I had read so much about the Baltic Sea in my school years. I could, even then, name all the countries that surrounded the Sea. Although, at that time, it was much easier. I would just replace Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the exclave of Kaliningrad simply as “Soviet Republic”.

It was cold as heck. Biting wind. Which was whipping up some menacing waves. Look at the foam all the waves lashing the concrete was creating….