(VORSICHT! This post is super long. Also, no pics because there are just too many worth posting, so check all of them out at my Picasa page.)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Ok, that sentence isn’t really the most accurate introduction to my trip to the Baltics. Put much more emphasis on the best, and much less on the worst. It’s really hard for me to sum up my trip to Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, and thus this entry is probably going to take me a long time to write and a long time for you to read. The range of experiences I had was quite wide—there were plenty of cultural experiences, a lot of lonely moments, a couple of fun nights, and more than enough personal challenges. Each city had similarities with the others but at the same time was totally unique. I think what more than anything defined each city for me were the people I met.
I started out my journey in Tallinn, arriving at the airport on the night of Thursday, May 8. My hostel was right in the Old Town, and the first night I shared a 9- or 10-bed dorm with a guy from Ireland. He and I chatted a bit, but there wasn’t too much of a connection. My first day, I hit the town running. I decided to buy a 72-hour Tallinn Card, which gave me free access to basically everything that the city has to offer. Which means I really kept myself busy! I went on a 3-hour tour of the city by bus and on foot. By bus we were able to visit the Song Festival Grounds, which they consider a big part of their victory over Soviet control, and then we hit the numerous churches, main square, and Upper and Lower Towns on foot. Man, are there are a lot of American and British cruise ship tourists there! I swear that almost all the tourists were 50+ couples. And then there was me. Haha, but I thrived in the Tallinn museum scene, although it often appeared that I was the only person in any one of the museums I went to. On that first day I visited the somewhat blah Estonian History Museum and the very informative Occupation Museum, which detailed how evil the Nazis and Soviets were. Was a nice affirmation of all my thoughts on the subject already. As the night approached and I didn’t have anyone to hang out with, a little bit of loneliness set in. I spent a lot of time in the lounge area of my hostel, but there was basically no one around, and if so, they weren’t the friendly types. I was mentally preparing myself for a very lonely week and even started to regret my decision to travel alone. I do well being alone, but I realized that a whole day without so much as saying a few words to someone else was enough to drive me momentarily insane. Fortunately, things ended up getting better, as you’ll read below.
On Saturday I finished with the Old Town after visiting the Maritime Museum, St. Olev’s church, and the great Tallinn City Museum. I then decided to tackle Kadriorg Park and KUMU, the huge Estonian art museum within it. The weather was quite pleasant and thus I took a book and sat for a couple hours. I had prayed the night before for some encouragement for God, and boy did He give it to me. This park is huge, and I just so happened to sit down on one particular bench. Out of hundreds. As I was sitting there, I could hear an American girl talking, so I was eavesdropping a bit. Then she and her friend started singing I Could Sing of Your Love Forever and I just about peed my pants. A worship song! I kept telling myself to get up and talk to them but then time passed and I held back. I don’t know why I did—usually I am quite keen on going up to people if I think I have a good reason to. Eventually two other girls came and the other two went off for food somewhere. These other two girls, who were clearly Estonian, had a guitar and started singing How Great is Our God. And at this point I knew I’d better get up and go over to them. And so I talked to them a bit and they invited me to their English-speaking church the next day. I couldn’t believe it (ok, I could, we are talking about God here). But wow, in the middle of a park in Tallinn of all places!
On Saturday night, my last night in Tallinn, I met Meredith, a girl from Michigan, and Hywel, her Welsh boyfriend, as they were staying in my room. The girl was so outgoing, and as we got to talking, I discovered that she is also a Christian. Her boyfriend is not, but she reads a devotional with him every night—I could hear them talking about it as I was going to sleep, and it was really heartening to listen to him ask her all the right questions (although he did ask her several times, “Why are you trying to convert me?”). It’s interesting how they met—she was in the Peace Corps in Ukraine (I’ve been told you should not use the article in front of the country) and was on holiday in Egypt, and the Welsh guy was on an excursion in the same group with her one day. They got on so well that he ended up visiting her in Ukraine and they ended up deciding to date. Although her parents just think he’s a travel partner (they’re traveling together for about eight weeks) and that he’s a random guy who’s going to chop her up. Sounds familiar! All parents are alike, eh? Anyway, they were both really outgoing and just plain nice, and I enjoyed talking to them about their adventures. I don’t think I’ve met friendlier people on the road before. It was especially wonderful to meet another Christian during my travels, as most hostel-dwellers seem intent on getting wasted night after night.
