Porvoo - Days 171-173

Porvoo is the second oldest town in Finland and about an hour bus ride from Helsinki. 

Most people come here as a daytrip from Helsinki but I wanted to get out of the city for a bit and found a host who was willing to let me crash for a couple of nights here. Turns out you only need about 2 hours to see the old town but it's been nice just to chill for a bit. 

The town has quite a bit of history, and is the location of the 1809 Diet of Porvoo when Tsar Alexander I was recognized as the Grand Prince of Finland. It is one of six medieval towns in Finland and the old town is a maze of colorful wooden houses and cobbled streets. And of course the major municipal buildings have been turned into museums and the smaller wooden homes along the town square are now boutique stores selling vintage clothing, home decor, and gourmet chocolates. Saw a whole bus load of Chinese tourists get off and get uber excited about the Chinese brochures available at the info office :) 

Met up with my host Henriikka to sunbathe and cook dinner - savory crepes for the entree and sweet crepes for dessert :) She's a medical doctor who is about to specialize in anesthesiology and manages to go to work at 8am and come back by 3pm. Not sure how that is possible but I'm just going to leave it at "This is Finland." 

Hanging out in Porvoo for the morning before heading back to Helsinki to catch a 17 hour overnight ferry to Stockholm. 

Helsinki - Days 168-170

Made it to Scandinavia :) World Design Capital 2012!

Helsinki is a really cool city. The ferry from Tallinn arrived at the port basically in the center of the city. It was only a 10 minute walk to the central Senate Square where I met my hosts Christian and Sofia. And from there, another 10 minute walk to their place, so the city center is fairly compact. I had in my mind Helsinki as a huge capital but it's much more intimate than expected.

Since I arrived late afternoon, we just hung out at home and made dinner the first night. The next day Christian offered to lend me his bike so I could see some less accessible parts of the city. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and looking back, it was definitely worth it, but my legs seemed to disagree for the 12 hours they were screaming in pain. I rode about 20 km in a big loop around the city to some of the islands, residential districts, and parks. Helsinki is really blessed by geography and the archipelagos and outer islands are easily explored yet feels remote. I was able to grab a supermarket meal and have a picnic for one by the water while fending off seagulls. Then 5 minutes later, I was riding in city traffic again. Helsinki has a lot of bikers, but it's definitely no Copenhagen, so bike paths are still lacking. Since I hadn't ridden in so long, it was a bit nerve-wracking and physically challenging being on a bike for 5 hours, especially on one that is too big and having to stop to check the map every so often. But there's nothing like the feeling of going downhill next to the coast :) I had to remind myself to stop smiling because I was swallowing too much wind and flies were bouncing off my teeth.

Then yesterday I met up with some Chinese guy who messaged me through CS to meet up. He's doing his master's degree in chemistry at the University of Helsinki and showed me the UniCafe or the school cafeteria. We just had a quick chat and I got to taste some typical Finnish cuisine - herring and potatoes. Walked around the city and met up with Sofia to look through the cool shops in the design district. Then Christian joined us in the evening to take a ferry out to Suomenlinna Island where there is a fortress and military academy. He used to be a tour guide on the island, and innudated me with dates and history about the Swedish and Soviet involvement in Finland. Then we had a very mediocre 15 euro burger on the terrace overlooking the bay. Everything is expensive here...and 15 euros is the most I've paid for a meal on this whole trip. But I should probably adjust my mindset and get used to those prices.

My hosts and I have also been discussing life in Finland (and Scandinavia in general) and the pros and cons of the social welfare state. The standard of living is really high and it's nice to see tax money really working for the people. Since I work in education and Finland is always used as a positive example, I loved hearing about the system first hand. Just as an example, university students do not have to pay tuition (as is the case in many European countries) and receive a housing allowance and living stipend totaling about 500 euros per month. Plus they can take out government loans and most students do it not out of necessity but because they can live more comfortably or travel/party more. Also, the meals are subsidized at these unicafes, so I paid 6 euros for lunch whereas students only pay 2.70 or something like that. Just one of many examples...perhaps I should look into getting another advanced degree in Scandinavia :)

Tallinn - Days 166-167

It's all about chillin' in Tallin these last couple of days.

Sleeping in, grabbing brunch, walking around town, cooking dinner, surfing the internet, repeat... Right now I'm watching old episodes of "Friends" on Bryan's computer.

Tallinn is quite a small city with only about 400,000 inhabitants and the compact city center is easily explored in a day or two. So I went out to some of the areas surrounding old town - still touristy but less so. Yesterday I walked to the western side of the city with a large municipal park and many historical homes and also the president's palace. Estonia is a parliamentary democracy so the president only goes around attending official functions and cuts ribbons. At least that's what I was told today on the free Tallinn walking tour. It ended up being a huge group with a rather awkward guide, but still 2 solid hours of interesting information. Turns out Tallinn literally means "Danish Town" and the city has made some horrible financial decisions/investments, namely two public toilets that cost $200k each with a $35K annual maintenance fee. Pretty embarrassing considering they only generate about $3K per year...

