SPECIAL POST: the worst drink ever

The national spirit of Latvia, Black Balsam, is the worst drink ever. EVER.

It's got the taste of vodka and cheap whiskey, and then an after taste of "just burning", Jaegermeister, and "no no" (jane's words).

BEFORE

WAIT FOR IT....

WAIT FOR IT....

AFTER

I'll bring a bottle back if I can find it at the airport.

Chris

Map reading 101

Given the level of orienteering skill, we should still really be lost on the streets of Eastern Europe.

Somewhere.

Chris

The final part of the Baltics (Latvia)

Part two.....

Still in coffee shop. Jane's still reading.

Riga, Latvia

Riga is smaller than Tallinn, and more real. It has proper shops, and chain restaurants mixed in with the churches, cobbles, and beautiful architecture. Also, while the best bits of Tallinn are outside of the old town, but no one knows, everyone knows in Riga.

Highlights

Old town: churches, towers, weird architecture (three houses, each built in a different century).

Central market, where you can buy anything. Jane bought fish to eat raw...not as good as Chisinau.

Wooden buildings in the suburbs... It used to be law that all buildings outside the old town had to be wooden, so that they could be quickly burnt down in the event of an attack. (Poor logic). So there are interesting examples of inventive wood usage, like this wooden church, complete with wooden columns.

Street burger... Awesome

The orthodox cathedral...such a difference from the wooden reformist church across town.

The art nouveau district... Amazing buildings everywhere, most of which were built after someone ordered the wooden constructs burnt down while under attack.

Rowing down the canal! The canal runs down the edge of the old town, so there's great views.

The sun! Riga seems to have sun until 2pm, when it then pours for an hour, and then returns to sun. It's nicely predictable.

The bridges... Any other city would have made a big deal out of them....

Chris

The final part of the Baltics (Estonia)

We are sitting in a coffee shop in Riga... There's a couple of teenagers awkwardly getting to know each other in the opposite corner, two women gossiping on another sofa, and Jane is reading her new book, ....so I will write the blog.

We leave on our flight to Paris in the morning, and I'm trying to remember everything that's happened in the last few days... We've covered a lot, so there may be bullet points.

And having made some notes, I'll do it in two separate posts. So first.....

Tallinn, Estonia

We got an overnight bus from Vilinus, while sat next to a REALLY dodgy Russian guy...skin head, prison tattoos, angered when people approached him, facial scars, listening to loud rap music without headphones, obviously underage Asian girlfriend...

Helpfully, and cause it always happens, he wanted to be friends and chat.

Having made our excuses and moved seats, we had a good sleep and arrived in Tallinn at 06:50, where we found everything was closed and people were drunkenly stumbling out of bars.

Our hostel was pretty basic..the worst so far, but we were not to spend much time there...it was sightseeing time.

Highlights:

Wandering the old town (which is straight out of a fairy tale).

Watching some random 3x3 basketball competition.

Trying our hand at archery (Jane narrowly won, though we weren't competing).

Climbing the back of the city to an amazing viewpoint.

An out of town abandoned prison, now used in part as an art gallery.

Eating dried and smoked fish in the marina

Finding a random set of pull up bars.

And then Jane's 'pull ups'...

Finding an out of town restaurant in an abandoned warehouse area.

THE Depeche Mode bar... Where they only play, show on TV, advertise, and adorn the walls, ceiling, and bar with Depeche Mode. Really. Really. Weird.

Cinema! Guardians of the galaxy! In 3d! With both Russian and Estonian subtitles! (8/10)

Overall, Tallinn is really nice. There's about two days of stuff to do, there are loads of bars (though we didn't go in), and the old town is almost perfect. But apparently 90pc of tourists don't venture beyond the walls and this is a real shame; our favourite sights, food, and views were all outside, and I'd encourage anyone who comes here to explore more.

Chris

Rest of Krakow and then Vilinus

We finally went on a city tour of Krakow, which turned out to show us a lot more of the city. For one, we finally saw the castle which is a hodgepodge of different styles and ages, which each ruler having their own style.

The rest of the city is very beautiful, though again, it's the churches that do the brunt of the work.

We also went to a couple of jazz bars in the evenings... Awesome music, though Jane was outraged at having to pay £3 for a cocktail. It's going to hurt when we return back to London.

As a last minute tour, we also went around the Krakow city excavations museum which quickly flew into first place in our 'Worst Museum Ever' category...and not for the want of trying. Lots of money spent, unbelievably boring. A particular highlight... A piece of rock showing the layers of city path through the ages. Below you can see original walls *yawn*.

Vilinus, Lithuania

Full of many surprises, Vilinus was beautiful, clean, rich, and interesting. Inundated by linen and amber shops, it was a great place to mooch for 2 days. Again, more tourists than I would have thought, and the locals seem to be split into two sections: the well dressed, Gucci/Armani crowd, and the seedy underbelly of drunks, pimps, and potential villains we kept seeing around the bus and train stations.

Lots of interesting food and drink options here though.... We tried beaver stew, pigs ears (complete with crunchy cartilage), fried garlic bread, and bread and honey juice.... The last being ok, but I probably didn't need a whole pitcher.

Returning to the surprising, there's a republic island in the centre of town, so another country added to the list (Uzupio)...! 

Also, a pastel coloured church! 

Finally, headed to the former headquarters of the KGB in Lithuania.. Was weird..especially the cells, exercise yards, sentencing room, and then connected 'execution room'. The photo above is of the outside individual exercise yards....

Chris