Latvia - Riga and Sigulda

I had been really looking forward to Riga, especially because the hostel I would be staying in was one of the highest rated and had frequently won the annual best hostel award for the entire world. I would not be let down!

The guards at the central monument were not amused at our attempts to climb it

Upon arriving I was given a free welcome beer and was informed by the barman of all the best places to go and things to avoid. He takes everybody out on the town every night at midnight, which is quite a nice touch and something I wanted to take part in, at least on the first night.

Old Riga

One poster in the bar caught my eye - a shooting trip to an ex-Soviet bunker to fire AK-47s amongst other guns. It was something I couldn't turn down, as we never have the chance to fire real guns in the UK. I put my name down and met up with the others before taking the tram together to the bunker which was surprisingly near the city centre.

Shooting in the bunker

The bunker contained a huge gun shop selling all kinds of weapons and was run by some crazy Russians who didn't speak any english, which didn't exactly fill me with confidence. They literally just put the weapons in our hands and said 'shoot' without any instruction. It was good fun though, if a little scary, and the firing range itself was quite safe. We got to use a pistol, AK-47 and pump-action shotgun (which indulged all my horror movie fantasies).

The view from up high is quite impressive

Later I did some sightseeing, climbing one of the tall church spire to get a view of the city and then doing a lot of walking. I met with someone from the hostel and we went to a local restuarant before heading to the bar and meeting other travellers then going to a club.

Not sure what this is, but it isn't Soviet, despite the appearance

The next day was spent doing more sightseeing and in the evening we went to another club, this time much bigger and more impressive. It was great fun and we stayed pretty much all night.

Some of the new buildings are quite impressive

I awoke in the morning in my bed with no memory of how I got there. This was quite surprising as the club was quite a long way away. One poor guy said it took him 2 hours to walk back as he kept getting lost, but I guess I have some sort of homing instinct.

Soviet locomotive at the railway museum

On the 3rd day I got the bus to Sigulda, described as 'the Switzerland of Latvia' It's not quite as impressive as that, but the main castle is very pleasant (although a 5km walk from the centre), as is the cable car ride to another castle, although it's not quite as well preserved, being a big pile of ruins.

Soviet skyscraper in the Russian district

Once back in Riga I headed to the Russian market. The whole area on that side of the city is like stepping back in time to the Soviet Union. There is even a towering Stalinist skyscraper and Russian church to complete the effect.

Main square in the old town

All-in-all I really liked Riga. It was definitely my favourite stop on my trip so far, with the hostel especially being a lot of fun. Next, I was off to my fourth country - Lithuania!

Estonia - Tartu

I arrived in Parnu in the afternoon and headed straight for the university dorms where I would be staying. They were brand new and very nice, but I had a room to myself and knew it would be difficult to meet anyone. Luckily, fate would intervene.

Main square of the old town

I set out to do some sightseeing and almost immediately on the bridge into town I bumped into someone I had met in the hostel in Tallinn. We had hung around together quite a lot there so it was quite a surprise to meet up again, especially as he was supposed to be going to Russia, but in fact ended up coming to Tartu first.

Inside the KGB cells

He had been in Tartu the day before so knew the town already and showed me around. Later, just after we sat down in a cafe another person we knew from Tallinn walked past, again much to our surprise!

Peering into the war-damaged church

Now the first guy I had met was doing the 'couch surfing' thing where you stay with a local at their place for free. He was with a university lecturer so we decided to meet up with him and go for dinner. Being a lecturer in Political Science he of course knew a lot about the history of Estonia and we were able to ask him all the questions that had been bugging us about Estonian life and culture (this was good as he was pretty much the first local we had contact with).

Estonian graduation party

The one thing that I had been wondering about was why there were so many well-dressed people walking about carrying flowers. Well the answer was that it was graduation week for the Estonian students, and the teacher was invited to one of the graduation parties. Of course, he brought us along!

The view from the party

The party was amazing. It was held in a luxurious loft of a tall building, with lots of people there but it was pretty much 100% estonian students and me and the 2 Americans huddled in the corner feeling like impostors. Luckily we mixed in pretty quickly and ended up taking a sauna with a bunch of them, which was rather random, and then sitting out on the roof watching the sunset over the city. The best moment came when the Estonians, and us, all held hands and sang a national patriotic song. It was very moving indeed and not a moment I will ever forget.

