A very short post about our night at home.
We grabbed a bus to the airport and got a flight to Copenhagen. We thought that the food on the flight was included but were sadly mistaken. This led us to spending 12 quid on 2 paninis in Copenhagen (not cool) We felt this was enough time in somewhere so expensive!!
After grabbing our connecting flight to Heathrow we arrived back in miserable Blighty. This was our first encounter of being rippedoff, in our own country. We had to pay 4 quid each to get the bus to the travel lodge which was around the corner. Heathrow make the London cabbiescharge a minimum of 30 quid so you give money to Heathrow....
The travellodge was rammed with lager louts and drunk women who were there to watch the football. Many looking porky (you can deffo tell we're one of the fattest nations in the world after being in Eastern Europe for a month!!) Our second rip off was the rather disgusting pretty much microwave meal we had which cost us like 30 quid and took over an hour to arrive. We were pretty glad we hadn't opted for breakfast!!
The next day we headed to Heathrow nice and early to get some shopping in and to grab some fancy breakfast. After a smooth check in we decided to treat ourselves to Gordon Ramsay's plane food, which was actually chaper than the Travelodge!!It was delish.
We realised that we were on the flight with a big school party and we found out that it was the Minster school (down the road from Poppleton!!) Bit weird.
Next stop the Motherland...
Monday, 8 April 2013
Friday, 5 April 2013
Moominland aka Helsinki
After a night of birthday celebrations for Adam we got up at 5am to get the 7am ferry (we walked to the ferry port.) We were both definitely feeling worse for wear as we trudged through the slush and ice to get there....
Once we were settled at the front of the boat we got plenty of snaps of the icy sea (which was pretty cool.) You could tell that it was a popular route for the Finnish to go on a booze cruise as Adam saw one guy buy 10 litres of vodka at 8am.
Arriving in Finland we were greeted with industry, a far cry from the medieval town of Tallinn. After an hour and lots of puffing as we walked (we'd heard that taxis charge a minimum of 8 euros before you even move and we are meant to be loosing weight after all) we arrived at our pretty central hotel. After days of shared dorms in hostels it was lush to have our own bed, bathroom and room to breath!!
After a quick snooze in the hotel we ventured out around helsinki and took in some of the sights. We went to a recommended cafe and had a lush dinner (served by a guy from Scotland.) WE treated ourselves to the cinema and saw Jack the giant hunter which was pretty cool.
The next day we had a pretty busy day which began with the hotel breakfast.Seeing how expensive Helsiniki was we stockpiled the bacon, cold meats and meatballs (yup) so we would be full untill dinner. We then ventured to the moomin shop which was amazeballs. There was moomin everything and for Helsinki it was pretty reasonable priced. I feel that I was very restrained to simply get a Moomin jelly/cake mould and a cutesy print.
We then headed over on the little ferry to the Suomenlinna fortress which was pretty cool. We'd already been impressed by the massive ferry moving the massive blocks of ice that were the sea, however being outside watching this tiny ferry was even more impressive!!
The fortress was pretty expansive and over 900 people still live there. There is also a working army barracks which we saw evidence of. We decided that we were a bit museumed out, so just strolled around the Island admiring the views and buildings.
After a long day we went to one of the many Nepalese restaurants in the city which was delish!!!We then crashed again as a whole day walking was super tiring.
Our final morning in Helsinki was spent pottering around and in their very cheap and efficient post office where we sent the Moomin bits back to England and a packet of cigarettes back to my Uncle Malachy.
We then grabbed the bus to the airport to head back to Blighty for the night
Next up Heathrow (bit boring)
Once we were settled at the front of the boat we got plenty of snaps of the icy sea (which was pretty cool.) You could tell that it was a popular route for the Finnish to go on a booze cruise as Adam saw one guy buy 10 litres of vodka at 8am.
Arriving in Finland we were greeted with industry, a far cry from the medieval town of Tallinn. After an hour and lots of puffing as we walked (we'd heard that taxis charge a minimum of 8 euros before you even move and we are meant to be loosing weight after all) we arrived at our pretty central hotel. After days of shared dorms in hostels it was lush to have our own bed, bathroom and room to breath!!
