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For a copy of our privacy policy visit lonelyplanet.com/ privacy. tion (and for seeing the same Tallinn cafe from OUR READERS many different angles). In Tallinn, warmest Many thanks to the travellers who used thanks to Priit and Beatrice for excellent chats the last edition and wrote to us with helpful and food, Geli for her usual fine apartment as- hints, useful advice and interesting sistance, Elina and Triin at Chado for their tips, anecdotes: and especially to Estonia’s finest tea-meister, Ricardo A Ross, Jeroen Aalderink, Sophie Beck- Steve Kokker. with, Suzannah Conway, Nora Laufer, Yvan Lou, Christopher Mcdonald, Desi Mier, Nathan Pan, Mark Baker Alexandra Reese, Markus Schill, Nick Sweat- I met many helpful people all along the way in man, Bas Van Opdorp, Dom Van Abbe, Pamela researching the countries for this guide and Wade, Sarah and Rob Waters, Emma White their names would be too numerous to mention. I’ve lived in Prague for two decades now and a very special thanks to my good friends here. In AUTHOR THANKS Slovenia, the staff of the Slovenia Tourist Board deserve special mention. Finally, a nod to Co- Tom Masters ordinating Author Tom Masters for putting this An enormous debt of thanks to all my hard- enormous guide together is definitely in order. working fellow authors on this book, and the teams in London and Melbourne who commis- Greg Bloom sioned, edited and oversaw the project. Special Pop was my wingman again, soaking up vodka thanks in Albania to Ardi Pulaj, Catherine shots and slogging around St Petersburg on trip Bohne, Tedi Sina and Bledi Strakosha; in Bel- one of three. Spacibo dad! A big spacibo to Lucy rus to my friend Zhenya Artemyev; in Kosovo for joining on trip number three! Old Kyiv friends to Hekuran Avdyli and the folks at Libertas in Jake Rudnitsky and Tim O’Brien helped me out Pristina; and in Moldova to Kostya Derenyov big-time Moscow. Thanks to Mike Sito for letting and Marina Waters in Chisinau and Lena Lozin- me help the Pigs. Thanks to Peter and the gang sky in Tiraspol. in Piter; Kaz and (remotely) Aaron in Moscow, and the Petersburg ultimate frisbee crew. Carolyn Bain Much love and thanks go to Graham Harris and Chris Deliso Kate Johns for pre-Estonia fun and games, and As always a number of kind and helpful Mac- to Brandon Presser for Nordic-Baltic inspira- edonians (and other folks too) provided good 997 tips, advice and assistance in the course of Age Hostel, and Jan Beran and Mišo Marić my research. Among them I can mention for such a wonderfully random slivovice Pece, Patrice, Stevche, Emilija, Biljana, Dane, (plum brandy) evening in Mostar. As ever my Stojko, Ace and Julija – you know who you greatest thanks go to my endlessly inspiring are! Of course, this book couldn’t have been family, notably my unbeatable parents who, completed without the work of my patient nearly four decades ago, had the crazy idea and devoted Lonely Planet colleagues, includ- of driving me to Bosnia in the first place. BEHIND THE SCENES ing Commissioning Editor Katie O’Connell, Coordinating Author Tom Masters and the Steve Fallon mapmaking and production teams. Thanks to Bea Szirti and Ildikó Nagy Moran for their helpful suggestions. Péter Lengyel Marc Di Duca showed me the correct wine roads to follow A huge dyakuju to my Ukrainian parents-in- again and Gerard Gorman where the birds law for their support in Kyiv and their insights are. For hospitality on the road I am indebted into the latest developments in Ukraine. Also to Regina Bruckner (Budapest), András Cseh many thanks to Yarema Dukh of Visitlviv.net (Eger), Zsuzsi Fábián (Kecskemét) and Shan- for his invaluable support in Lviv; Mykola and dor Madachy (Budapest). Nagyon szépen Olya in Simferopol; Viktor in Odesa; all the köszönöm mindenkinek! As always, I’d like to dedicated staff at tourist offices in Lviv, Yalta dedicate my share of this to partner Michael and Bakhchysaray; Ostap in Lviv; Ukrainian Rothschild, with love and gratitude. Railways for finally realising that fast trains with seats that travel in the hours of daylight Anna Kaminski might be a good idea; and last but not least to Many people to thank, not least Katie for en- my wife Tanya, for introducing me to Ukraine trusting me with this task, Tom and the rest in the first place. of the Eastern