Poland - Warsaw and Gdansk

I took the bus from Vilnius to Bialystok in Poland, which was the closest major railway station so that I could start using my Interrail european rail pass. I took the train to Warsaw and was greeted by my friend, Kuba.

Warsaw Old Town

He briefly showed me around a few of the major sites in the evening, including the old town and the tomb of the unkown solider. I gathered that he didn't seem too impressed with the city.

Tomb of the Unkown Soldier

The next day I went to Gdansk for the day to meet my housemate from London who was there with her friends for a music festival. Interestingly this involved getting the train to 'Hel', which is obviously a lovely name for a town. They were already very drunk but we met up and went for a few beers before arranging to meet in their hometown, Lublin, later in the week where they promised me lots of partying. I'm going to hold them to that!

I'm going to Hel...

Gdansk was very nice, with lots of historic buildings but it was easy to see everything quickly and the one thing I really wanted to see, the Solidarity movement museum, was closed.

Gdansk Old Town

I headed back to Warsaw and spent a full day sightseeing. I went to the top of the Stalinist 'Palace of Culture' to get a good view of the city and explored the old town in more detail. Warsaw is really nice but I can understand why the Poles don't seem too impressed with it. It's more a place of business and work than a tourist destination. Having been completely destroyed in WW2, only the reconstructed old town really stands out as something to see.

View from the tower

In the evening I stayed the night at Kuba's place with a bunch of other Polish students. They couldn't really speak much english but we had a great time drinking together and watching the Polish team play volleyball (which is really big over here apparently). Luckily they won!

The Stalinist 'Palace' at night

Unfortunately I have to drag myself up early in the morning to get the 7 hour train to the Polish border. Ukraine here I come...

Lithuania - Vilnius

I arrived in Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, tired and exhausted after such a long journey. Upon getting off the bus I noticed somebody blocking my way.

Bell tower in the main square

I looked up and had to blink a few times - a familiar face was staring back at me and smiling. It was Margarita from the summer cottage last October in Finland! What an amazing coincidence to bump into her - we had been on the same bus.

The old town from the castle tower

Luckily, she was a local of Vilnius and offered to show me around. We went to the churches and monasteries, climbed the castle tower and walked around all the major sites, including the breakaway self-declared 'free republic' of artists and nonconformists with its comical constitution prominently displayed.

Entering the 'Free Republic'

The city is very nice, definitely my favourite so far on this trip. The old town is much larger and more impressive than the one in Riga. There's a lot to see but in the one day I had I think I saw enough to get a feel for the place.

The Russian church at sunset

It was great to have a local guide, Margarita even took me to Vilnius University to have a look around which is something most tourists don't get to do. Despite having such a great time, I knew I had to leave. Next stop, Poland!

Lithuania - Hill of Crosses and Klaipeda

I got the bus from Riga to Lithuania, stopping off at Siauliai. I had originally intended to head straight for the coast but I had heard good things about the hill of crosses and it was on the way, so it seemed like a good thing to do.

That's a lot of crosses

The hill itself is about 20 minutes out of town by bus, then a 2km walk. I was greeted with quite a sight - a small hill absolutely covered in thousands and thousands of crosses.

There are also thousands of tiny crosses hanging from the larger ones

The tradition of placing crosses started long ago but took on greater significance during the Soviet occupation, when the crosses were removed by the Communist authorities. The villagers would sneak over the barbed wire at night, and risking their lives place a cross as a small act of resistance.

There are some more elaborate statues as well as the personal contributions

I went back to the main town and got the bus onwards to Klaipeda, Lithuania's main port and summer getaway resort. The main attraction is not the town itself, which is quite pleasant and historic, but the strip of land across the harbour.

The Soviet-era factory kind of spoils the town's charm

The Curonian Spit is quite an oddity. A sand bar 100km long and about 4km wide, it stretches parallel to the shore, with the sea on either side. Half way down the spit is split in two thanks to the Russian border with Kaliningrad.

Relaxing by the waterfront

I took the ferry across, then the bus an hour down the spit to Nida, the main tourist hub. After climbing the sand dunes, I rented a bike and spent the day cycling through the forests and along the beaches. It was definitely one of the most pleasant places I have ever been.

On the dunes, looking toward Russia (Kaliningrad)

Back at the hostel, I bumped into Andy who I had met previously in Tallinn and Tartu, and Melanie who I had met in Saremaa. Together we went out to a Lithuanian restuarant and then headed to the town centre, by the river where the midsomer celebrations were taking place.

Bonfire at the midsomer celebrations

There was a free concert with a strange but entertaining mix of rock and traditional folk singing (which I am told is quite popular in Lithuania), along with a bonfire and lots of alcohol stands. We stayed a while then went back to the hostel to get some sleep. Tomorrow we were off to somewhere quite exciting!

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 - 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!