After a quick snooze in the hotel we ventured out around helsinki and took in some of the sights. We went to a recommended cafe and had a lush dinner (served by a guy from Scotland.) WE treated ourselves to the cinema and saw Jack the giant hunter which was pretty cool.
The next day we had a pretty busy day which began with the hotel breakfast.Seeing how expensive Helsiniki was we stockpiled the bacon, cold meats and meatballs (yup) so we would be full untill dinner. We then ventured to the moomin shop which was amazeballs. There was moomin everything and for Helsinki it was pretty reasonable priced. I feel that I was very restrained to simply get a Moomin jelly/cake mould and a cutesy print.
We then headed over on the little ferry to the Suomenlinna fortress which was pretty cool. We'd already been impressed by the massive ferry moving the massive blocks of ice that were the sea, however being outside watching this tiny ferry was even more impressive!!
The fortress was pretty expansive and over 900 people still live there. There is also a working army barracks which we saw evidence of. We decided that we were a bit museumed out, so just strolled around the Island admiring the views and buildings.
After a long day we went to one of the many Nepalese restaurants in the city which was delish!!!We then crashed again as a whole day walking was super tiring.
Our final morning in Helsinki was spent pottering around and in their very cheap and efficient post office where we sent the Moomin bits back to England and a packet of cigarettes back to my Uncle Malachy.
We then grabbed the bus to the airport to head back to Blighty for the night
Next up Heathrow (bit boring)
Monday, 1 April 2013
Goodbye to the Baltics, Tata from Tartu and Tallinn
Estonia was our third and final Baltic country. It shares many similarities with it's neighbour across the sea; Finland. With a very pro European outlook Estonia has embraced both independence and EU membership. Our stay took us to the university town of Tartu Estonia's second city, which is also known to many as the true representation of Estonia.
Due to a mishap with the train we didn't get in to Tartu untill about 11pm.This being St Paddy's we were desperate to get out for a pint of guiness. Luckily with a map and the fact that our hostel was dead in the city centre we managed to find one of the 2 late night bars in Tartu. The guinness was much appreciated!!
Tartu was relaxing to walk around and we spent the time just wondering and looking at the buildings and enjoying being in a new country. One of the highlightsfor me was spotting a statue that I recognised of Oscar Wilde and another writer that sits in the centre of Galway. I learnt later that this writer is Edvard Vilde and one of Estonia's most celebrated authors and that he and Wilde were contempories and possibly met. It was no wonder that I recognised the statue as the Galway statue is from the same mould!!
Other highlights included making a wish on the angel bridge and feeding the ducks!!!!
Tallinn
After a couple of days we headed to the capital Tallinn.We had both been looking
forward to Estonia's capital and we weren't disappointed.Unfortunately at this point we were both suffering with terrible colds and needed a couple of days of orange juice and warmth. We did manage in this time to watch cool runnings and relive our bobsleighing adventures!!
Our first meal in Estonia we were pointed to the 3 dragons which was a medieval restaurant with no electricity. Here we tried Elk soup, elk and boar pies, boar sausages and had hot wine. It was all absolutely delicious and as we were to learn pretty reasonable for Tallinn. We alsogot to fish forgherkins ina barrel. I rocked at getting them, but Adam not so much!!!
The old square in Tallinn was beautiful and the old town two layers. It was lovely to walk around on the cobbled streets and just admire all of the buildings. We ventured to the puppet museum which looked pretty cool. It lived up to our expectations with puppets such as Max the dog flea and the friend cucumber. You even got to make some of them move!!!We also visited a pharmacy on the main square which has been a working apothecary since 1422 (and probably longer) whichcontained different things they used to treat illnesses throughout the ages. These included woodlouse infusion and burnt hedgehog!!(Not cool)The pharmacy was free and it was pretty cool to see amongst the museum items a counter with calpol, paracetemol and pro plus!!!
