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.
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