The Baltic States

So, last minute I realized that I could take a few weeks off after the semester ended. I thought I'd go for a normal chill Europe trip, perhaps Spain for a week. Somehow this trip evolved into a round trip ticket to Stockholm to visit and pick up my friend, Joy, to explore the Baltics. A week before the trip, I didn't even know what countries I was going to. A few days before flying out, Joy and I madly planned our Baltic itinerary. We decided to hit them all - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Furthermore, we were going to experience both the capitals and countryside and as an added bonus, we were going to squeeze in Helsinki too. All in 9 days!

Our travel route.
Stockholm, Sweden -> Latvia -> Lithuania -> Estonia -> Helsinki, Finland -> Stockholm.

Latvia: Baltic State #1

I head off a few days before Joy on an infamous cheap Ryan air flight at 6:45 am. My one bag allotment of 10 kg and I ride the smooth hour flight. No complaints.

Riga: the capital of Latvia (day 1)
Riga consist of an Old Town and newer city center. The buildings are mostly restored to their former beauty prior to the Soviet occupation. Latvia was free from the Soviets in 1991, and entered the EU in 2004.

Blackhead's house, the most pictured building in Old Town. It was completely destroyed by the Soviets in the 1940s, but an exact replica was erected in 2001.

The three brothers houses represent Riga's diverse architecture. The oldest is over 600 years old.

Riga's narrowest street.

The market. Hmm, should I buy tomatoes, strawberries AND that leopard blanket?
It was a rather tame market compared to the one in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Mainly, I did not see pig carcesses rolling around and signs for horse meat; only a few encased tongues.

A building in the Art Nouveau District in the city center. Art Nouveau is also known as Jugendstil, meaning "youth style." Here, architects were encourage to be creative and bring a sense of unique style to Riga.

One of the many haunting and flamboyant faces in the Art Nouveau District.

Latvian man reading the paper on the local train.

I took an hour train ride to reach the National Park of Sigulda. On the train I saw school children, teens and elders going about their day.

Note: I think the former Soviet rule in Lativa still weighs on the people; they did not seem to be a joyous bunch. I seldom saw a smile. Everywhere I went and asked, the common answer was "NO."

Sigulda National Park (day 2)
Upon arriving in Sigulda and inquiring at the tourist office (the only place where one person spoke English), another solo female traveller heard the sounds of English from me and asked if I wanted to join her for the day. Sure, why not? So Elaine, from England, and I head off to explore and get lost in the wilderness.

Turaida Castle in the distance: our goal. It was about a 2.5 hr trek to reach this castle.

Me and some castle ruins along the way.

The countryside.
We took many guesses and wrong turns navigating through the park. I don't think we were suppose to go through here, but somehow we did and it was pretty nice.

Finally arriving at the castle. The dungeon prison. Not happy.

View from the castle tower.

The day trip to Sigulda was pleasant. It was nice to explore outside the city and be in nature. I always like getting out of major cities when I travel, probably because I live in one. But these Baltic cities are quaint, small and maneageable.

Day 3: Joy joined me for a last day in Riga before we head off to Vilnius via bus. Inquiring about bus tickets was quite an experience into Lativan customer service, or lack thereof. English was supposedly spoken at Eurolines bus office. But, when I asked why there were many bus times listed and which ones were to Villnius she answered in a huff, "Not all bus can leave at 8." When I tried to ask another question, she didn't even say "No" but merely put her hand out shooing me to another counter. Lovely. The ultimate unspoken No. And of course, our seats were not next to each other; that would be too logical. And a big burly Latvian guy booted me out of my seat. I was not going to fight. But, it ended up being a deluxe bus and a smooth $24 ride.

Lithuania: Baltic State #2

Next up: Lithuania. The moment we arrived in the capital, Villnius, we noticed that the people here were friendlier. We still got our share of no's, but with a nicer attitude. This city was definitely livelier than Riga. Schlepping from the bus station to our B&B with our backpacks, we were immediately enamored with the old town.

Villnius, the capital (day 4)
Our first day here was spent wandering aimlessly and exploring all the nooks and crannies of the old town and an inadvertent long trek through the newer part of city.

Joy enjoying an afternoon in a cafe on the bustling pedestrian street in old town. Villnius has the largest old town of the Baltics and its also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

First order of business: food, of course!

Cepallinai: the one dish that defines Lithuanian food.

A potato dumpling filled with minced meat and drenched in a creamy greasy bacon fat sauce. It'll clog those arteries in a second. Despite it's unhealthy factor, it was not the most tasty meal, but you can't go to Lithuania and not try it. I just couldn't finish it.

Overall, the food was hit and miss. Of course, the potato was prevalent, as was cream. But we got our good share of pastries and blynai (pancakes). And while the milkshake hunt was disastrous, we discovered the Lion McFlurry, which ranks up there among my favorite international McFlurries.

