Moldova, Belarus, and the Baltics--Introduction

This trip will complete my travels to all of the countries in the former Soviet Union, and give me 111 countries visited.  I booked it as a tour of Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia ("Belarus and Baltic Explorer") from Baltic Tours, a company in Lithuania.  The only other former Soviet Republic that I hadn't been to was Moldova, so I decided to add a couple of personal days in Chisinau, the capital of Moldava, and fly from there to Minsk, Belarus, to begin the tour.  In the map below, red lines indicate flights, and blue lines indicate travel by car and bus.

Next: Days 1-2: Chisinau, Moldova