Yeah I hunted a couple of maps to contextualise stuff. I think they really missed a trick by not showing the position on the map as well as the name of a place they were cutting to.
I thought Episode 2 was maybe the weakest of the show but otherwise I generally enjoyed it.
Apparently only Alina’s story is in the original book. The Crows are the heroes of the sequel series, and this is also where Nina comes from, so all their stuff is original writing that has been worked into the main Alina narrative to make sure (I suppose) those characters are in it in case they get far enough to do the sequel series. However, I think the writing around Nina and the Crows often ends up the least well-realised.