I had one last day in Tallinn on Sunday. I went to the church of the girls I met in the park. The pastor was American, from Texas, a real charismatic guy (not in the Christian sense, just in the general sense). The church only had about 15 members, five of them being the pastor and his family, and then another five being teenage Estonian girls, and one random girl from Rancho Cucamonga of all places! What a small world! On my tour of the Old Town, my tour guide explained proudly how pagan Estonians are, and thus I knew to expect a small church, but I don’t think I’ve ever been to a church service with a real pastor that was so small. I am praying that their outreach in the train station this past week went well. I know that they’ve got God on their side and are in good hands, and I just pray that they share with more and more people in Tallinn and across Estonia. It’s amazing to see God’s work being done around the world. After church, as the weather proved to be about 25 C, I went to the outdoor ethnographic museum. This is just the thing I love—I am such a nerd! It was basically like an Estonian Williamsburg. I enjoyed seeing all the typical 18th- and 19th- century Estonian and Estonian island farm buildings and listening to folk music. I can’t stress enough how beautiful the weather was, which made for a perfect outing. And it was right on the Tallinn Bay, which means I had some gorgeous views of the water and the Old Town. I ran into Meredith and Hywel there, and we had a fun time on this crazy Estonian swing (check out my pics), and afterwards we headed to a Tex-Mex restaurant in the Old Town that offered free U.S. phone calls, so I was able to wish my mom a happy Mother’s Day (well, since my parents were in Hawai‘i and it was 6 AM, it was over voicemail). But I ran into problem #1 with money—I had no cash, my Visa and German cards were rejected, and they had no change for my Euros. That was a real pickle, but my newfound friends saved my butt! Because of the fiasco I ended up sprinting the 1.5 miles to the bus station and nearly missed my bus. But only nearly!
The bus ride was no fun. It was nine hours overnight to Vilnius, an untraditional route for visitors to the three Baltic states, but because Easyjet flies from Berlin to Tallinn and Riga and not to Vilnius, it had to be that way. There were two men who of course would not shut up the entire time. 2 AM, 3 AM, 4 AM, didn’t matter. So that meant hardly any sleep! But at least I saved on a night of hostel accommodations. I really had to scrimp and save, so it was worth it. Also, they really need to do a better job of paving the roads. Or actually pave them in the first place!
When I arrived in Vilnius at 6:30 in the morning, I was delighted to find a free hostel bed in which I could crash for a couple hours. When I had enough energy, I hit the Old Town but was hindered by it being a Monday, when pretty much every museum in the Baltics is closed. I still had enough to keep me busy for a while. I did a grand tour of the Old Town. Highlights included taking a funicular up to the Upper Castle, hiking all the way up to the Hill of the Three Crosses, and venturing into the Republic of Uzupio, a very eccentric neighborhood that has declared itself independent from Lithuania. It even has its own constitution. Quite funny. I also visited several churches, as Vilnius is covered in them. The Gates of Dawn was particularly fascinating, as it is a pilgrimage site and a lot of pilgrims were praying in front of Mary. Also, locals turn and cross themselves every time they pass under the bridge on which the altar is. That night I went with two guys I met at the hostel—a Lutheran pastor from Minnesota and an incomprehensible but incredibly nice guy from Halifax, England—to watch the Kaunas-Vilnius basketball game. Basketball is huge in Lithuania and apparently it was the finals. Kaunas beat Vilnius by one point in overtime. A great game, but we ended up not watching it too closely since we ended up in a deep religious conversation, seeing as the British guy was a practicing Jehovah’s Witness. After that, a bunch of guys and I went out to Broadway, a local bar/club, for drinks and some dancing. I had a blast. We were all traveling alone, except a guy from Montreal and a guy from Brazil met each other in the airport in Tallinn and had been traveling together since. There was also a guy from Taiwan, the impossible-to-understand guy from England, and an older gentleman from Spain who happened to be a linguist! It made for a lot of fun, all of us random people hanging out together. It was my first night of real fun (no worries, friends, I wasn’t wild), and I could tell I was going to have a good time in Vilnius.
