Baltics

(Lesley) When we first got to the Baltics I was a little worried that we had left too much time here. Really I was realizing that had we kept this part of the journey shorter, we could have returned home with enough time to still do our annual canoe trip and enjoy a little Winnipeg summer before heading back to work/school. Well, I am not regretting our time here now. We did a lot of city hopping since Ukraine and although Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have great cities, these countries are best enjoyed out in nature. Not having a car or a tent, makes doing that harder. However, Sam managed, through e-mail communications, to find a camping place that rents little cabins in our price range. We have just enjoyed a nice rural break. We stayed 5 nights in a little wooden tent. We got a couple of extra fiction books and settled in for some relaxation. There was swimming nearby in several little, but deep, lakes and there were some hiking options but the weather was so hot that we opted to get our exercise by swimming across the lake instead. The kitchen was equipped and there was a small grocery store 20 minutes down the road on foot and a big one 20 minutes away by bus. It was a lovely way to end our year on the road. Just a few days in Tallinn, then a flight back to the UK, a few more visits with family and friends and then it is back home for us.

While in Vilnius and Riga, Mhari and I managed to do some amber shopping. We saw some nice things and would have loved to have kept shopping for days but we got a few little treats, did a little Christmas shopping and left it at that. We have seen more amber here in Tallinn but the prices are higher than in Latvia and Lithuania.

We have ditched our worn out things prior to our flight to the UK. My shoes smelt pretty bad this last month and I'd been wanting to throw them out, but had kept them for hikes. My clothes have lasted well though. It really is amazing how little ones needs for a year. I'm sure that after I return I will collect a full compliment of outfits again,, but it is nice to know that it really isn't necessary.

John is quite tired of wearing the same small selection of clothes day in day out but refuses to buy anything as he knows he has more than he needs in Winnipeg. Sam doesn't mind his tiny wardrobe at all. Mhari somehow manages to get creative with her outfits but perhaps it is all her new hairdos that keep things interesting. Both kids want clothing allowances upon our return. They want to live with few clothes and bank the cash for future trips. We may just go for it. They have earned some independence and the money management aspect would compliment a lot of what they have learned this year. The trick will be figuring out what they have to buy independently and what we will help them purchase. Given that they are returning a few sizes bigger, having given away all their old clothes, they may need our help with some of the big ticket items like winter jackets, boots and shoes.

Other Baltic news or thoughts...

-I e-mailed from our bus to Tallinn; the buses here have wifi. Gotta love wifi on Estonian buses! (Wifi we pronounce Wee-fee, since our time in France)

-We travelled to Tallinn from the south east corner of the county, from Voru actually. It wasn't far from Rouge (pronounced Roogger) where we were camping. When we got to the beach in Voru it was clear to me that there was to be a triathlon there soon. The buoys were set up for the swim but nothing else was there. Then, around the corner I found things were all set up for a kids triathlon. So we figured out that it was the kids and the try-a-tri on Saturday and the adults on Sunday. I wanted to stay and watch the swim but we had a bus to catch so we left just before they began. Darn. If I was in better shape it would have been fun to participate but I am so out of shape I would have died on the bike and the run, quite literally!

-From we have learned and witnessed, Estonia seems to be a great country for cycle touring (so for that matter are Latvia and Lithuania). I am hoping one day we will be able to return and spend a month or so cycling around and camping. Or maybe we can come back and ski for a month. Like skiing in Norway without the high prices.

-While camping in Rouge, we noticed the incredibly long daylight hours. It was still very light at 9:45 pm and it would be light again long before 6:00 am. We are used to lots of sun in Winnipeg in summer, but this was something else. And of course Estonians' get less sunlight than us in the winter.

-Estonia shares a common problem with Manitoba - the mosquitoes. There are less of them here but they are about and we were happy to have our Deet repellant (which we have been carrying for 11 months now).