Off to Helsinki tomorrow on an afternoon ferry. This will officially mark my last portion of the trip. Only 4 more Scandinavian countries left before heading back to the US. Of course it's also the most expensive part of the trip, and I am NOT looking forward to exorbitant prices.

Riga/Tallinn - Days 163-165

I discovered a free walking tour in Riga and decided to try it out on my last day there since my previous experiences in Sofia and Krakow were so positive. There are actually several organization who run these free tours in various cities and they are typically staffed by young volunteers and offer a more alternative experience from the typical historical city tour. And they work only fro tips so a few bucks should cover you. Plus they generally last anywhere from 2-3 hours - not a bad deal!

In Riga, the cool guide thankfully took us out of the old town and explored the "Moscow" neighborhood next door, which is a run down place with lots of history and homeless people. My host recommended it to me as a complete contrast to old town, so I was glad to walk through it with someone knowledgeable and who had lived there for a couple of years. That area also served as the Jewish Ghetto during WWII and now holds a monument dedicated to the "Latvian Oskar Schindler" - Janis Lipke. 

Later that evening I went out with my host Agnese and walked around Riga's biggest park and had some Latvian food for dinner, which is basically some kind of meat, potatoes, and salad combination. 

Now I'm in Tallinn, Estonia and arrived by bus (also around 4.5 hours from Riga) yesterday. I'm currently hosted by an American guy from Ohio, Bryan. He is a professional online poker player :) First one I've met in my life. He was also simultaneously hosting another Bryan, also an American from California who is on a bike tour of Estonia and had ridden around for a month already. 

So far in Tallinn it's been about meeting tons of new people. The first night I was here I cooked dinner for the boys (never thought I'd hear myself say that) and we went out to an Inter-Nations meet up, which is a community of expats. Then went to a salsa bar where Bryan #2 gave me a mini lesson. Then yesterday the three of us went out to grab brunch and then just sat in an outdoor cafe for a couple of hours soaking in the sun. I walked around old town by myself and then met up with them again at the weekly Tallinn CS meet up picnic. In my opinion, that was a much cooler crowd and we hung out until after 11pm and then moved the crowd to a local pub when it became too cold. That's an Estonian summer for you. When Bryan and I were walking back to the apartment at 2am, the sky was still not dark. 

Riga - Days 161-162

I'm in rainy Riga, Latvia! It is absolutely stunning here. Vilnius really wasn't what I expected because it didn't have a compact or distinctive old town, and the city center and "old town" kind of blended together. However, Riga's old town fits the stereotype and the architecture is very unique. Due to its German and Soviet occupation, the city has a mix of old Soviet style buildings and also some amazing art nouveau buildings that will blow your mind. I'm talking about buildings so ornate/gaudy that you can't help but raise a brow.

I took a bus yesterday from Vilnius to Riga - about 4.5 hours. At this point, anything less than 7 hours is considered a short trip. And again, thanks to the generosity of the couchsurfing coummunity, I found a last minute host. I arrived in the afternoon but had to wait for my host to get off from work, so I basically walked around the old town whilst dodging the sporadic rain. Then I got tired of carrying my backpack around so I stepped into the Occupation Museum (appropriately housed in an ugly Soviet style building) and learned about the depressing Latvian history in the 1940s, which goes German, Soviet, German, and Soviet again.

My host, Agnese, drove us out to Jurmala after work yesterday; and Jurmala is a beach resort on the Baltic Sea (technically the bay) only about 25 minutes from Riga. She actually grew up there and knew the area well. We walked along the beach and then back through the town, and I completely forgot where I was. It seemed like a quaint little town South Carolina with its wooded parks and wooden houses. Okay, they were pine trees and not oak covered in moss...but you get the idea.

Today was more of walking around. I decided the brave the unstable weather and walk across the river to another district and back - wrong idea. I got caught in a downpour while I was ON the bridge and couldn't find cover. I ran to the other side into a shopping center, but was looking pretty pathetic.

Only less than a month left of the trip and I'm all heartbroken about it :( But it'll be good to see family and friends again! Plus my gear is falling apart. I had to throw away my jeans in Croatia because there were holes. My favorite black shirt is going to die a similar death as my favorite white shirt...but hanging in there for the moment. And my shoes have holes on the outside and two gigantic "craters" on the inside sole. I hope my one pair of pants and three shirts get me through the next month. Oh, and my day pack strap is coming loose... * sigh

Vilnius - Days 159-160

My first day in Vilnius was grey and rainy, but yesterday and today were the absolute definition of "perfect weather." Plus, yesterday was the longest day/shortest night of the year and with the sun shining, you get a better idea of just how late the sun sets. It was well past 11pm when it actually got dark...and I'm pretty sure the sun is out again around 3am. Can't say I've ever seen it rise...maybe if I stayed out late one evening.