A painting of Kazakhstan in a gallery.

The art scene here is flourishing. We stumbled upon many unique galleries while wandering the streets in town. This artist actually had a Kazakhstan influence. Needless to say, this painting reminded me of my trip to Central Asia with its horses and yurts!

Tradition crepe with strawberry jam. One of our many yummy afternoon breaks at a cafe.

Joy approaching half of a Tony Soprano.

You just never know what you are going to find! But in fact, we walked in a little further past Tony and found...

Lithuanian folk dancing!

Adults, teens and children were all dancing joyously to live music. We watched until almost 10 pm. Of course it was still light outside.

Trakai (day 5)
On our second day in Lithuania, we decided to take a short 30 minute bus ride out of the city to Trakai, a smaller town with lots of nature and a landmark castle. Our bus was definitely "local" as was the stench on it. We don't know if it was only due to the portly Lithuanian lady with many bags, or also the bus driver. Thank goodness it was only 30 minutes!

Natural beauty of Lithuania.

We desperately wanted to go row boating, but unfortunately we chose the wrong day to visit Trakai. It was unexpectantly windy, freezing, gray and rainy and we were not wearing enough layers!

Trakai castle.
I'm smiling admist the chills and threatening sky.

Joy and me inside the castle.

Lithuanian lady and a typical wooden house.

It was nice to explore this smaller town and see the surrounding water and nature. Too bad the weather wasn't nicer so that we could go trekking through the national park and boating, but alas we cut the day short in favor of returning to our B&B for hot tea and warmer clothes.

Taking it easy in Villnius again (day 6)
On our third day, we finally took out the guide book to make sure we didn't miss any of the "must-see" sights in Villnius.

St. Ann's church.
We had to see this one because it is in both of the paintings we bought. It was actually right down the street from our B&B. There were several unique churches peppered throughout town.

Non-restored buildings.
Not everything was sparkling and quaint. You could clearly tell that certain parts have not been recovered since the Soviet era.

Joy and me at the top of the tower on the top of the hill overlooking Villnius.
From up here, we could hear folk music so we followed the sound to a folk festival in the park.

Lithuania was pretty incredible. We enjoyed the leisurely pace at which we explored Villnius. We wandered through streets and parks and enjoyed observing the locals. For the most part, the old town was clean and lively with a lot of wonderful architecture and character. And we got to chill in a cute cafe and read fun books. Not bad at all.

Estonia: Baltic state #3

An overnight bus that stopped almost every hour in random deserted parking lots managed to get us to Tallin, Estonia, half an hour early at 6 am. From there we trammed around trying to find out how to get to Kasmu in the national park supposedly an hour and a half away. We got lots of "No's", but finally got help and a warm pot of tea from a classy hotel (ie. they have an English speaking person there - a good trick to get help in travels!). This was the one time that the efficiency of the bus system broke down. The internet times, listed times at the bus station and actual departures times were all different.

Kasmu in Lahemaa National Park (day 7)

We managed to arrive at Kasmu about 3 hours and many stops after we planned, but we were just thankful we were able to get out there. It was definitely worth it!

Random boulders sitting timelessly on the still Baltic waters. 10 pm.
My favorite view.

At last I got to ride a bike! We BIKED around everywhere as there was not good public transportation. There was no food in our town, so we had to bike 15 minutes to Vasu, the next town over, which had a beach. We also managed to get lost biking along the roads with an unsuccessful detour into the forest.

Joy and me at the beach.

A very brief dip in the cold questionable algae water.

Of course we didn't swim at the beach, but near a pier of crazy drunken Estonian men trying to fix a motor boat and roudy teens.

View from the gazebo in front of our B&B.
We had several meals here enjoying the peaceful scenery with the bogs (marshes) and swans.

Our favorite part of the park was going on a night hike through the forest and along the pebbly shore. We saw the sun setting at 10 pm over the horizon.

Jazz hands! We enjoyed stone hopping along the waters at night.

Joy hanging on one of the many trees in the national park.

It felt like we were at the northern tip of the earth - so peaceful and beautiful, minus the mosquitos. This was definitely one of our favorite moments on the trip.

Goodbye Kasmu.

Me and all my baggage - one backpack, one purse, one food bag and one painting. You can tell how tiny and remote this bus stop is, which was probably why it was hard to get here via public transportation!

Tallinn, the capital (day 8)

After a few busses, we arrived in the capital at 3. We only had a half a day here, but our only goals were to hit up all the cozy cafes and wander the town.

View of lower old town from the upper old town.

Meandering the streets of upper old town. It was quieter, more like a neighborhood and not completely restored which we liked better than the more bustling touristy lower old town.

