Eastern Europe - In Review

I have now been to every Eastern European Country, including the Balkans and the Baltic States - a total of 19 countries. The only exception is little Macedonia which required that I get a tourist visa before reaching its borders. This was making life way too difficult for me and I wasn't prepared to spend the money and time on Macedonia. Here's my thoughts on Eastern Europe:

1. Lots to see and do...architecture is enough to write a few books about!
2. English - what's that? Few people speak it.
3. Most women (more so the closer you get to Mother Russia) are bottle blond, brunet, or beetroot red haired. Ditto for beer bottle in the hand! The closer to Russia (i.e. Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, and of course Russia) the more you see people walking the streets drinking beer.
4. Girls - the higher the heels, the more exposed the belly, the more likely you're walking around in Eastern Europe - again, the more closer you get to Russia.....
5. Many left-overs of the Soviet Era! Grumpy people (more so the older generation) - often plain rude behaviour, cold customer service, sterile atmosphere, soviet architecture. Atheism is still widespread.
6. While most people earn meager salaries (especially in Albania, Moldova, Romania, Belarus, Russia, etc), here is no overt signs of poverty as I have seen across South and Central America, Middle East, Asia and Africa. On the contrary, poor little Albania must have the highest per capita Mercedes Benz ownership in the world. Other luxury cars abound in many of these poorer countries - apparently only among those with the right connections, and those with "illegal" sources of income. Well, there seems to be many of these!
7. While language barrier was a huge problem for me in this region, I think even if I spoke all Eastern European languages, I probably still will rank Eastern Europe as the least friendly region! Belarus may be the exception. I just love the Belorussian folks!
8. Eastern Europe is not as cheap as you may think! Darn, I should have been here 10 or 20 years ago. Come now before mass tourism and the European Union increase prices further.
9. Communism is largely dead...except for Moldova and Belarus where Lenin statues still cries king! Ok, count in Russia too.
10. In my opinion, this region has the most beautiful people in the world!! Just gorgeous!
11. The many wars, in particular WWI and WWII almost totally destroyed most of Eastern Europe, and its people. Its amazing how these countries - and its people - bounced back and rebuilt their cities and their lives. The Holocaust - probably the most tragic event in the world's history and affected almost every Eastern European nation!
12: My favourite countries: Belarus (the people), Baltics (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia), Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Montenegro ...oh...they're all great to explore!
13. In Summary:
The Good: the food, fruit, beer, wine, beautiful people, nature, architecture - so much history
The Bad: the wars, beetroot coloured hair, higher than expected prices, soviet left-overs....
The Ugly: The most ugly thing in Eastern Europe: Those unfriendly, explosively rude older women behind the train and bus ticket windows! Not every country, and not every ticket counter.

I'm glad I traveled so extensively through this amazing region. While I still would love to see Macedonia, I have no intent to return to Eastern Europe any time soon. Adios!