We also visited the occupation museum and although parts were interesting, we both felt that the other museums in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia were better and all considerably cheaper.I'd recommend it to someone who was only visiting Estonia, but if you were travelling to all of the Baltics there are better ones.
We went on free tour of Tallinn and our guide was fab. She told us loads about the current situation of Estonia and different stories about occupation. Estonia, on the 27th March 2013 has now been an independent country for the most amount of time (since 1991!!) Living in Britain we really don't appreciate how lucky we are to have had a fairly democratic system in our life times!My favourite occupation story was the TV story! During the USSR times people could only watch USSR TV and western influences were banned. In Tallinn they were lucky as due to the close distance with Finland they could pick up Finnish TV. It was announced that a Finnish channel was going to premier the porn film Emmanuel so peopleflocked to Talinn to watch the film with their friends and family. Thats right they sat down and watched pornography together. As well asthe watching of Emmanuel being a protest against this lackof freedom of expression 9 months later there was a baby boom. The Soviets blamed it on a power cut!!
Our last night in Tallinn we spent in a lovely Italian wine bar to celebrate Adam's 25th Birthday!It was delish!!
Finland next!!
Due to a mishap with the train we didn't get in to Tartu untill about 11pm.This being St Paddy's we were desperate to get out for a pint of guiness. Luckily with a map and the fact that our hostel was dead in the city centre we managed to find one of the 2 late night bars in Tartu. The guinness was much appreciated!!
Tartu was relaxing to walk around and we spent the time just wondering and looking at the buildings and enjoying being in a new country. One of the highlightsfor me was spotting a statue that I recognised of Oscar Wilde and another writer that sits in the centre of Galway. I learnt later that this writer is Edvard Vilde and one of Estonia's most celebrated authors and that he and Wilde were contempories and possibly met. It was no wonder that I recognised the statue as the Galway statue is from the same mould!!
Other highlights included making a wish on the angel bridge and feeding the ducks!!!!
Tallinn
After a couple of days we headed to the capital Tallinn.We had both been looking
forward to Estonia's capital and we weren't disappointed.Unfortunately at this point we were both suffering with terrible colds and needed a couple of days of orange juice and warmth. We did manage in this time to watch cool runnings and relive our bobsleighing adventures!!
Our first meal in Estonia we were pointed to the 3 dragons which was a medieval restaurant with no electricity. Here we tried Elk soup, elk and boar pies, boar sausages and had hot wine. It was all absolutely delicious and as we were to learn pretty reasonable for Tallinn. We alsogot to fish forgherkins ina barrel. I rocked at getting them, but Adam not so much!!!
The old square in Tallinn was beautiful and the old town two layers. It was lovely to walk around on the cobbled streets and just admire all of the buildings. We ventured to the puppet museum which looked pretty cool. It lived up to our expectations with puppets such as Max the dog flea and the friend cucumber. You even got to make some of them move!!!We also visited a pharmacy on the main square which has been a working apothecary since 1422 (and probably longer) whichcontained different things they used to treat illnesses throughout the ages. These included woodlouse infusion and burnt hedgehog!!(Not cool)The pharmacy was free and it was pretty cool to see amongst the museum items a counter with calpol, paracetemol and pro plus!!!
We also visited the occupation museum and although parts were interesting, we both felt that the other museums in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia were better and all considerably cheaper.I'd recommend it to someone who was only visiting Estonia, but if you were travelling to all of the Baltics there are better ones.
We went on free tour of Tallinn and our guide was fab. She told us loads about the current situation of Estonia and different stories about occupation. Estonia, on the 27th March 2013 has now been an independent country for the most amount of time (since 1991!!) Living in Britain we really don't appreciate how lucky we are to have had a fairly democratic system in our life times!My favourite occupation story was the TV story! During the USSR times people could only watch USSR TV and western influences were banned. In Tallinn they were lucky as due to the close distance with Finland they could pick up Finnish TV. It was announced that a Finnish channel was going to premier the porn film Emmanuel so peopleflocked to Talinn to watch the film with their friends and family. Thats right they sat down and watched pornography together. As well asthe watching of Emmanuel being a protest against this lackof freedom of expression 9 months later there was a baby boom. The Soviets blamed it on a power cut!!