Random cute statues.

One of the serveral colorful doors in the upper town.

Yummy potato mushroom dumplings cozy with cream of course in "grandma's" restaurant. It was one of our favorite meals.The bustling central square in lower old town.

The town wall.

The afternoon and evening was enough time for us to get a feel for Tallinn. We hit up 3 cafes and two restaurants and even got two ice creams. Overall, the people in Estonia seemed to be the friendliest of the 3 Baltics. Also, Estonia was by far the most western europeanized due to their proximity to the Scandinavian countries.

We didn't sleep so well in our hostel as it reeked of smoke and urine stench, but at least it was our own room and bathroom. Also, we had to wake up at 6 to catch our 7:30 am ferry to Helsinki!

Helsinki, Finland

We squeezed in 8 hours in Helsinki between ferry rides. It took us 3.5 hours to travel back and forth between ferry terminals and the city which left us 5.5 hours to explore the city and beyond.

Sure, we could've taken the ferry from Tallinn, Estonia straight back to Stockholm, but instead we took the detour to Helsinki!

The two hour ferry ride brought us floating pass some islands near Helsinki at 9:30 am.

It sure was pleasant to be back in Scandinavia where English is spoken, but of course prices were more exorbitant. After dealing with luggage and transportation logistics, our first order of business was of course to find a cafe.

Enjoying mochas and a cardemon bun at the famous Fazer cafe, known for chocolate.
A much deserved rest after 5 hours of traveling, and it was only 11:30 am.

As we ferried to Helsinki, we checked our guidebooks for advice on what to do. The first thing to do in Helsinki: take a ferry to the island of Sveaborg. Eh? You mean the moment we get to Helsinki, we should leave Helsinki? I think our half day here may be enough time afterall.

On the 20 minute ferry ride to the island of Sveaborg. The seagulls following us were freaky!

Joy and me on Sveaborg island which was pleasantly nature filled.

Even in our short time here we managed to get both city and nature in.

Exploring near the old fortress walls.

The island was a fortress to protect Helsinki from invasions.

Back in Helsinki strolling the clean wide streets near the ferry port.

Salmon, dill and potato soup with lots of yummy fresh bread and spreads. Typical Scandinavian. What more could you want?

One of my favorite meals of the travels. It was all you can eat so we "stocked up" since dinner was going to be somewhat nonexistent on our overnight ferry.

You would never see this in NYC!
Isn't Scandinavia pleasant?

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Helsinki. Though much smaller than its counterpart capitals of Copenhagen and Stockholm, Helsinki shared the similar lovely Scandinavian quality. We felt like we covered it pretty well in our half day and our curiosity was finally satisfied after all these years.

Home to Stockholm on the SLOW overnight ferry! 5:30 pm - 9:40 am.

It's dubbed the party ferry since a lot of people take it to drink all night and buy duty free alcohol. But for us, it was our cheap ride back to Stockholm. At first we didn't even have a cabin, but come midnight, the reality of sleeping on a bench, in the game room or on the floor of a dark cold common room was not appealing. So, from the moment we found out that a 24 euro cabin was available to the moment we were horizontal in the beds was less than 15 minutes. So grateful for beds! Sometimes we are just too old for certain types of traveling.

And now for my final day in Stockholm.

And I'm off ..... Scandinavia (Stockholm and Helsinki) and the Baltics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia)!

Not sure why, but I'm always writing last minute. I should've left 20 minutes ago. The semester has wrapped up and I'm stoked to be traveling again. I'm meeting up with Joy and we are gonna chill in the country house for a few days before exploring new territory. I promise to post pics and stories, most likely when I get back.

Home sweet home?

I thought I would've been more anxious to return to NYC at the end of the summer to start my new life, but I had mixed feelings. I was thankful, however, that home was still NYC. Although my life in NYC would be drastically different.

So, just as I thought it would be OK to wrap up my entire life in 5 days before embarking on my travels, I also thought it would be just fine to come back from two months of travel and start my new life the next day after! I arrived Tuesday afternoon and was instantaneously knocked down by the flu. Then Wed morning I went to pick out a new apt and catch up on two months of work e-mails (apparently my new job that was suppose to start Aug 21, actually started before I defended my thesis and flooded my e-mail box while I was traveling. oops.) Then on Thursday, I was thrown into meetings all day long. Friday I went to lab, and Saturday I moved to my new apt. And my new life began... in all its craziness. Unfortunately, it made for a hectic new beginning and my new job was rather intense, hence these posts coming way late.