-Estonia also has beautiful wooden houses! We have seen them in each little town, village and city, and they look lovely.  They give the place a Scandinavian feel. Well, I imagine they do, but I haven't been to a Scandinavian country so I wouldn't really know. We could have taken a ferry to Helsinki from Tallinn, there are several crossings daily and it only cost 20 Euros, however, costs once in Helsinki are high, so we didn't bother, besides there is lots to see right here in Tallinn so we are happy with that.

In the Baltic countries, as well as Poland, we saw lots of scout troops marching about (some quite literally marching along, two abreast). Most troops had a uniform of sort: a red scout shirt, a green t-shirt and matching socks or a scarf and khaki pants. Some were all boys, others all girls and the older groups were often mixed. We saw troops camping and some were staying in our hostel in Vilnius. They were canoeing, and hiking. We noticed groups from Belgium, France, Lithuania, Germany and Poland. I spoke with some leaders in Lithuania and I was quite impressed with them and the sheer number of young people out and about, seeing the world and getting in touch with nature. There is definitely a stronger Scout culture in this part of the world. I wonder how their street gang culture is doing? We have certainly never felt threatened.

Baltics: Add them to your list of places to go one day.

Some photos: Mhari and John found a great spot for dancing during a hike; Mhari is not smoking but enjoying a salted fish snack; Our home for a week; wooden house; Estonian buses all have WiFi

The Baltics (Sam)

It's been a while since I blogged but basically, since we left Warsaw we have been to Vilnius, Stalin World, Riga and here, Rouge. Vilnius was really nice. One highlight was going to check out the constitution of Uzupis, a slightly hippy-ish neighbourhood who have (jokingly) declared a breakaway state. Their constitution includes all sorts of important, and unimportant things such as...

10. Everyone has the right to love and take care of a cat.

23. Everyone has the right to understand.

24. Everyone has the right to understand nothing.

37. Everyone has the right to have no rights.

And those are only a few.

Stalin World was cool. The Soviet playground, while not up to Canadian safety standards was tons of fun. Dad wrote about it in detail so check his blog.

From Vilnius we took a 4 hour bus to Riga, it then took two hours in the rain to find our hostel. Riga was nice, but I preferred Vilnius. Riga was too big. There were plenty of old buildings, a few churches and unfortunately, no shortage of Amber shops and stalls. We actually spent two out of three days at Jurmala, the number one beach in the Baltics. The 32 km long, fine white sand beach was one of the number one holiday destinations in the USSR. It's vintage wooden cottages are owned by rich Russians who aren't quite rich enough for frequent flights to the Caribbean.

I must admit I'm not a beach person. If I have somewhere to settle down and clean off then I'm fine but day trips are not my thing. However it was three against one so I manned up and just tried to stay in the shade.

Because our hostel kitchen was so useless, we ended up eating a lot of cheap perogies and pancakes, not that that's a problem of course. We could each get a filling bowl of perogies for about 10 dollars total, and a pancake each for desert was 4 dollars total. On our way up into Estonia we had a 6 hour wait in Valga, a town cut in half by the Latvia-Estonia border. Because of the Schengen treaty the borders since Poland have been completely open. We went from Poland to Lithuania, to Latvia, to Estonia, to Latvia, to Estonia, to Latvia and then into Estonia. We had a bit of fun.

Here is a selection of photos from Poland: Birkenau Barracks; The road that led to the gas chambers; Work Makes Free; Stolen Spectacles.

And more pics from Poland: Palace of Culture and Science; Warsaw Old Town graffiti; Warsaw New Town (not quite as old as the old town)

Some pics from the Baltics: Riga Old Town; I think they mean "sport zone"; Vilnius church; Uzupis Republic Main Square; Stalinworld.