Our last night in Tallinn we spent in a lovely Italian wine bar to celebrate Adam's 25th Birthday!It was delish!!
Finland next!!
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Feel the rhythmn, feel the rhyme, give it up....its bobsleigh time!!*in Latvia*
(The apostrophe does not work very well)
Riga
The home of art nouveau,a Russian black market and stag party central. Riga is an interesting and beautiful place which feels richer than Lithuania and definitely more Russian. One of the first things that we noticed was that many things are displayed in 3 languages: Latvian, English and Russian. This is, I guess, hardly surprising when around 40% of Riga's population is from Russian descent.
We arrived on a Saturday afternoon to the naughty squirrel hostel. The hostel had a really friendly atmosphere and was sooo clean!! On arriving we were given the chance to try the Rigan shot of choice, black balsam. It tasted like cough medicine and I definitely wouldn't want it on a night out.
We decided to spend the afternoon in quite a chilled way and simply went for a quick wonder around the streets. The signs of the English stag party were everywhere with numerous bars, happy hours and of course strip clubs. After a while we stopped at an Irish pub (I know) that had been recommended.... this was called Paddy Whelans. Inside were a couple of stag parties and sport was on the tv, it wasn't much of a travel experience but the beer was cheap!!
Upon return to the hostel we booked dog sledding for the following morning and were told to be downstairs for 9.30am sharp.....I do not know how we managed it the next day as the evening consisted of Foosball with 2 Lithuanian girls. Beer, Chats about the EU with a French guy, beer, ring of fire with a group of Spanish peiople and a Sri Lankan guy, beer,beer,beer...
Dog sledding was absolutely incredible and definitely worth doing if you ever get the opportunity. Although Adam had the reigns I would quite happily say that it was definitely the dogs that were in charge. At times we deviated from the road and flew over the snow. With dogs racing to following the car up ahead. At one point myself and the sled were airbourne and Adam had to run alongside to catch up. The rest of the day was spent chilling.
Riga has100s of art nouveau type buildings all over the city and the key is to look up. To be honest I wasnt entirely clear what art nouveau was but after seeing all the architecture I have a clearer understanding, even if it isn't my cup of tea. The Rigan skyline is also dominated by what is known by locals as Stalin\s biurthday cake, which is very similar to the massive building that he constructed in Warsaw. Another key area is the freedom building, built following WW1 when Latvia was first announced as an independent state. There are guards constantly as the statue and is a very important symbol to many Latvians.
We went on a free tour whilst in Riga and I thought that the guide was brilliant. She gave us loads of information about the city and took us outside the touristy old town. As part of the tour we were very pleased that she took us deep into the part of the city known as Muscava or little Moscow. This is where it gets seriously Russian. The beginning of little Moscow is dominated by 4 Zepplin hangers, which in WW2 were built by the Nazis to build Zepplins in. Happily this never happened and today they are used to host a massive central market. People were quite pushy shovvy to get to all the babouskas selling their various goods.
As we got further in to Muscava we visited a once beautiful synagogue that had been burnt down during the German occupation, sadly this is a very common tale in Eastern Europe. Surrounding this are lots of wooden houses which have been built and burnt and built and burnt over the centuries. A particular tale that the guide shared with us was during Napolen's time, the Latvians had been dreading his entry to Riga. One night, a guard called the alarm that he could see Napoleon and his armies in the distance. As a result all of the wooden houses surrounding the centre of Riga were burnt to the ground in attempt to thwart Napoleon anf to prevent him from gaining any supplies from the outskirts, it turned out that the guard was drunk and Napoleon never entered Latvia.... Our final stop in little Moscow was the black market. This was mega dodge and we had been warned to hold on to our valuables. We couldn't really take any pictures inside as the sellers don't like it whilst they hawk their junk and stolen goods. It looks like a cross between a tip, junk shop with a sprinkling of Lenin and Stalin statues.... The joke in Riga is if your bag is stolen to go their the next day and buy it back for a reasonable price!!After our epic tour of Riga we decide to take the tram to the legendary Lido. We had been told by several Latvians that this was the place to try Latvian food and that to make sure we were hungry when we went. Lonely planet had described it as if Latvia and Disney had a lovechild. The food was excellent with an absolutely massive choice and big, big helpings. The decor was interesting with various statues and waitresses in milk maid type outfits. It was the outside which was ginormous!!There was gun games, random lit up animals and a really big ice rink. Lido was clearly the place to be seen by Latvian teeny boppers!!