I miss traveling. At first, I didn't have time to think about anything but work, but as things settled a little more, I find myself reminiscing for the summer and the days of wandering countries. And as I began to have time to breathe, sleep and meet up with old friends and people in my life, I recounted the tales of the summer as I have here. So the grand adventure that I had looked forward to for so long is done. But of course the question already looms: Where am I going next? Well, I can barely leave Manhattan these days, but rest assured, those who know me, know I will never stop exploring! Hmm... I am thinking South America?

But for now, this trip was everything I could have hoped for and more!!!

Highlights and my trip in numbers!

Favorite...
- country: Kyrgyzstan (although Italy is always a staple)
- food: Italy! (gelato.. need I say more?)
- city: Istanbul
- town: Manarola in the Cinque Terres in Italy
- view: the cliffs in Santorini, Greece, glaciar lakes in Kyrgyzstan
- transit: day 1 on horse over the mountains to the country/lakeside of Kyrgyzstan
- jam: sour cherry in yurt #3
- moment: stepping out into Athens at the beginning of my trip.
- leg of the trip: the Tri-stan trek.

Craziest...
- night: a toss up between the 1 hr moonlight walk to the secluded rock beach with Joy and Otto, and the night in Skopje, Macedonia airport
- day: Day 2 in Montenegro (the guy, the old lady and the swedes in that town)
- moment: flying off my horse in the hills of Kyrgyzstan
- meal: mutton dumplings (I just couldn't...)
- ice cream: the gooey gummy stuff in Istanbul
- sight: Jane catapulting from the outhouse with her headlight in the pitch dark in the Kyrgyz
countryside
- transit: carrying my 50 lb backpack when my back gave out while also being pick-pocketed in Athens subway, the not so safe big plane ride from Tashkent to Bukhara, Uzbekistan
- quote: "Can I hassle you?" "I would like to make love to you."
- point of confusion: why was I the only person not carrying 2 melons onto the plane from Uzbekistan to Moscow?!?! Do they know something I don't?

Highlights:
- The caldera views and lazy days in Santorini in the Greek Islands
- Dinners + gelato at the Ipata house
- Eating gelato anywhere in Italy
- Walking the towns in the Cinque Terre with mom
- Dipping into the cool ocean in Croatia with Joy
- Gazing at the Fjords in Montenegro
- Exploring and chilling in Istanbul
- Staying with Abby and Jake in Almaty
- View from the top of the pass at the glacier lakes in Kyrgyzstan
- Playing the Kyrgyz card game with Jane and Aipeck in our third Yurt
- Admiring the architecture in Uzbekistan

OK, so as I was traveling, I kept tally of random things. So, here are some stats for fun!

Days traveled: 56

Countries visited: 8
(1 repeat, 7 new countries, + 2 nights in 2 new countries' airport: Macedonia & Russia)

Different "beds", or rather, different places I spent a night: 30 (hostels, B&Bs, hotels, homes, apts, ferries, airports)

ice creams eaten: 33 (greatly enhanced in Italy, and dramatically reduced in the 'stans)

Hours spent on the internet: 20 (mostly in Istanbul)

Weight of big backpack leaving the U.S. = 20 kg ~ 44 lbs
Weight of not so big backpack leaving Uzbekistan = 9.8 kg ~ 21.5 lbs.

Number of shoes thrown away at the end of the trip: 3
Number of shoes acquired: 1

Hours in transit: 167.5 total
Plane - 43
Ferry - 33.5
Bus - 28
Foot - 16.5
Horse - 15.5
Train - 15
Car (driving) - 10
Taxi - 6.5

Hours waiting at airports: 43

Number of different airlines flown: 6
(British, Olympia, Croatia, Turkish, Krygyz, Uzbekistan) keeping it local!

At Tashkent airport - the main international airport in Uzbekistan. All of the departing flights for the day fit on this one screen. And this was one of the larger airports I flew out of on this trip!Please let me leave your country!

Me and all my documents trying to get out of Uzbekistan.

Rule of thumb: always keep all your paperwork, ESPECIALLY any paper that has a stamp on it. The more stamps the better. Just flash them all and say a prayer.

So, it took me 48 hours, and 4 flights to get from Bukhara, Uzbekistan back to NYC! We spent 8 hours in Tashkent waiting to leave the country, watching everyone saran wrap their bags and getting our paperwork in order. Then Jane went east and I went west to get back to our respective parts of the U.S. and start our respective new lives.

My second leg got me to Moscow, where I was relieved to find some English speaking agents. They let me spend the night hassle free at the bustling airport without a visa. My third leg got me to Heathrow which was my entry way to Europe at the beginning of my journey. In my fourth leg, I thoroughly enjoyed the British meals and English movies across the Atlantic.

The moment I got back to my apt, I collapsed on my bed. And then my body decided it had enough of the crazy food in the stans and ridiculousness of traveling and went on strike. I could not move for the rest of the day, attacked by the stomach flu or something similar. Go figure.