The next day I visited the KGB museum, which is also devoted to the evils of the Soviet Union. You can tell the Baltic states really hate the Soviets . . . I loved one of the quotes there: “A lot of people look back on Soviet times as the golden years, but young people can be brainwashed to believe anything.” STIMMT! After the museum and an authentic Lithuanian lunch, I had one of the greatest adventures of my life. I decided to head to Europos Parkas, a huge park about 15 km outside Vilnius that commemorates the geographic center of Europe. Some Lithuanian sculptor decided to capitalize on this by creating a huge sculpture park. It is nearly impossible to reach by public transportation, but I was up to the challenge. I had to ride a trolley-bus to a particular stop, which I missed, so then I went back a couple stops before realizing my first stop would have been fine. Then I got on the most crowded bus of my life. It was INSANE how crowded it was. And I kept thinking, oh, we’re going a long distance, people will start getting off. NO, instead more and more people just kept getting on. The doors could barely close. In fact, some people got pushed off the bus every time we stopped. And people were not nice to each other. One man wouldn’t move his arm to let a woman get off and so she missed her stop. So the next stop she tried to get off again, and was screaming at him, and he reacted by trying to block her physically, and as she managed to get around him he kicked her repeatedly. I’m not kidding! These were 60+ people! Anna, if you are reading this, I am so sorry for what you had to endure in Russia. I will never take Berlin public transportation for granted again. Anyway, after about 45 minutes of standing on that crowded bus and praying no one would mug me, I managed to get off at the wrong stop, thanks to terrible guidebook directions. The park is already 3 km from the bus stop, but I had to walk about 4-5 km down this country road with no clue if I was going in the right direction. Not a soul in sight. I prayed that I wouldn’t get run over or taken by some crazy person. Eventually—eventually!—I made it to the park entrance, only to discover that I pretty much had the whole huge place to myself. And what a weird place it is! All these strange statues all over the place. I didn’t see a soul the entire time I was there, besides the few people working there, and even then, no one made himself known to me in the bookstore or restaurant. My favorite “sculpture” was one of those wheels that mice run on, except it was human-sized. Since no one was around I had a go at it and really enjoyed running backwards and forwards on it. On the way home I managed to catch a taxi-bus back to the center, which saved me a lot of pain and fear. But I definitely had a good laugh over my adventure in getting there.
That night I just hung around the hostel. They had a great central kitchen where everyone congregated to eat (and drink, a lot!). We all decided to stay in, and it was quite fun talking to different people. Five of us agreed to head to Trakai Castle the next day, and that we did. Alex from Montreal, Thomas from Brazil, Ali and Dave from Tasmania, and I took the 30-minute bus ride there. I have to say it was a disappointing place, but it was pretty and the weather wasn’t too bad. It was also nice to have some company, since I was planning on making the trek anyway. When we got back I went with Alex and Thomas to a traditional Lithuanian restaurant and had something they translated as a zeppelin, since it did look like one. Yummy! And since a lot of us were leaving that night, we went to Broadway again and had a great night. I think we danced for like four hours. Everyone was just having such a great time, despite the sketchy Polish men. My newfound friends were great at protecting the girls among us. But we all realized that we’d have to get to bed at some point, and of course I could only sleep for two hours since people kept coming into our room to use one of the two showers for 26 people. Despite the lack of bathrooms, that hostel was really great at facilitating interaction among single travelers, and I am really grateful. I had some great conversations, particularly with Alex and Thomas, and enjoyed hearing about all their travels. And as opposed to Tallinn, I didn’t feel like I had to be sightseeing every single second, and I didn’t feel guilty about it at all. I realized that connecting with people was just as important. And despite my linguistic opposition to the dominance of English, I know that without it I never would have been able to have such a good time talking to people. Although funnily enough, a lot of the people I met in Vilnius were from different parts of California—Santa Barbara, Davis, and San Francisco. We get around, I guess.
On Thursday I took a very uncomfortable five-hour bus ride to Riga. We had assigned seats, and despite the number of empty seats the woman next to me wouldn’t move. My seat was so small I could barely fit in it. When I arrived at my hostel, the check-in person playfully warned me that I would be rooming with four German boys (all studying at Uni Koeln). Uh-oh, I thought to myself. More boys! All I’d heard about Riga was that it was a huge party city and that I should definitely avoid going on the weekend because of all the crazy British stag parties (British name for bachelor parties—because of all the cheap flights intra-Europe and the new EU countries, a lot of them take place over a whole weekend in another country). But my German roommates ended up being such a delight. I cannot underscore that enough. They were the most adorable and friendliest guys ever. From the moment I met them, they never stopped seeming to care about me—asking me how I was doing, what I had been up to, what life in Berlin/Orange County/(at) Harvard is like, what my thoughts on a range of issues are, etc. The first two nights they talked to me for a while before letting me be, since on the first night I was so exhausted and by the second night I had already confessed to them that I barely had any money whatsoever. Oh yeah, they also spoke to me primarily in English, which I initially protested, since there were four of them and only one of me, but they were quite keen to practice their English, and I wasn’t about to complain.
Anyway, on my first full day in Riga, I walked around a lot, visited yet another museum on the various Soviet and Nazi occupations, attended an organ concert in the Dome Cathedral, and went on a three-hour walking tour of areas of Riga I probably wouldn’t have visited alone. The sights included a huge indoor market where all the locals go to get all their groceries and a Russian market that sells everything (of the non-food variety) imaginable. I don’t even want to know how much of it is stolen property. We also got to see a lot of Art Nouveau, as Riga is famous for it. Some really gorgeous/really gaudy buildings! I also ate hardly anything, seeing as my budget was 25 Lats (about $56). In fact, I ate at the same Pelmeni XL chain four times since I could get a meal and a drink there for only 2 Lats. It was kinda sad, but so it is in the world of budget traveling, I suppose.