I had to switch hosts here in Vilnius because my first host went home for the holiday (Midsummer's Eve). So I went from a 18 year old university student to a 55 year old librarian with 5 children. I'm not kidding when I say there should be a movie made about this family. If you've ever seen "The Family Stone" (one of my favorite movies), this is somewhat a Lithuanian version of that family. All her five children are grown, but the youngest still lives at home and just finished high school, so she walked with me around town for the day. We stopped by a weapons store on the way so she could by a taser for her own upcoming trip :) She's basically bouncing from festival to festival throughout Europe and volunteering. And then in town, we met up with her older sister and her couchsurfer from Finland. The sister put in her resignation and has one week left of her job before traveling herself. Then later in the day, the oldest brother joined us for the evening. He had just come back from his second 6 month trip in Asia. The youngest brother is living in London and the other brother was in Poland watching the Euro games. The mother is the coolest of them all. Her two daughters got her involved with CS because she wanted to practice her English and lessons are too expensive, and now she's addicted, haha. Not only does she accept requests, but she sits in front of the computer looking for people who are traveling to Vilnius and invites them herself - thankfully that's how I came to stay here. She didn't start traveling until late in life because of financial and also border limitations, but she's sure making up for lost time. Her kids don't like traveling with her because they can't keep up, haha. She's out the door by 8am and pretty much goes nonstop until the evening. I hope I'm that cool when I'm her age. Today she showed me a CS profile of a 85 year old in Montreal and said she hopes to be that cool at 85.

Today I took a local bus out to Trakai - a short 30 minute ride. It was once the capital of Lithuania and a very historically significant site. There is a castle built on an island and also a small Karaim community. The Karaim have their origins in Turkey but were brought back to Lithuania by Duke Vytautas from Crimea in the 14th century. The Lithuanians love to talk about that part of their history because they were once the largest country in Europe and stretched all the way from Baltic to Black Sea. How things have changed...

It was a nice day trip - not only because of the well restored castle and museum, but it was nice to be out of the city and walk in nature along the lake shores on a perfect day. 70, sunny, dry, and breezy :) Riga tomorrow. 

Krakow/Warsaw/Vilnius - Days 154-158

On the move, on the move.

So my last day in Krakow was also spent taking advantage of the free museum days. Started with the Oscar Schindler factory, which ironically had almost nothing to do with the man himself, but rather the history of Krakow under Nazi occupation. It was spectacular (even if I had to pay). Really modern, detailed, interactive displays with bits of historical information and personal anecdotes mixed together.

Then later in the afternoon came the "Rynek Underground" museum, which is located under the main town square and displayed the layers of Krakow history - literally. You could see the original wooden beams and cobble stones from the founding of the city as well as the original stalls of the marketplace. The most interesting thing was a series of documentary clips, 5 in total, that explained the periods of Krakow from antiquity to its joining of the EU. And between these two museums, I stopped for a portion of pierogies filled with sweet cheese and topped with melted butter and cinnamon...

The next day I took a midday train to Warsaw that was completely not air conditioned, so I arrived all shiny and stinky to my host who was waiting for me on the train platform. Agnes, my host in Warsaw, was probably one of the sweetest people I've ever met :) She's a 25 year old studying both ethnology and finance at two separate universities and decided to take me home to meet the parents, haha. She had to go home to Lublin for some business and kindly invited me to tag along. I never give up an opportunity to experience some authentic family life and jumped at the opportunity. As soon as I met her parents, it was evident where she got her sweetness. They don't speak a lick of English but made me feel so welcome and we were able to communicate with Agnes' help and miming. So we walked around her hometown and also a small town called Kasimierz and ate some local food and drank Turkish coffee. Then the next day evening, we came back to Warsaw and hung out with her friends at a local pub.

I finally got to explore Warsaw on my third day. For a city that was basically destroyed,obliterated, demolished, leveled...whatever word you use, it has really triumphed and rebuilt itself beautifully. The "old town" was rebuilt after the war and granted UNESCO status in 1980. It was fun walking around the city because everything is well labeled and there are plaques scattered everywhere explaining important dates and locations. If Pope John Paul II is the rock star of Krakow, then Frederick Chopin is the rock star of Warsaw. It was cool visiting the church where he used the play the organ as a kid.

Last night I took an overnight bus from Warsaw to Vilnius - 8pm to 6am. Today I spent the day with a local university student called Dovile and will spend the night at her dormitory. It's really basic conditions but I love these glimpses into foreign university life. Vilnius so far is really beautiful - so clean and well laid out with no distinct center. Tomorrow I'll change a host and blog more about the city :)