With only six nights scheduled for the Baltics, I decided a 2-night stop in each of the capitals was the most practical option for my visit. Fortunately, the riding was short between each country, but given their tiny size I was still able to see pretty much what each country looked like. Lithuania was the first destination and I arrived in the capital Vilnius pleasantly surprised and instantly charmed. My AirBnB accommodation was right in the heart of the city and from there I could easily explore on foot everything the centre had to offer. I was surprised by just how many tourists were around, but there was good reason for me not to be. The Baltic countries are still reasonably cheaper than their major European counterparts and whilst small, they still offer so much in terms of culture, sightseeing and atmosphere. Beautiful parks, fascinating architecture, ornate churches, vibrant and hip streets with bars and cafes, all within walking distance. Having missed the walking tours, I ventured out into the evening for a pub crawl with a few English people and a girl from China who now lived in Paris. Our small group got more than we bargained for because not only was it Saturday, but it was the European Champions League final (football) and it seemed that everyone in every venue was watching it. There was an incredibly festive atmosphere and the warm summer climate made for a great night of wandering between bars. I met some Norwegian girls along the way who had taken the short flight across the Baltic Sea for the weekend. The beauty of Europe, as everyone no doubt knows, is just how close everything is. With budget airlines, better buying power in certain countries and the extraordinary long summer days it is very easy to take in a European city over a weekend and it seems more and more people are doing it to the great economic benefit of those once less accessible countries. My timing was also fortunate as Vilnius seemed to be in the middle of some folk festival. Everywhere I roamed there were groups in traditional dress singing folk songs.
I thought for sure Vilnius would be the highlight, but my next destination, Riga, Latvia, was equally as impressive, if not more! With the glorious Daugava River running through it, it was at once picturesque, breezy and stunning. The usual old town charm was greatly enhanced by the beautiful parks that wove around it, complete with waterways, waterfalls and gardens. It was incredibly idyllic and like I’d noticed in many European cities before it, the locals certainly made the most of this green space and the accompanying weather. This time I didn’t miss the walking tour and it was particularly unique. Rather than the usual immediate old town walk, we went slightly further afield to see the Riga Central markets (Europe’s largest apparently) which impressively re-used the top parts of Zeppelin hangars that were purposefully moved to Riga for the markets themselves! Another interesting highlight of the town was a revitalised section now used for gatherings and concerts tat had previosly been utterly run down, crime ridden and dangerous. You wouldn’t even recognise it now! It was also where the small Holocaust Museum was housed.
Further afield there was one particular monument in a park that deserves special attention: an understated stone column crowned by a sculpture of the head of Krišjānis Barons. Barons was a man who set out in the late 1800s by bicycle to collect all the folk songs across Latvia as it was already being recognised that vast amounts of folk music culture was being lost. What follows is astounding. Over many decades he collected over tens of thousands of songs from villagers all across the country. Whilst the total collection is over 217,000, I’m not clear on his exact contribution although it is impressive regardless.
On the walking tour I met Alys (Aussie) and Fern (Irish) who live in London. Alys’ mother is Latvian and Alys was doing her bit to keep the culture alive in her family having both learned the language and made several trips to her ancestral land. She invited me to join them at a traditional Latvian “folk club” where local cuisine is served to the tune of local performances of Latvian folk music. It was a definite highlight and there is no way I would have discovered it on my own so I was very thankful to Alys. Even more surprising wa the fact that one of the band members was Australian! Turns out he had married a Latvian, and although they lived in Australia with their young kids, they had taken an 18 month sabbatical to live and work in Latvia and were enjoying it immensely. He spoke of their plans to explore more of Europe during the school summer holidays, but they discovered that every single weekend in Latvia had some festival, event or occasion on and therefore simply booked themselves into every one of those instead! Yet another remarkable encounter.
I also took in a KGB museum which was the original building used for interrogations and detentions and quite sadly in some instances – executions. It was harrowing and confronting and as enlightened as I was after, I was relieved to be out of there when it was done. The conditions people were subjected to were horrifying. The building was cold and dark, but what shocked me was a tactic used for sustained torture I never even considered – light. Bright light. 24, 7. That’s right, these lights were left on non stop and were so hot most people imprisoned would strip naked and just lie there on the concrete floor, completely sapped of energy and spirit. Of course the circadian sleep rhythms were utterly disrupted as the body and the mind had no idea what time of day it was.
One final thing which surprised me was that 50% of Latvia’s population is ethnically Russian. And so it goes that many Latvians speak Latvian and Russian and there are two whole school systems to accommodate the different languages and ethnicities. I asked our (ethnic Latvian) tour guide if he could tell the difference between a Russian and a Latvian if he could visually tell the difference between a Latvian and a Russian and he assured me he could. Whilst there is some degree of separation between the ethnicities in various parts of life, largely they get along, but I find it to be quite unique that such a large percentage of the population identifies themselves as Russian.
I was lucky to find out from the Aussie guy that there was an Ethnographic Open Air Museum outside Riga on my way to Estonia. Alys and Fern also planned to go, but I would be ahead of them on my riding schedule and so it was that I spent a couple of hours strolling around the beautiful old wooden buildings that had been relocated from around Latvia for this exceptional environment. If I were to describe it, I would say it reminded of a village out of the Asterix comics, even though these buildings were from more recent history!
The final stop on the express Baltic tour was Tallinn, Estonia. Again, more beauty and charm was to behold me. Furthermore, hearing Estonian for the first time was most unusual. Having worked for a Finnish company in the past, I was familiar with the sound of Finnish, but here I was listening to perhaps the only language related to it and immediately I could tell. Incredibly how countries so close to one another can either be closely related (Finnish and Estonian) or not at all (Latvian and Estonian).
Note: Tallinn is a mere 60kms across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki.
2018 marks the celebration of 100 years of Estonia although of course their true history goes much longer. The walking tour was again highly informative and took us all across the old town and to some magnificent viewpoints. Again there seemed to be a festive atmosphere with concerts playing and displays of things such as Fencing which I thought was most unusual. Anaïs, a French student whom I met on the tour, joined me for lunch in the square and we took in all the atmosphere arond us whilst relaying our own current travels. Earlier on the tour we learned about the various guilds that were prominent in the city and the usual invasions and wars, but given it was a month ago, I’m afraid I’ve forgotten some of the more important details! Either way I highly recommend Tallinn. In fact, all three Baltic cities were bursting with culture, history and beauty and like so much of my European jaunt on Part 2 of the journey I was blessed with exceptional weather. You could easily spend a couple of weeks between the three countries. They are easy to traverse by any transport method and each one has a distinct style and feel. There is no doubt they come alive in Summer and I’m not sure I’d be volunteering for a winter excursion. Nevertheless, my six days were exceptional and I was now ready for my next great adventure. One I had waited for for a long time – Russia!