Time to relax and enjoy - travelling (part II - Tallinn, Riga & Vilnius)

I am sitting or better lying in my compartment of my train back to Russia. The whole atmosphere gives a good preparation for getting back “home”… a very Sovjet train (but very comfortable), some zakuski (but no zapiwki, only bonaqua) and Wladimir, an Ex-major of the Russian army (he observed for 9 years US strategic bombers somewhere close to the north-pole) that shares fantastic waffles with me. A good time to think about the couple of days I was travelling the Baltic countries, to early to reflect upon my whole stay in Russia. The trip taught me things about this part of the world and made me meet some interesting and also some annoying people (but not as many locals as I hoped…). Additionally I had a “happy end” with my roommate Amedeo.
All three cities had their charm and I definitely want to come back and see and enjoy more, next time longer (as usual), with a car (to see more of the countryside) and during a warmer period of the year (as the beginning of the Russian or Baltic winter caught me in Vilnius). Somehow it was a little preparation for my life back in Central Europe, not as hardcore as my trip to Helsinki, but still I realised the little things here and there I enjoy and may be sub-consciously miss… I don’t want to be misunderstood, I loved my stay in Pieter and I will be back one way or another but until then I want to enjoy some crunchy salad, drink water from the tap when I have hangover and especially escape the melancholy a little…
On Saturday we couldn’t get enough of Tallin’s yuppies and went by night again to stereo lounge, this time for the official warm-up for the club next door. The place was crowded, the drinks had double size (again amazing raspberry mojito) and they played great loungy house. After midnight we dropped in next door to Privé: the official kindergarden for Tallin’s upperclass, for fulltime sons and daughters. We still had fun and finished the evening with ice skating (in nice Italian leather shoes) on an ice field completely covered in snow… the next day was dedicated to chillout in cafés and lounges, enjoying good wine and a good chats. Most of the evening we spend in Bossa lounge ate Italian food and talked about it. I have to visit Amedeo in his birthplace and enjoy some of the homemade products of Abruzzi.
By night Amedeo took the bus back to Petersburg I headed for Riga. I somehow couldn’t really sleep and arrived like 5am in Riga. Completely disoriented and nobody to ask I took the tram just to escape the coldness… it took me like 1 hour to get to the hostel though the place is just 5 minutes away. Thanks to Frank’s hostel for the fantastic description how to get to there from the airport but not mentioning the way from the bus station. Ok, arriving there I realized that most guests came by plane as it was something like the official hostel for Irish and British end-of-college-getting-as-wasted-as-possible-doesn’t-matter-where tourists. Anyway, at my arrival (night from Sunday to Monday, 6am) there was still a party going on and I got a free beer (thanks to the pirate Caspar, wicked guy). I took a quick nap and started the day with a wrap breakfast and John Lemmon. My sightseeing tour started in the old town of Riga and then I checked out the market halls next to the train station (including the very Eastern European style outdoor market). The different halls had different market stalls: meat, fruit, vegetables… all this different smells and colours were amazing. In this part of the town I even found some proper Stalinistic architecture (the Academy of Science) and a lovely Orthodox church. As mentioning the things I miss a little before I forgot about the cinema: in the early evening I decided to go watch the latest James Bond. Fantastic! I got over a first disappointment after realizing that this movie was something like a back to the beginning (honestly my girlfriend gave me a hint ;-) ). So first I was shocked about how could James Bond show emotions and I thought they start to shoot these movies in two parts now as it had no proper ending. Anyway I got over it by enjoying vodka martini in the skybar of the Latvia hotel (not precisely Bond style as I ordered vodka martini BIANCO but still shaked). There I met this US soldier (some high-ranked guy from Michigan) that was on a mission in Latvia to train soldiers with non-combat issues like family, relationship etc. it was interesting to hear his story and to think about how much Latvia wants to get involved in Western organisations such as the NATO and of course to listen to this guys reflections if he is on a propaganda mission or if he is doing something really good. As I received some nice results from my exams in the afternoon (even statistic didn’t suck so much) I thought it’s time to delight myself (hehe, something very unusual). I went to Berg’s for a fantastic Latvian nouvelle cousine dinner. Coming back to the hostel I was welcomed by loud music and loads of drunken backpackers, I planned to go sleep but I couldn’t resist and went with them for a beer or two to a pub next door. There I received an introduction in the art of producing and smuggling illegal substances from some North-African countries to Western Europe from Pedro, a thrilling life story. The next day I visited first the museum of occupation of Riga, very impressively done though not in such a great building as in Tallinn. This second visit made me realise even more the suffering which the Baltic countries went through history and they rather cold emotions about the Soviet Union and now Russia. Hundred of thousand people were arrested, tortured, deported and killed and in this part of the world it hasn’t been reflected that much about the past, I mean together… the repression is neither forgiven nor forgotten.
I checked out the bus schedule and realised that it is only a short trip of 5 hours to Vilnius so I decided to leave Riga in the evening to avoid looking-for-hostels-at-5am exercises. At 10pm I had my first walk in Vilnius and dropped in to Medininkai for some Lithuanian nouvelle cousine (again time to make me happy, hehe, again great). In the hostel I bumped into some guys from all over the world that met on their trip through Eastern Europe in Tallinn. We went together to a pub and shared our travel experiences. As I had only one day in Vilnius (there is only every second day a train that goes directly to Pieter, every other day there is one through Belarus. Would be interesting to see the last dictatorship in Europe but I would need a transit visa) I wanted to see as much as possible of the very pretty city. Yeah I think I liked Vilnius the most, a melting pot for centuries, struggling for independence with an impressive architecture influenced by its different cultures living together. I just should have brought my Siberian winter clothes instead of the preppy coat so I would not have freezed my ass all the time. Anyway, it didn’t keep me away from exploring the city. I visited my 3rd museum of occupation in this week: the former KGB headquarter (Gestapo for some time too) in Vilnius. Again a very impressive and emotional exhibition as one can go through the former cells and visit the interrogation and execution rooms. Hundreds of documents (thousands were shreddered and burned at the collapse of the Soviet Union) prove the facts of the atrocities that happen there over the decades. The early train departure didn’t allow me to see more of the beautiful city I just dropped in to “The Republic of Užupis” a kind of autonomous district of Vilnius (comparable with Kristiania in Copenhagen) but I couldn’t enjoy the location as I had to hurry for my train back to Pieter… got my stuff in the hostel, got some food supply and then made myself comfortable in my cozy and very warm compartment.

