Please sir... Can I have my passport back?

Hopped on the bus from Vilnius to Riga today. Lovely ride... if you like being stuck in a humid sweat box filled with other people's airborne fluids. :P

Latvia looks pretty similar to Lithuania. The houses are a little bit uninteresting in comparison though. But the one thing that Latvia does have that Lithuania doesn't is scary border guards. The Lithuania guy was so done up with medals and other shiny parafanalia it was hard to take him seriously. But these guys... different story.

When we came to the border we naturally had to hand over our passports to the guy checking. Because mine requires stamping (not an EU citizen) he collected mine and a few other people's and hopped off the bus. A few minutes later the bus motors up and pulls away from the border. And I'm thinking "SHIT!!! Passport... Scary guard... ACK! Give back!!!" Mere seconds before I mount a mutiny on the bus driver to get him to turn around, the second driver appears and hands me my passport. He'd hopped on the back entrance without me looking.

This must be a well known border guard trick because I'm sure something similar happened to my Dad when he was travelling... :P