Riga - Tallinn

As I said in my last post, I was strangely refreshed in the morning. I purchased a ticket for the 10:00 bus to Tallinn, went back to the hostel to gather all my things, and then shortly before 10:00 returned to the bus station. When I got there, the Indian guy was also there. It turns out he had a ticket for the same bus. The two Australians also ended up catching the same bus. I really did not want to deal with the Indian, but he sat next to me on the bus. He said that he was a retired (even though he was only 38) investment banker from New York, and was so rich, he didn't need to work any longer. He began drinking vodka cocktails on the bus, and ended up spilling vodka all over the floor and wetting my bag. I switched seats. I had already made a reservation for a hostel in Tallinn, both the Australians and Indian said they would follow me. We got to the hostel inTallinn, and the Australians managed to pick up the last two beds available. The Indian left, thank god. I went out for a little walk around town with the Australians. They were having some sort of car show in the Tallinn main square featuring American cars. It was a bit of strange sight. We ended up running into the group of Portuguese people that were staying in the Riga hostel. While sitting with them, we saw the Indian guy sit nearby. Thankfully, he didn't see us. We got a drink with them at one bar, and then went to the Depeche Mode bar for another. The Depeche Mode bar only plays Depeche Mode music, and has memorabilia from the band all over the walls. Cider is very popular here, so I began drinking that instead of beer. The local beer here is dreadful as well. We went to dumpling restaurant and then the Portuguese had to leave to catch a bus to Vilnius. I returned to the hostel with the two Ozzies, and we sat in the common area for a while. At one point the Indian guy came in looking for us, but did not see us. He went to the downstairs bar. Eventually we headed down there as well, and the Indian had left. After a while at the basement bar, we went out to another bar in the old town with some other people. It was weird, but there were only English speakers in this bar. Mostly dirty Englishmen. One of them groped a German girl in our group. Eventually, wanting to some sleep before they leave tomorrow, the Ozzies returned to the hostel. I stayed at the bar until we switched, and had a nice chat with the German girl on an outside terrace. She recommended I not visit Munich while in Germany. The weather here is unusually warm. I returned to the hostel quite early in the morning.

Impressions of Riga

Riga is a very beautiful city, but much different from Vilnius. It definetly has a big-city feel to it, with five to six storey buildings everywhere. With the big city feel, the city feels rushed and impersonal. Vilnius felt smaller, and had a more laid-back atmosphere. Things are expensive here, and locals can be unfriendly at times. A lot of the city is run-down as well, especially outside of the center. The people here don't seem to be very happy, unlike the Vilnians. Overall, Riga is ok, but Vilnius has set the Baltic bar for me.

On the other hand, the hostel I stayed in here was great. While it was not as good as the one in Krakow, I nevertheless greatly enjoyed it. The good thing about this hostel (the Argonaut) is that there is a huge TV in the common room to watch movies on. This means that if you want to be anti-social, you can simply watch the movie that is playing. I was certainly doing this during the first part of Deja Vu, but towards the end it got so silly that I started to ignore it. The staff is also very friendly, and socialized with the people staying here.

Riga - Day 2

Today I again went to the pancake house for breakfast, as it was very cheap, and was intended to be my meal out for the day. I finished my book at the pancake house - Black Swan Green - which I thought was really great. I must admit I empathized with the main character, and unpopular thirteen year-old boy going through the difficulties of growing up. I went to the dome church and paid to get in - but there was also a museum attached to it. Mildly interesting. I next went for a long walk to see the Art Nouveau section of the city, which Riga is famous for. Riga is regarded as having some of the best Art Nouveau architecture in the world. It did not dissapoint, although quite far from the old town, the buildings are quite remarkable and I took lots of photos. For lunch I decided to go out after all. I chose to go to Rama, a Hare Krishna cafeteria as it is very cheap. The Indian food I had there was very good, and quite cheap for Riga. Since I had by this time seen almost everything I could in Riga, I headed back to the hostel for some more ideas. I ended up going to a museum that was an ancient house, and that diplayed how someone would have lived a few hundred years ago. It was quite good. I then went to the war museum, which sadly does not have English subtitles and thus dissapointed. Needing to pass the time, I went to a cafe where I ordered a Riga Coffee, which is coffee with Balsam in it, the Latvian national liquor. I did not like it. By the time I finished at the cafe, I still needed to pass more time, so I went back to the hostel and asked the lady at reception. She suggested I go behind the train station to see 'Little Moscow.' I did, and encountered the biggest market I've seen outside China, primarily selling huge boots, and saw run-down buildings. I have a feeling the Russians aren't doing too well here. By this time it was 5:00, so I went to the supermarket, bought some stuff for dinner and ate it outside on a bench. At the hostel, I watched the movie 'Deja Vu.' I also ended up playing a game of chess with a fifty-six year old man who was also staying at the hostel. He was very nice, although I'm curious as to why he is at a hostel. He was a very good player and beat me. After the movie was over, 'Hostel' was put on. Seems like a cliche quite honestly. I safely ignored while talking to people, and ended up going out before the movie finished. I ended up at the same bar as yesterday, except this time I was very drunk. Beer now makes me physically ill if I have too much. For part of the time at the bar there was an Indian - American man who was hammered. All that he could do was look at all the ladies and attempt to talk to them. He also said he didn't understand how he had spent 200 lats ($400) at the strip club he went to yesterday, as he had no memory of it. Although I only got about four hours of sleep as I write this, I feel strangely refreshed.