High up on the roof, sitting on the neon sign while drunk. Probably not a good idea...

We were out pretty much the whole night, which wasn't my original intention as I had to get an early bus in the morning, but it was definitely worth it. Onwards to Latvia!

Estonia - Saremaa and Parnu

The bus to the island of Saremaa took about 4.5 hours, including an hour on the ferry, which was quite pleasant. Except, that is, for the enormous dragonflies the size of small birds swarming all round the decks. I've never seen any this big before and would be seeing yet more of them on the island.

On the ferry to Saremaa

The island is quite special in Estonian culture because due to its isolated location it was always the last part of the country to be invaded and occupied so traditions and culture that were lost elsewhere could be kept alive.

The castle at Kuressaare

The weather was great as I arrived and after dropping my bags off at the B&B in the capital, Kuressaare, I set off to explore the town. There wasn't too much to see, with the exception of a great medieval castle which houses the museum of the island. Otherwise I spent the day relaxing at a slow pace as I knew the next day would be quite tough - I was going to rent a bike and cycle down the Sorve peninsular.

A strange centrepiece for a harbour

Unfortunately by the morning the weather took a turn for the worse and it was raining on and off all day, but I decided to risk it and cycled about 20km south along the coastal road to see the WW2 remains that the island was well known for.

The battlefield site

Some of the heaviest fighting in Estonia during the Second World War took place on the island as the Germans retreated in the face of the Red Army. At the present site of the battlefield now there isn't much to see, except a typically drab and tasteless Soviet war memorial.

'Banned History'at the modern art museum

I cycled back and spent the rest of the day relaxing before catching the bus in the morning to the coastal resort of Parnu, back on the mainland. This is apparently the place where Estonians go on holiday and is known as something of a party town, although I didn't see much evidence of that. It was all a bit eerily quiet but the town was very pleasant with lots of historic buildings.

It's possible to walk the 2km breakwater right out into the sea

I was only there for a night as I wanted to squeeze in one more stop in Estonia before leaving. It was definitely a nice place with a great beach but once again the weather was against me and it was quite cloudy and windy at times.

On the beach

In the morning a grabbed another bus, this time Estonia's second city, Tartu, and my stay there was I'm glad to say, much more exciting!

Estonia - Tallinn and Laheema

My trip to Tallinn was a little more hectic than I had hoped. I managed to miss my train, which already was a dangerously late time and had to get the next one, which meant I had just 20 minutes to make it from the station to the port with my heavy bags. The problem was the port was on the other side of the city and much further than I expected.

Leaving Finland

Thankfully, I made it to the boat with just 1 minute to spare and was the last passenger to board. That's me I guess, always leaving things until as late as possible. The journey itself was very relaxing and gave me time to catch my breath and eat some breakfast before arriving in Estonia.

Arriving in Tallinn

Once in Estonia, it was exactly as I remembered on my two previous trips last year. I headed straight for the hostel, which was one of the highest rated in europe according to the booking website I was using. I dumped my bags and from the outset started meeting lots of different people.

Walking around the edge of the old town

I was quite nervous about my first time alone in a hostel, but I soon learnt to be as open and friendly as possible as everybody else was in the same situation. Most of the others seemed to be from english-speaking countries, namely Australia, Canada and the US, so it was easyt to communicate and get along.

The only reason they put the sign up must be because someone already did it...

I did some quick sightseeing, although having already been to Tallinn (twice!) there was little I had not already seen in the old town so I took a walk further away to the new town with its gleeming skyscrapers.

Old meets new

Later that afternoon I went to an Estonian restaurant with a couple of people from the hostel. It's true what they say about Estonian food, it was full of meat and quite bland but as I hadn't eaten all day I didn't really mind.

Out on the town

That night a big group of us went to a bar called Hell Hunt, which was much nicer than it sounds and even claims to be Tallinn's first pub. After it closed we wandered around until we found the holy grail - a 24 hour bar! The beer was so cheap that I ended up drinking far too much and couldn't get up the next day.