Europe team, and my friends and family who helped me along the way. A Peter Dragicevich particularly big thank you to Gintaras and Many thanks to all the wonderful people who Viktor in Kaunas, to my adopted Lithuanian helped me in Montenegro, especially Ivica parents in Nida (you know who you are), Ni- Erdelja, Hayley Wright and Jack Delf, Emma kas, Simonas, Ben and Aleksandra in Vilnius, and Ben Heywood, Krstinja Petranović, Dani- Tomas and Jacinta for the Palanga all-nighter, ca Ćeranić and Matthew Lane. Also, I owe a and Rasa Dooling. debt of gratitude to James and Lorraine Hed- derman, Tim Benzie and Kerri Tyler for their Anja Mutić contributions before and after the journey. Hvala, mama, for your home cooking and contagious laughter. Obrigada, Hoji, for being Mark Elliott there before, during and after. A huge hvala Many thanks to Snezhan, Vlaren, Semir, Ner- to my friends in Croatia who gave me endless men, Žika, Sanila, Narmina and Branislav, recommendations – this book wouldn’t be the helpful folks at Travellers Home and New the same without you. Special thanks go to Coordinating Editor Elin Assisting Cartographers THIS BOOK Berglund Xavier Di Toro, Julie Dodkins, This 12th edition of Lonely Coordinating Cartog­ Alex Leung, James Leversha Planet’s Eastern Europe rapher Valentina Cover Research Kylie guidebook is part of Lonely Kremenchutskaya McLaughlin Planet’s Europe series. Other Coordinating Layout Internal Image Research titles in this series include Designer Katherine Marsh Aude Vauconsant Western Europe, Mediterra- Managing Editors Sasha Language Content nean Europe, Central Europe, Baskett, Angela Tinson Branislava Vladisavljevic Southeastern Europe, Scan- dinavian Europe and Europe Managing Cartographers Thanks to Joe Bindloss, on a Shoestring. Lonely Adrian Persoglia, Anthony Laura Crawford, Ryan Evans, Planet also publishes phrase- Phelan, Amanda Sierp Samantha Forge, Larissa Frost, books for these regions. Managing Layout Chris Girdler, Genesys India, This guidebook was com- Designer Jane Hart Jouve India, Andi Jones, Anne- missioned in Lonely Planet’s Assisting Editors Janet lies Mertens, Darren O’Connell, London office, and produced Austin, Kate Kiely, Helen Trent Paton, Dianne Schall- by the following: Koehne, Kellie Langdon, Anne meiner, Rebecca Skinner, Ker- rianne Southway, Navin Sushil, Commissioning Editors Mason, Joanne Newell, Lorna Lucy Monie Hall, Katie Parkes, Monique Perrin, Sam Gerard Walker O’Connell, Helena Smith Trafford 998 Lidija in Zagreb and Mila in Split, as well as the of Serbia, I’d like to offer clinks of the rakija team at HTZ. Finally, to the inspiring memory glass and mnogo hvala na to… the NS Kiosk of my father who travels with me still. Crew, Gagi of Niš, Toma of Mokra Gora, Zoran for saving us from snakes and wolves, all the Brandon Presser helpful oddballs we met during our medeni A massive thank you goes first and foremost mesec/research jaunt, Dragana Eremić, the to Aleksis Karlsons for your hospitality and Ljesević family, the Lučić clan, Pappa and BEHIND THE SCENES friendship. Special thanks to Jānis Jenzis, Mumma, and as ever, to Dušan, najbolje, Agnese Kleina, Live Rīga, TAVA and everyone najslađi čovek u svemiru! else that had a hand in making this edition a great one. Thanks also to Joanne and my Luke Waterson clever co-authors and editors at Lonely To Josef for the Spišské Podhradie adven- Planet, and a big shout out to Carolyn for ture; to the HRL girls; to Michaela in the High letting me rediscover the black poodle twenty Tatras; to the entire Košice 2013 team; to times over. Michal for the ride round the east; to Peter and Brano for the ‘authentic’ ride round Tim Richards Bratislava; to Giovanni and his great wine; to As always, I’m indebted to the staff of Majo for his hospitality in Slovenský Raj; and Poland’s tourist offices, and the national to the old women who opened up the wooden train company PKP. Dziękuję to my Polish churches: d’akujem for the wonderful insight friends – Ewa, Magda and Andrzej – for their into your little-in-size, big-at-heart country. companionship and insights regarding their mother country. I’m also grateful to the mem- bers of the English Language Club in Kraków, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS who supplied both friendly conversation and advice on new places of interest.