Riga - Day 2

I got up this morning and went to breakfast with the two other people staying with me in my room. One of them is Anna, a german girl, and the other Karen, an English lady in her forties. We went to a crepe place that was recommended in my book and that was cheap and good. Since Karen is only in Riga for one full day, she expecially wanted to go Rundale palace, the seat of the Duke of Kurland. Me and Anna also decided to go with her, as I love castles, and it is a day trip. We headed over to the bus station and bought tickets to Bauska for 11:00. Since we had about forty minutes until the bus left, we went to the massive market behind the bus station that is located in several former aircraft hangers. After wandering there for a while, we returned to the bus station, and caught the bus. Bauska is an hour away, and when we arrived we got a taxi to the palace, which is 10 km away from Bauska. The palace itself reminds me of a smaller, run-down version of the Schonbrunn in Vienna. They are doing restoration work on the outer facade, which should return the palace to some of its former glory. Inside is a mixed bag. On the main floor they had a truly dreadful exhibition on roses, and many of the rooms on the upper floor where devoid of stuff. The palace still needs work. The garden is quite nice, but as in the rest of the palace, is undergoing restoration, so parts of it are overgrown. Overall the palace was nice, but needs a few more years of work to qualify as great. We had to wait for a bus to get back to Bauska when we had finished the palce, and when back in Bauska, managed to just make the 3:00 bus back to Riga. When we got back to Riga, Karen wanted to see a couple of churches before she left, so we briefly went to two, but did not go in, as Karen felt offended that they charged an admission fee. In one of the squares we stopped for a drink. I ordered tea, as I am a bit off beer at the moment. After the drink we headed to Lido, a restaurant that was recommended to me by the Americans I met in Vilnius and by Karen, who already eaten there. It was greasy Latvian food from buffet. Since I was famished it tasted very good. When we had finished dinner, we went to a bar and had a few drinks. At the hostel, they were showing the movie 'Man on Fire,' which I watched until it finished at around midnight.

Klaipeda - Riga

I got up early to catch the 9:00 bus to Riga. Spent a while on the internet, as I got up at 7:00, and there was little else to do. The bus was not very full at all. We made a stop in Liepaja, and I really had to go to the bathroom, but you had to pay. Thankfully another English speaking passenger was kind enough to spot me a bit of Latvian change. The bus trip took about six hours, and I arrived in Riga at about 3:00. Riga is quite different from Vilnius. It feels like a much bigger city, and I sense that it is more touristy. The hostel I booked is near the bus station, and so it was convenient for me to lug my bag there. The hostel seems good. THe receptionist was very friendly, and there is a large common room with a buge TV. I was quite hungry by this point and so went out to look for a restaurant to eat. Unfortunately Riga is very expensive! It is definetly the most expensive East European city I have been to so far. I walked around for about 45 minutes and failed to find a place that was affordable, so instead I went to the supermarket where I had a very affordable sandwich. I then headed over to the Museum of Occupation, yet another museum about the horrors of communism. It was quite good, but not as good as the one in Vilnius. I headed back to the hostel, and asked the guy at reception to recommend some affordable restaurants to me. He was very helpful, and I went to the traditional Latvian restaurant he suggested. It was still a bit pricey, but not as bad as the other places. The food was pretty good, although a bit strange. As it was getting dark, I went back to the hostel and started watching the movies that was showing, in this case it was Vertigo. After Vertigo, Sin City was shown, which was a very strange movie, but it was very stylish. When the movie was finished a chatted for a while with a German girl who had just checked in, and who is in my room. I went to bed just before midnight.

Minsk - Final Thoughts

I have had time to reflect on the experience I had in Minsk and would like to offer an explanation for its weirdness. I will use Klaipeda as a counter-example. While walking the streets of Klaipeda, I noticed that a number of them were being re-cobbled, likely to make them more picturesque and tourist friendly. You know when you see cobbled streets that a tourist can't be far. The old city of Klaipeda is a massive construction zone. A giant crane loomed next to the restaurant I ate tonight. While the new 'old' buildings may not be historically authentic, they draw in the tourists and are aesthetically pleasing. All of the waitresses in restaurants speak English and are friendly. There are good signs and maps of the city everywhere. While Klaipeda is by no means a beautiful city, these small things are nice, and make the experience of staying here pleasant. I would guess that in about five years, Klaipeda will be very nice, and would like to revisit it then.

