When I was a kid in school, nobody mentioned Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania in geography classes - they were simply a part of the Soviet Union then, and it never really occurred to me that there were such distinct countries tied up in it. But when I backpacked through eastern Europe a few years ago, I …
passport pirouette
Passport pirouette: Waiting for a Polish visa
Back when I did my longest stint of travelling throughout Eastern Europe, it was just before any of the countries joined the European Union, and thus it was still while Australians required visas to enter many countries - Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic among them.When I first left Russia for …
Passport pirouette: A week in South Korea
Like every South Korean I've met since (and teaching English back here in Australia, I've met several hundred of 'em), the immigration officials at Incheon Airport near Seoul were friendly and polite. Unfortunately that didn't stop them making a mistake and initially stamping my passport to say that …