Time to relax and enjoy - travelling (part I - Tallinn)

Some of you will laugh but it was an exhausting week with all these annoying exams... unexpected exams, lies over lies in consultations, uncommunicative professors and of course low motivation to study... BUT on Thursday I did the last two exams of my official student life! I don't say last in life because I was taught by my ex-dean Mr. Peter Gomez that life is a constant learning process and that my university education is just a milestone in a lifelong learning process - I can't disagree with his statement ;-) Anyway, during the exam preparation I did various stuff to get distracted from studying such as collecting the dry leaves from the plants we haven't watered forever, cleaning my room, packing for my leave in like 2 weeks and also checking the lonely planet. There I found this schedule for buses and trains from Pieter and that reminded me of my planned trip to the Baltic countries. I grabbed my phone and called Amedeo (my ex-roommate from the dorm) and asked if he would join me... things were arranged and during my final exam (fucking statistics) I was with my mind half way in Tallinn (still had no influence on my performance, I swear my lovely mother!)... Thursday night 11pm we took the bus and arrived after a couple of hours and annoying custom agents ("no picture, no phone and smoking after pass port control, understand!?") in Tallinn... my first impression was already great: cute, small, medieval town with a lot of "European" flair (I don't know if I should generalise in this context...) and Scandinavian touch (what I really like!). Ok I exaggerate a little that I got all this impressions at 6am but they accumulated till I started writing these lines... my first impression after the walk was my pillow in our hostel (can only recommend Alur hostel!). For the past two days we were enjoying ourselves with a little sightseeing (the town is so small that we didn't want to see everything the first day), good food and some nightlife. Sightseeing all over the place but the highlight so far was the museum of occupations: amazing architecture of the building and fantastic arrangment of the exhibition, for me one of the best historic museums I have been to. Food & drinx: of course we had to go to Olde Hanse (medieval style tourist trap), food was whatever but extremely friendly service (one of this fantastic starter, whatever main dishes places...), today we had a good afternoon break at stereo lounge, minimal design, some poshy Tallinn yuppies and wanabes, very cool ;-) ! Yeah I liked it as I haven't had that for some time in Russia, ok also because of the great drinx ;-). Nightlife on Friday: Hollywood (what shall I say... for my Russia fellows: the Metro club of Tallinn)... to be continued!