Baltic Countries

(John) Our bus from Vilnius, in Lithuania, left at 4:30 pm. Three and a half hours straight through to Riga, Latvia. We spent our last day in Vilnius constructively. We spent some time at the KGB museum that was excellent. It is actually called the Genocide Museum, but it is housed in the former KGB building that had the prison in the basement. The displays were well laid out and there was a lot of information in English. It was fascinating and the prison was chilling. Sam and I followed that up with the Jewish Holocaust museum, as in one of the books we had read recently there was an account of war time Lithuanian anti-semetism and collaboration in the murder of Jews, and we wanted to learn more. The KGB museum had not touched on the subject, but had directed those interested to the Jewish museum. We weren't disappointed. I was impressed with the detailed displays, the overwhelming evidence and the sheer power of the presentation. A distinction was drawn between educated, Nazi officers whose anti-semetism was based on racist beliefs and illiterate Lithuanian pogromists who had been taught to fear the Jews. The former was unforgivable, but it was obvious that the Jewish community in Lithuania had forgiven those Lithuanians who had participated willingly and unwillingly in the holocaust. Jews in Lithuania as everywhere in Europe had nowhere to hide and those that helped expected to be killed for doing so. As a result they were almost completely wiped out. One display lauded heroes. People who had risked their lives to harbour Jewish people trying to escape and people who had attempted to ease the suffering or reduce the numbers sent to the gas chambers or the death pits in the forest. One was a Nazi officer, shot for treason because he had been ordered to send 80 Jews on a work detail. He had sent 180, trying to pass it off as a mistake and giving 100 men the opportunity to escape. The museum was astounding. It was small but a powerful witness to Nazi atrocities.

From the holocaust museum we went to find Lesley and Mhari on the main square. There is a paving stone in the square that marks the end of the human chain formed in protest, that in 1981 linked Tallinn in Estonia to Vilnius. Impressive.

There wasn't much else we wanted to do in Vilnius to do, so we all walked back to the hostel, ate some food, cleaned up and lugged our packs over to the bus station. We found the right bay and waited. Right on time the bus arrived, looking big and comfy. We got on just as it started to rain. It poured all the way. We did not see much and from what we could tell through the wet gloom there wasn't much to see. In Riga, it was raining hard and we had to unload in the open. We have been finding it pretty easy finding our way around but we were stumped today. We had to get money from an ATM, which we managed quite quickly, then we had to find out how to buy a bus ticket and how to find the trolley bus or bus to our hostel that was a few kms out of the centre, We found an information office. The lady there helped us out and sent us on our way, We bought the ticket but walked endlessly in the rain looking for the right bus stop. We ended up back at the info office. She phoned the hostel they told us to forget the bus and take a train. So we walked what seemed like a long way, I think my pack was getting heavy. We found the train station manged to buy tickets, find the platform and board the train that was waiting. It waited for a while, about 25 minutes. Eventually we were on our way and ten minutes later we arrived. Just as we got off the train the heavens opened and we walked in a huge downpour the 200 metres from platform to hostel entrance, We were dry though, good rain jackets and a couple of umbrellas we bought in Krakow, work well for us. It had taken 4 hours to get to Riga from Vilnius on the bus, a distance of about 350 kms. It took us two hours to get from the Riga bus station to the hostel, a distance of about 5 kms. Sad, but true.

The hostel is a business admin college. In the summertime they use the residence for tourists. We had expected a four bed dorm to ourselves shared toilets and showers, a well equipped kitchen, a cafeteria open all day till 8:00pm, wifi and a computer lab. We got almost all of it. Except the well equipped kitchen, There was a kitchen. The residence was huge and there were eight kitchens, each had two or three stoves with ovens and hoods, two sinks and counters. There was no other equipment. No fridges, no pots, no plates, no forks or knives, We found one spoon. The ovens had no racks and some had rotting food in them. This was a bit of a problem for us as we had hoped to be able to self cater for our 4 night stay in Riga. There were three big supermarkets at the end of the street, we thought we had it made. We tried the cafeteria in the morning: it was great and the food was cheap. So we shrugged our shoulders and said -no problem we'll just eat here. We got back on Friday evening in time to eat dinner and found it was closed - for the weekend, Now we were mad. The weekend staff lady was able to lend us some plates and some cutlery from the staffroom and she let us put our milk in her fridge. We did find one small enamel pot but nothing we could use for cooking for 4 people. So we revised our plan discovered the cheap dumpling and pancake restaurants in Riga, ate cold food at the hostel and mentally practised the scathing review the hostel was going to get when we left. Unfortunately where we are now has no internet connection. So we may not be quite so bitter by the time we can post it. We will probably have softened and focus on the positive things, such as the friendly staff, the quiet room, the hot shower and the fact that we were able to print our boarding passes for our flight out in the computer lab.

