Riga

An early start this morning with 415 miles today wasn't too bad after a relaxing evening in Warsaw in the hostel and a very comfy bed for the night.
Around midday progress was broken by a lithuanian traffic cop who decided that i was speeding...i wasn't really inclined to agree until he showed me the readout on his speed gun! Either way i managed to talk his fine down to amount I felt was reasonable given we were only passing through the country. The poland/lithuania border was something that could be only be described as desolate, with a few wagons in the parking area...we stopped to make sandwiches and so i could have a rest from driving.
The driving round here leaves much to be desired with no apparent rules in most places, and a road surface that was evidently laid by blind pikey on a weekend off. Potholes you could lose a small dog in and level crossings with very raised rails were amongst the delights to test the cars suspension and our spines.
Using our remaining lithuanian currency we called in a supermarket (picture kwik save on a stock take day)...spent most of it on beer in a true student style, worked out about 60p a can for half decent beer.
We finally made it to Riga about 7pm and found the 'Funky Hostel'. Although it was up many flights of stairs in a slightly dodgy looking building, on arrival the girl on the desk was very pleasant and the hostel is very clean with really good facilities (and cheap as well).
We went and had dinner in a traditional latvian restaurant and the food was excellent and reasonably priced. A couple of beers later in a local bar and we came back to the hostel and now writing this...