The days after…

… were relaxing. On the 3rd the time to study started as I have 3 exams left in January. Yeah yeah you say now: “how come you have to study, you are an exchange student!?” The thing is that SPbGU School of Management as “leading” business school in Russia treats exchange students not different than its regular students. I am not sure but I think I should mention that in Saint-Gallen… anyway, it is partly my fault as I wanted to challenge myself by taking statistics (and as I may be mentioned a couple of times before: “statistic sucks!”). Still it is at least a good thing for my future and as I get closer and closer (*sleeplessnightscausedbytakingdecisions*) to join the labour force… I still had some entertainment (JFC jazz club, DVD evenings, gaming…), the most valuable one was the visit to the Hermitage theatre for “swan lake” – this evening kind of completed my cultural experience in Saint-Petersburg. Ok, first it was fantastic to see a Russian classic but it was more the place: in the Hermitage theatre we could sit like 2 m to the orchestra! So one could see the play (in which I loved the second act at the swan lake…) and the musicians in action!

С новим ѓодом!

My Christmas holidays in Pieter will stay in good memory as I spent a very different one than usual… on the 24th the exchange student crowd that stayed organized a dinner in Krokodile, a Russian restaurant close to our place. We had a very cozy evening though Nico and me embarrassed ourselves a little (actually it was to a certain degree my fault ;-) ) first we came like over half an hour late and then we had no gifts to share though Prune told me before about it… sorry guys (and merci beaucoup filles françaises for the nice Christmas gifts we received though, a great memory!). Then at 12 we missed the midnight mess as a Russian guy (pretty tipsy…) offered our table two bottles of vodka for the “nice ladies and my European friends!”. Of course we did not want to offend him so we stayed a little more and shared the gift… finally Nico’s and mine Christmas gift for the others was an invitation for a short party in our place. The night continued as unusual as it was with a visit to a drum’n’bass party in the bomb shelter of Gribodoev - it was great fun but I think I prefer to spend my Christmas eve in a more traditional way from now on!
The rest of the week was kind of annoying: I could not go travelling as planned (postponed my trip to Tallin to the end of January) due to sudden budget restrictions and finally I felt sick (thanks to Sasha and others for taking care!)… so I spend the week rather laid back.
The New Year eve was one of the highlights of my Russian adventure: we were invited to Sasha & Andreij for a barbeque! The guests were a very diverse group of people that we had a lot of fun with! I have to apologise at this point for making you all speak English, French and German instead of having a good chat in your language… but yeah our Russian skills have rather decreased than improved :-(. At midnight there was the decision to either have an emotional moment during the speech of Vladimir or to go out for the firework – we made a compromise: first we listened to Vladimir (though I understood a shit and it was not too emotional as Mr. Putin is not the most skilled rhetoric) then we went to the square in front of the Hermitage and celebrated the new year with a couple of thousand other Russians!

A great experience: I have not met so many friendly and outgoing Russians as during this hour on the square! The evening continued with more grilled meat and some wine (my antibiotics cure prevented me from having too many drinks!) and ended with a short visit to the party in our former dorm at Shevcenko 25.