Currently, we are in Rouge, pronounced Roogger. Didn't we look stupid when we tried buying the bus ticket. It looked like the sensible way to get to Rouge was by bus from Riga to Tartu, then bus to Voru, then mini bus for the final little hop. But the bus from Riga to Tartu cost 18 Euros each. From Tartu to Voru was 5 Euros. We didn't like the 18 Euro part so looked at getting a train. That only took us to Valga just across the border into Estonia, It left at 6:30am arrived at 9:45 then we would have a 7 hour wait for the bus to Voru. It was a more direct route but it would take all day and would get us there late with a chance that we might arrive in Voru too late to catch the local bus to Rouge. We did it anyway, got to Rouge for half the price of the other route, had a lovely day in Valga, a nice bus trip to Voru, time there to grab some groceries and catch a bus to Rouge. Whereupon we easily found our way to the campground and were shown to our cabin in a beautiful campground on the deepest lake in Estonia to find that we have use of a kitchen with equipment and a fridge. Yay! We win.   

A well equipped kitchen?

Dinner was in the oven when we arrived

Nice bus though

Hostel Turiba

Train/Bus Station in Valga, Estonia

Our new home - A wood tent.

Stalin World

(John) This morning Sam and I headed out to the bus station intent on getting to Gruta Parka. On the way we stocked up with food and water at the Iki Supermarket, then bought our tickets for 30 Litas (12 CAN) each from a pleasant woman in a large efficient looking ticket office.
We found the bay our bus was to arrive in easily and sat down to wait. Within 10 minutes we had boarded the bus and managed to convey to the driver that we wanted to go to Gruta Parkas. Our ticket said Druskininkai which is large town close to our destination. We did not know if the bus went past Gruta Parkas or not but we had a hunch that it might.

The bus was swelteringly hot. The sun was beating on the windows, the doors were closed and I was sat in my seat sweating and wishing it was raining again. Ever since I bought an Umbrella in Krakow I have felt better about the rain. The bus driver eventually got us going and the temperature dipped a little. There were no openable windows and the air conditioning was not on. Broken presumably. All the passengers had drawn the curtains against the sun, so there was nothing to look at as we trundled along. After about 45 minutes, the woman behind me got up and spoke to the driver, he then got up and opened the vents in the roof. The rest of the 2 hour journey was perfectly comfortable. I was able to sneak a peak out of the window. I saw a flat landscape with lots of trees and the occasional lake. Pretty houses, a few farms and then all of a sudden, Sam said this is Grutas he's pulling over, so we hurriedly collected our belongings thanked the driver and stepped on to the road.

It was a gorgeous day. We had been dropped off at an intersection from where we just needed to walk 1 km to get to Gruta Parkas. We commented as we did so that it looked like Matlock in Manitoba. Tall trees and small wooden bungalows set in large yards. At the end of the road was a small shallow lake and the reason for our journey.

Gruta Parkas is unofficially known as Stalin World although most of the statues depict Lenin. It was built by Viliumas Malinauskas a wealthy mushroom farmer and exporter of mushroom products who by virtue of the fact that he did not ask for any state support won the right to display over 80 statues that had been discarded by the new republic of Lithuania. His proposal raised eyebrows as he wanted to recreate the experience of soviet life by bringing visitors in by cattle truck and essentially display the statues in an amusement park. To many this was distasteful and there were fears that his eccentric plan would dishonour the memories of the thousands and thousands of Lithuanians who had suffered and died at the hands of various communist dictators in the 20^th Century.

