pInspired by a life-long passion for travel, Stuart McMillan embarked on a journey of over 2,000km, crossing the continent from the Baltic Sea to the Balkan coast. The book provides personal observations and reflections on a fascinating world hidden for decades behind an Iron Curtain. It gives the reader a glimpse of how the history, culture, years of oppression and brutal wars have shaped these beautiful lands and the people who live there.ppbrppStarting in Lithuania, a journey weaving through the beautiful and often mysterious Slavic lands all the way to Croatia - taking in Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It includes travelling in a 44-degree heatwave taking a short-cut via Moscow experiencing a chaotic sleeper train out of Ukraine coping with the failure of all air-conditioning and lighting on a long-haul train down to Serbia learning about the legacy of both Nazi and Communist oppression and seeing first-hand the scars and re-built splendour of Sarajevo and Mostar