Hello, I'm Simon Calder and you are very welcome to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on travelling, whether you're just dreaming of a great escape or actually away and having the time of your life.

And I'm pleased to say I'm in that position because I am, as you can tell,

on a bus, you probably can't tell that I am sweeping through the snowy wastes of

northeastern Estonia. Yes, I am. There's beautiful birch trees stretching pretty much as far as the eye can see.

There's a good highway that is leading on to the lake which divides Estonia from Russia.

I'm now on day three of a great adventure through the Baltic Republics.

And goodness, it is proving hugely rewarding,

but I wanted particularly to talk about the joys of bus travel in Eastern Europe.

It is very sadly the fact that while many railways exist, they are generally

regarded as the kind of lowest form of transport. I know it's wrong, it's wrong, of course it is,

but that's what they do. And I've been on a couple of trains, certainly crossing from

Latvia into Estonia, where they are genuine

Soviet era, probably 1980s trains, nobody on them, cheap fares but slow. And that's because

most people who are making longish journeys will be on the buses.

They are generally very reliable. They are also very comfortable. You get great views and

the thing is they are also extremely good value so this particular trip

which I haven't booked which will take me from Tartu the beautiful university city

that belongs to Estonia is going to mustve it's spelt must be as must see but with a v instead so i thought i must see

that and it is from there uh to get there it's about 30 miles i guess um and it's cost four euros

so around three pound fifty or something and it's a euros, so 3l50 or something.

And it's a very, very low cost experience.

From there, I've got a 75-mile ride through to Nava on the Russian border,

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