Former KGB headquarters with bricked-up torture basement

The problem was I was supposed to get up early and head for Saarema national park, but I didn't wake until the afternoon and by then it was raining heavily, so I decided to stay in.

Walking from Palme to Vosu

I decided to extend my stay from 2 nights to 3 and got the bus the next day to Viitna. I then stumbled across a local bus which saved a 7km walk to the tourist information office. The driver spoke no english when I asked where it was going, but the passengers seemed to know english and all helped out. In fact, when I nearly got off at the wrong stop seemingly half the bus stood up and told me, which was quite a nice experience.

On the beach at Vosu

I walked about 3 hours to Vosu, getting lost several times on the way along lanes that were unmarked on my map, but eventually I made it and relaxed on the beach for a while.

Still painting the lines...

It was a nice little village but there was little to see so eventually I got the bus straight back to Tallinn and collapsed into bed.

I guess there are ACDC fans even way out in the country

I had a great time in Tallinn and a good experience on my first time in a hostel. I'm currently on the island of Saremaa, which is where I headed next. Hopefully I'll have time to update this again sometime soon!

Four More Days in Helsinki

So I'm back in Helsinki yet again for the beginning of my new pan-European adventure. With any luck, over the next few weeks I'll be heading south through eastern Europe, stopping off at as many cities and places as I can along the way.

By the sea

I arrived back in Finland Saturday afternoon and gave my friend Gerard a bit of a shock when I remembered that I had forgotten to tell him I was coming. Thankfully he was as welcoming as ever and offered to let me stay so I headed to drop my bags off. The one thing that surprised me most when I arrived was the heat - the thermometer on the flat balcony said 31 degrees! I had been in Helsinki just a month previous and at that time it was still practically winter.

On the boat to Suomenlinna

In the evening I headed to Suomenlinna, the large UNESCO-protected island fortress in Helsinki harbour with some friends for a picnic. We ended up staying until 1.30am, but luckily the boats were still running at that time. We managed to see the sunset over the city, which was beautiful from the island. It was especially interesting as the sun didn't set until after 11pm! It stayed quite bright all night, which seems really strange for someone from England. It makes Finland feel really different from home, but it does have the annoying side effect of making it difficult to sleep.

On the island at sunset

Anyway, we got the boat back to Helsinki and went to the very-crowded Aussie Bar in Kamppi before heading to a flat in Pasila to drink cocktails until 7am. Considering that thanks to my flight I had been up since 5am this was far too much for me and eventually I fell asleep.

Lonely man on Suomenlinna

The next day I drifted back to Gerard's to recover for a bit before meeting with a couple more of the erasmus survivors, including a friend from last year who by chance was in Helsinki this week, which was a nice surprise. We decided to head to the beach here in Leppavaara. We had only recently heard of its existence when someone looked on Google Earth and realised with quite a shock that "oh wow we actually live near the sea!". In fact there was a reason nobody had been there before and it took us several hours of getting lost in forests and down country lanes until we found the sea, but no beach.

On the ´beach´in Leppavaara

We ended up lying on the rocks drinking beer which was good enough for me. Problem was I had to meet some friends in the city so I ended up walking almost all the way to Helsinki until I found a tram line, which was quite a feat as I don't know anybody who has done this.

Best bar view in Helsinki?

I met with Florian, Rafi and Giulia and together we headed to the best bar I've been in Helsinki. It was on the roof of a very tall hotel, right in the centre. The view was absolutely amazing, it was possible to see in 360 degrees across the entire city. I can't believe I didn't know about it! We got to watch a spectacular sunset over the skyline before I headed back to Gerard's for a barbecue.

In the studio

On Monday I randomly ended up in a recording studio with some friends. I can´t sing or play any instruments so I was able to just sit back and watch. It was quite an impressive show - I had no idea my friend has such an amazing singing voice.

Today I´m heading into town to meet a friend before the traditional Tuesday-night sauna and then Bar Fly. Tommorow is the big one...I´m heading by ship to Tallinn to begin my adventure. I can´t wait!