So we paid the 20 Litas (8 CAN) entry fee to see for ourselves. Sam and I were hoping for soviet era fairground rides and amusement arcades. We wanted to see how Lithuanians had fun 40 years ago. I particularly wanted to pick up some great souvenirs as I had read that there were some good items here.

As I said it was a gorgeous day. Not too hot, a few clouds and a slight breeze to take the edge off the sunshine and a delightful forest setting. Not exactly the ambiance I had in my mind for our trip back to those dark days. Still as we entered we had to go past a soldier at a soviet checkpoint. He was asleep and didn't even see us. The right of the path to the ticket office was lined with newspaper articles about the park and in a very open and honest way presented the controversy that was stirred when the park opened. To the left was a railway track on which stood a diesel engine and a cattle truck, no explanation, it was just there. As we entered we saw beautifully landscaped gardens adorned with statues of former soviet leaders and heroes. They all looked out of place in their garden setting amidst tall trees and next to pleasant wooden buildings. The statues were well described, as each came with an explanation in three languages, English, Russian and Lithuanian. There was no glorious story telling. The plaques described the men depicted in factual terms listing place of birth, rank, and a history of their political involvement and achievements and then ended with a comment such as -

“V. Lenin founded the first communist totalitarian state in the world. His ideas, supported by K. Marx's postulates were the fundamental of the communist theory for many years. He especially emphasized the importance of violence, the dictatorship of the proletariat. During the five years of governing he managed to demolish the aristocracy of Russia, lead the country to the creation of the totalitarian society. Seeking to deal with the opposition he formed concentration camps. Lenin paved the way for cruel activities of Stalin in the Soviet Union; he created the system, which gave necessary conditions for slaughter not only in Russia but in other countries as well.”

It was heavy stuff and there was lots to read for all eighty statues. In addition, the park had a number of large wooden bungalows stuffed with Soviet era memorabilia. There was propoganda in every form imaginable and a vast collection of coins, stamps and souvenirs.

So much as I wanted to have a good time at Stalin World it was really a pretty serious place. There was a really fun kids play area that had a lot of soviet area playground equipment. It was brightly painted and functional. There were a number of roundabouts to get dizzy on, slides, seesaws, (that's teeter totters for the North Americans) climbing frames and really cool swings. There were also balancing logs and a barbell. Next to the playground was a large number of cages full of birds and animals including three ostriches (or Emu's?), reindeer, many types of pigs, rabbits, foxes, a zebra and a sad looking bear. We were most amused by the ostriches (or Emu's?), particularly when one pooped right in front of us. Everyone should make it a goal in life to see an ostrich/Emu poop. It's unforgettable.

I'd hoped to buy some cool souvenirs, and there were some interesting but very breakable beer mugs with bolshevik slogans. I was hoping for a something like a reproduction of a 1980 Olympics tea towel, but everything I saw had pictures of either Lenin or Stalin on and after visiting Stalinworld, as well as the Stalin Museum in Georgia, the Warsaw uprising Museum in Poland and museums in Ukraine describing soviet atrocities committed in that country I just didn't have the stomach for it. In a press cutting I read that the owner of the park had been keen to honour his father who had spent ten years in a Soviet Gulag. It is hard to understand his intentions as the park is quite surreal. Both disturbing and lots of fun. Perhaps life in Soviet Lithuania was like that.

Eventually, after a few more turns on the roundabouts, we decided it was time to leave. We walked the kilometre back up to the main road, found the bus stop and discovered just one bus listed. It was the 16:44 and according to my watch, due in 30 seconds. Sure enough in 30 seconds we were on the bus and headed back to Vilnius.

