Vilnius

When I wake up Matt Gash is heading illegally into Belarus. He says he'll be back in a couple of hours. I'm amazed at his energy at such an early hour, as he had stumbled into bed not long before after we had taken a trip to the Pabo Latino. I had tried to use the opportunity to learn some Lithuanian, Mr Gash got as far as good evening and then repeated this to everyone in earshot, with varying degrees of success.

Later that morning Matt returns, having got a taxi to drive him to the official crossing point then along the border until they saw a secluded gap between two farms. He then got out of the car, jumped over the ditch seperating the two countries, climbed through the barbed wire and stood there proudly for a few moments. Then he climbed, jumped and drove home. "That's Belarus completed," he says.

The Centre of Europe, as decided by French scientists in 1989, is in the centre of a golf course. I wish we could play a few holes but Matt Gash and I are on a bit of tight schedule. Vitaly, the same driver who took Matt to Belarus earlier says he'll wait for us. He also works as a croupier in a casino and is built like a breakaway Eastern European state. There are three monuments that possibly represent the actual centre, a rock, a big paved compass and a silver column topped with a gold crown. Matt suggests we touch all three just to be sure. As we go to leave, an old man calls out from the nearby log cabin. Matt wants to make a break for it in case we have to pay but he seems friendly enough. His name is Johanes and he is learning English while he waits for tourists. We both sign the visitor's book and ask for a certificate. Johanes writes it very neatly and then dries the ink on a radiator.

Back in the Old Town we embark on a whirlwind tour, interrupted only by a delicious sea-bass dish, that actually won the 2007 Kremlin International Food Award. This includes several churches, the cathedral, the market, the castle and finally Uzupis, a small island on the East side of the city. The bridges to Uzupis are famed becuase of the padlocks on their railings, put there by newly weds to symbolise their love. The keys are then thrown into the river. Uzupis declared its independence in 1997, and as such has its own government, currency, flag, constitution (Which includes some notably absentees from the US Constitution such as "A dog has a right to be a dog") and army (Roughly 12). Independence day is, perhaps unsurprisingly, April 1st. Their first undertaking as a state was to build a monument to Frank Zappa. Even though his bus to Riga leaves soon, when Matt hears this he has to cross the bridge. He stands there for a few moments and then walks back across, meaning he'll have done four countries by the end of today.