Sigulda
From Riga we decide to visit Sigulda, an Eastern Latvian town. Our main purpose was to visit the Bobsleigh track. There are under 20 Bobsleighs in the entire world and only a handful of these allow tourists the privilege of going down. WE could either go down on the rather chunky tourist bob or book in advance and go down on a proper bonb. We of course went for the proper one. It was amazing. You get thrown about and have to try really hard to keep your neck down. The speeds reach around 105 kph and you feewl it as you hold on to a tiny metal bar and go very high on the walls of the track. I have to say that though really fun, you definitely need to be a bit of a daredevil!!!
Apart from the awesome bobsleigh, Sigulda is on the edge of a national park and a lovely place to walk around and relax. I imagine this would be a great place to visit again in the summer when there are even more walks open and the opportunity to bunjee jump and kayak open up.
Next up, Estonia.
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Never drink in an English pub in Vilnius
After a couple of travelling days we arrived in Lithuania's beautiful capital city, Vilnius. The city has a massive old town which is a UNESCO world heritage site.
We made our way from the train station to our first hostel, Hostelgate. This was very central and very near what we were to discover was the best coffee chain ever.......
Unfortunately the hostel was the worst we had stayed in so far... we were across the courtyard from the main building and it smelt. The room we were in was shared with a very odd German man who we couldn't work out why he was there.....
As well as a beautiful old town we were pleased to find that there were a couple of bits to climb, namely the Gernomius tower and the hill of three crosses. The walk to the tower was so slippy and covered in ice, but the views were totally worth it.
The hill of three crosses was thick with snow and very idyllic. The three crosses are seen by many Lithuanians as a symbol of the country's constant loyalty to their roots through oppression and occupation.
Vilnius is a very quirky place and includes a mini republic known as Uzupio. In the mid 90s, following the liberation of Lithuania, a group of artists decided to make their own very odd republic in the centre of Vilnius. The constitution is up on a wall in 9 languages and includes gems such as a dog has the right to be a dog and people have the right to be unhappy. To enter the republic you walk across a bridge which is covered with locks that have been attached to the bridge by lovers who by closing the lock will supposedly be together forever. Very cute and suitable for the entrance of a romantic, bohemian republic.
Lonely Planet listed 5 quirky attractions to visit and we decided to track them down. All were pretty easy to find except the miracle tile in the cathedral square which took us about half an hour to track down.
1. The Frank Zappa statue- a Lithuanian super fan got permission for the erection of a statue of Frank Zappa's head which now resides in a random car park near the Turkish embassy.
2. The egg statue which once took centre stage in the Uzupio republic was replaced in 2002 by the angel (see below)
3. The angel of Uzupis which apparently hatched from the egg statue.
4. The miracle tile is situated in the cathedral square and marks a place where the baltic chain occured. The baltic chain was a protest by all three baltic nations where people held hands over 600km. It was a tool to highlight all three nation's desires to be independent from the Soviet union. 6 months after the protest Lithuania declared itself as a nation no longer part of the Soviet union.
5. The socialist bridge, which had been destroyed several times has on each corner a statue celebrating the worker.
Whilst we were in Vilnius the spring festival took place, this was the biggest market I'd ever seen and spanned the entire old town with stalls. It was packed!!!
Trakai
As a day trip we went to Trakai, a castle on a hill and home to the Karaim people. I can safely say this was the coldest temperatures I have ever been in and as we were being battered by snow and wind when crossing the very frozen lake by a slippery bridge I did question both our minds. Adam was super brave and stood on the frozen lake for a piccy!!