Photos: Cottage Country, Lithuania; Watch tower: not as scary as I'd expected; 

When placed as if hiding behind a bush in front of the snack bar, these soldiers of the Soviet regime seem much less frightening.  Maybe that is the point of the Park.

More photos: Soviet swings- built to last; Lenin's Red Album, A Soviet Heroine whose name I don't remember; Lenin waving from the trees; Busts is the Woods; Mosaic Propaganda, Emu?; Zebra; Sam getting dizzy.

Poland then Lithuania

(Lesley) Well, we are out of Poland already but it is worth a mention in the blog as we did enjoy our visits there. The old part of Krakow was beautiful. Our hostel, which was clean and comfortable, was very central so we were able to walk everywhere. The bunks were 3 tiered. We've experienced that before and luckily it has always been Sam and Mhari who climb up to the top bunks. We had various roommates during our three day stay; a non communicative Englishman, two chatty English girls and an older Spanish man who was in very poor health and snored loudly all night long. We were somewhat afraid he wouldn't make the night.

Of course it rained again, as is now usual for us. We tried to adapt our plans to downpours as needed and managed. We went to Auschwitz one grey but not too rainy day, and that was quite the experience. There were lots of visitors. We did the tour on our own as there was plenty of written information in our guided leaflet. We went to Birkenau first, then returned to Auschwitz in the afternoon once the guided tours were done. When we were through, we were tired both physically and mentally; but we felt we had done it justice and seen it all. What a brutal reminder of atrocities done.

I also did a half day in a mall!! Yes, we are in the EU now so it was off the the mall to solve Sam's shirt issue as there aren't the same clothes markets here as there were in the Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey. Sam has literally worn through his 3 shirts so we decided to invest in a at least one new one. However we were shocked by the prices and we just couldn't bring ourselves to pay regular price. (Later, in Lithuania, I found him a lovely new shirt in a secondhand shop for the equivalent of $2.00 CAD). In Krakow, Sam and I went to a pharmacy museum, just in case he decides to take up the art.? We went to Wawel Castle and took a peek around but we didn't do the full tour. We spent some time just walking around admiring the old town and watching buskers and street performers. John and the kids saw a dance group performing in a fountain. They used the water in their dance soaking some performers as part of their show. After a few days we bought a train ticket to Warsaw.

We got more rain again in Warsaw. We bought 3 day passes for the trams, the metro and the bus, which were handy because it meant we could hop on and off any public transport and go with the flow. Using this travel method we happened upon a massive French grocery store that sold anything you could ever want, not just food. We stayed out from the centre in Warsaw, in a family run hostel. It was near a metro station so it wasn't difficult to get around from. We loved the Warsaw Rising Museum, and our two meals at Vietnamese restaurants. Apparently, Vietnamese is the way to eat in Warsaw, well, actually the Milk Bars are the real Warsaw treat and we ate at one of those too. Our first Vietnamese meal was just the most local cheap restaurant to our hostel (that and a kebab joint). Then the second time we ate Vietnamese we were caught in a huge rain storm just out of a Museum and well, we needed cover from the rain and food so it did the trick just fine.

From Warsaw we took a train through some of the most beautiful forests into Lithuania and on to Vilnius, its capital city. I really wish we had our camping gear. Our train passed lakes where people were swimming and it was a really hot day. Even without a tent and sleep mats we are trying to rig something up for next week. Sam has contacted a campground near a National Park in Estonia and enquired about staying in a cabin for 3or4 days. If we can manage to get there we will be very happy. Although we are doing fine here in Vilnius too. It is a capital city that has a small town feel. The hostel is good and there is lots of amber shopping to be done so we are doing our best.

Photos: Krakow; Krakow main square; Auschwitz; Cool car in Krakaw; Triple Decker Bunks; Coth Hall; Lovely drainpipes!

Warsaw Old Town (New); More Warsaw; Edge or the Ghetto