a short while and we were happy to be finally called to start boarding. The only trouble was that we had to be jammed into a waiting bus to take us to our plane. We were then crammed together like cattle while the bus waited and waited, and waited. The temperature inside soured in the hot sun. It became unbearable. But still we waited. There was no explanation as to why we were kept in the bus for so long, but it really was terrible.

When we finally reached the waiting LOT plane (made in Brazil), I was happy to find that it was actually freezing cold inside. I loved the respite from the heat. We even were served a chocolate bar and a cup of coffee during the short 1 hour flight to Lithuania.

After collecting our baggage we were met by a quiet guy who drove us to our hotel. Although we expected that there would be more horses and carts than cars, we were a little surprised to find our vehicle stuck in peak hour traffic. As we looked around it was clear to see a contrast of decaying soviet era buildings interspersed with quite a few modern structures. It was clearly a country in transition.

We finally arrived at our hotel about 6 pm and were met by Ross and Fran, Lothar and Celia, Gordon and Sue and also Marg Jones. That brings our contingent up to around 16 people. If Marg was looking a little stressed it was probably because her luggage had not made the flight from Amsterdam with her. Every traveller's worst nightmare. We hope it arrives tomorrow for her sake.

Our hotel is the very comfortable City Gate Hotel, beautifully situated right near the entrance to the old city. After a shower and a change of clothes I joined some of the others for a wander into the old city. We soon found a place to have dinner and hear Gordon and Sue tell of their travels in the far north of Norway and Finland. The food was good, relatively inexpensive and it was great to spend time with good friends at the start of another new adventure.

Somehow David managed to get us lost on the walk back, leading us all into an interesting dead end. It was only a minor blunder and we were soon all back safely. Although the sun doesn't go to bed until about 10.30 pm, I am happy to hit the mattress at 9. And the hotel is beautifully quiet............Read more