Minsk on the other hand, is a counter-example to this. No effort has been made to beautify the city, and it remains stunningly austere. Signage (even in Cyrillic), remains practically non-existent. Apart from people in hotels and the occasional young person, no one speaks English. They don't even sell postcards. This being said, I think that with some effort, Minsk could become a tourist mecca. By brightening up the grey buildings, opening a few museums with subtitles in English, and placing signs, the city would be much improved. There are many people who would be truly fascinated to see what a true Soviet city is like, but are put off by the requirements to enter Belarus. It's a shame really.

The question is why? Clearly it is because Belarus is aligned with Russia. It has chosen the East and not the West, which in my opinion is a bad choice. Unfortunately Belarus is a dictatorship and Lukashenko (the leader) is only 53! He could have another thirty years of life ahead of him. To see what could happen if Belarus aligned with the West, we need only look at Ukraine, which recently had the Orange revolution. Unfortunately I have not been there, and so can only comment on the visa situation. Since the pro-Russian non-democratic government was turfed in the revolution, visa restrictions have loosened, and Canadians (among others) no longer need a visa to get in. Undoubtedly this has greatly increased the tourism industry, and put money into the Ukrainian economy. I think Belarus could greatly benefit from loosening visa restrictions as well. However, as long as it remains allied with Russia (and Russia remains authoritarian), Belarus will always be a horribly dysfunctional country.

The Curonian Spit

I have always been fascinated with maps, and one geographical curiosity has always stood out to me - the narrow strip of land known as the Curonian Spit shared by Russia and Lithuania. Today, I took my bike and left at around 8:00. I stopped at the supermarket and got something to eat and a snack. I managed to catch the 9:00 ferry across the harbour to the spit. I was wearing shorts and I was frigid when I got to the spit, but was hopeful that it would be as warm as yesterday. I began biking on a woody path that transected the spit. On the side nearest to Klaipeda, there is no beach, but on the side facing the Baltic Sea, there are long sandy beaches. Since it was so early in the morning, I did not see anyone. There wasa bike path alongside the beach which I decided to take. My goal was to bike nearly halfway down the spit (the Lithuanian side) to the town of Juodkrante. In the town there is a hill that has a whole bunch of traditional wood sculptures. I would've liked to bike to the Russian border but the distance (50 km) one way, was too long. I biked for about an hour and a half, with several stops to enjoy the scenery before I finally got to the town. The spit (which is a world heritage site), is very beautiful, but disturbingly, whole sections of its interior have had its trees chopped down. I'm not sure why. It was about 11:00 when I got to the town, so I decided to head up the Witch's hill for the sculptures and then get lunch. Since I was hungry, I took a bit of my last remaining goody given to me by Irena. It was a chocolate bar with fruit bits. Unfortunately, it was only after swallowing the first piece that I noticed it was infested with maggots! I quickly tossed away the rest of the bar and enjoyed the wood sculptures. By this time I was starving, and so I stopped and got a meal a very small restaurant that was very cheap. Still, it was quite good! I then began the long ride back, but this time took the main road back to see the lagoon-side of the spit. It didn't take me as long to get back, only about an hour. I saw lots of mushroom pickers while riding back, as this is apparently mushroom season. By this time it was quite hot, and I ended up just wearing my t-shirt. I got back at around 2:00, and still having some time before my bike was due back, went to the beach to read my book. There were several old men nude bathing there. I am extremely tired now, and will surely have to go to bed early, if that is indeed possible in a hostel.

After spending an hour on the internet at the tourist office and enjoying the squaks the African Gray Parrot they have there, I went to dinner. I decided to return to the place where we had drinks yesterday, as it had a nice menu in English. When something intrigues me on a menu, I usually get it (as long as it is not too expensive). In this case, beer cocktails seemed intriguing, and were not that pricey, so I ordered one. It was terrible. After tequila, definitely one of the worst alcoholic beverages I have ever had. I also ordered Pike soup, which was good, and potato blintzes, which are Lithuania's national dish (apparently), and were delicious. Basically they are deep-fried potato dumplings laid over a piece of ham with a cream sauce on top. Fatty but delicious. When my meal was done, I headed to the supermarket to get some food for tomorrow morning, as I have an early bus. I was also hoping to get a sandwich, but the woman there claimed I had to eat it in the store. This is bullshit of course, as I got a sandwich this morning at the same store and ate it on the spit. Oh well, I guess I'll have a late lunch in Riga. I then got my bus ticket and returned to the hostel to find it deserted. Apparently me and one other guy are the only ones staying here tonight! Hopefully I can get to bed early, as I'm completely knackered from my bike ride.