Kaunas
Kaunas is Lithuania's second city, comes with a compact old town and a devil museum (yup random). To be honest the few days in Kaunas we chillaxed, ate popcorn and watched films. I finally saw V for Vendetta and now understand the whole Guido Fawkes mask thingy!!!
Hill of Crosses
In our book of Europe that our supercool friend Eloise gave us, the haunting images stood in both of our minds and we were determined to visit. The crosses are a mixture of devotional crosses and in memoriam crosses. The place was beautiful and surprisingly peaceful. The wind caused the crosses to tinkle.
PS. Yes we did go to an English pub in Vilnius. Yes we did get tonnes of free beer from a wide brimmed hatted Lithuanian man. Yes the hangover the next day was disgustingly painful.
We made our way from the train station to our first hostel, Hostelgate. This was very central and very near what we were to discover was the best coffee chain ever.......
Unfortunately the hostel was the worst we had stayed in so far... we were across the courtyard from the main building and it smelt. The room we were in was shared with a very odd German man who we couldn't work out why he was there.....
As well as a beautiful old town we were pleased to find that there were a couple of bits to climb, namely the Gernomius tower and the hill of three crosses. The walk to the tower was so slippy and covered in ice, but the views were totally worth it.
The hill of three crosses was thick with snow and very idyllic. The three crosses are seen by many Lithuanians as a symbol of the country's constant loyalty to their roots through oppression and occupation.
Vilnius is a very quirky place and includes a mini republic known as Uzupio. In the mid 90s, following the liberation of Lithuania, a group of artists decided to make their own very odd republic in the centre of Vilnius. The constitution is up on a wall in 9 languages and includes gems such as a dog has the right to be a dog and people have the right to be unhappy. To enter the republic you walk across a bridge which is covered with locks that have been attached to the bridge by lovers who by closing the lock will supposedly be together forever. Very cute and suitable for the entrance of a romantic, bohemian republic.
Lonely Planet listed 5 quirky attractions to visit and we decided to track them down. All were pretty easy to find except the miracle tile in the cathedral square which took us about half an hour to track down.
1. The Frank Zappa statue- a Lithuanian super fan got permission for the erection of a statue of Frank Zappa's head which now resides in a random car park near the Turkish embassy.
2. The egg statue which once took centre stage in the Uzupio republic was replaced in 2002 by the angel (see below)
3. The angel of Uzupis which apparently hatched from the egg statue.
4. The miracle tile is situated in the cathedral square and marks a place where the baltic chain occured. The baltic chain was a protest by all three baltic nations where people held hands over 600km. It was a tool to highlight all three nation's desires to be independent from the Soviet union. 6 months after the protest Lithuania declared itself as a nation no longer part of the Soviet union.
5. The socialist bridge, which had been destroyed several times has on each corner a statue celebrating the worker.
Whilst we were in Vilnius the spring festival took place, this was the biggest market I'd ever seen and spanned the entire old town with stalls. It was packed!!!
Trakai
As a day trip we went to Trakai, a castle on a hill and home to the Karaim people. I can safely say this was the coldest temperatures I have ever been in and as we were being battered by snow and wind when crossing the very frozen lake by a slippery bridge I did question both our minds. Adam was super brave and stood on the frozen lake for a piccy!!
Kaunas
Kaunas is Lithuania's second city, comes with a compact old town and a devil museum (yup random). To be honest the few days in Kaunas we chillaxed, ate popcorn and watched films. I finally saw V for Vendetta and now understand the whole Guido Fawkes mask thingy!!!
Hill of Crosses
In our book of Europe that our supercool friend Eloise gave us, the haunting images stood in both of our minds and we were determined to visit. The crosses are a mixture of devotional crosses and in memoriam crosses. The place was beautiful and surprisingly peaceful. The wind caused the crosses to tinkle.
PS. Yes we did go to an English pub in Vilnius. Yes we did get tonnes of free beer from a wide brimmed hatted Lithuanian man. Yes the hangover the next day was disgustingly painful.
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