On my second day in Riga, I went to the top of St. Peter’s for a great view of the city, watched some folk dances at a festival in the main square, and explored the huge market more. Also, the German guys had invited me to go to the beach with them. I had told them I wasn’t certain, partly because the weather in Riga on Friday was cold and rainy, and I didn’t expect Saturday to be better. Also, I couldn’t imagine why four friends would want some random girl to go to the beach with them. I thought they were maybe just trying to be nice and/or felt sorry for me, and then I wondered if they just expected me to say no anyway. But then I remembered that Germans do not ask you to do something with them if they don’t want you to, and as Saturday rolled around and the weather ended up being quite simply amazing, I agreed to tag along. And I am so glad I did! We spent around five or six hours at the beach, just hanging out, reading, listening to music, and playing some card game called “6 nimmt!” Oh yeah, they also played in the water for about five minutes (crazy—it was freezing) in their relatively skimpy swimsuits (I enjoyed explaining to them my whole “Gay or European?” guessing game). I chose to keep to the beach and enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather. I must not forget to mention that apparently Saturday was a very special day at this particular beach (Majori, on the Jurmala coast just outside of Riga)—there was a gathering of American car owners (as in owners of American cars, not car owners who were American). It was insane. There must have been 200 American cars lined up along the beach. We’re talking right next to the water. I found it hilarious. The cars ranged from classic sports cars to your average soccer mom’s minivan. All that mattered was that the car was from an American car company. Several of the cars had huge American—and Confederate—flags hanging from them. I have never seen so much American pride outside of a Fourth of July parade ever. Except I think if you asked the car owners what they thought about U.S., it probably wouldn’t be too favorable.
When we got home from the beach, we headed out for the night. I again thought to myself, am I imposing on them and their time together? (It was different in Vilnius, because almost all of us were traveling alone, and when it’s a group of four, they tend to stick to themselves because they don’t need the company.) But I just seemed like a natural progression for me to be going out with them. It was just assumed that I’d go with them, especially since they wanted me to have a good time on my (and their) last night. It was a special night in Riga, when all the museums are open all night long and there are a lot of free events. We headed to the harbor for a big concert, and sorta ended up missing most of it (the very large and drunk medieval rock band did sit next to me on the plane on the way home though!), but then we went into the very dilapidated old harbor buildings and tried to dance, but it turned out that people there were way too artsy for us. So it was back to the Old Town, where I finally got to drink some famous Riga Black Balsam, which I actually liked. That night I got to know the guys a little better, two in particular, and it was evident what great human beings they are. Well, one of them runs a 500-Euro seminar on how to meet women, and he was definitely a big player, but the other three are in committed relationships and weren’t interested in hitting on every hot girl that walked by, which made me even more comfortable talking to them. Anyway, the two I spent the most time with, Christoph and Christoph (their roommate is also named Christoph, incidentally; the two other boys with them were Pascal and Benedikt) told me a bit about what all four of them are studying—special education! They were surprised that I was surprised that boys were studying that, and blonde Christoph was explaining to me how important it is for young boys to have good male role models so that they don’t think all men are supposed to be irresponsible and treat women poorly. I was like, you’re telling me! Anyway, they said they really enjoyed working with special ed children, and I couldn’t help thinking how laborious a job it would be. I don’t know if I’d be cut out for it . . . After the guys went to bed I ended up talking to two Latvian guys who insisted on buying me a drink in the hostel bar. Boy, I just realized just how sketchy that sounds, but don’t worry, we had been talking to them earlier as we were sitting in the bar and it would have been really hard to steal me from my own hostel anyway. But they were so full of themselves! I don’t know if it had to do with how much they’d drunk, but it was annoying. One guy kept going on and on about how the U.S. is just like Russia and he refused to visit, but he wouldn’t explain what he meant. And he tried to convince me that the U.S. has 52 states, as if I wouldn’t know. He also told me I was an incredibly stupid person, and I can’t remember why—I think it was because 1) I live in Berlin and do not listen to techno/electronic music and 2) I didn’t spend every waking moment in Riga partying. Ugh, I was glad I did not have to spend my whole trip with people as pretentious as they were.
All of a sudden, it was Sunday, meaning time for me to go home! I remember the Sunday before, as I was leaving Tallinn and thinking, oh my goodness how am I going to get through a whole nother week?! But I did it, and I can’t believe how fast the time went! Will I ever talk to the people I met on my trip again? I don’t know. Several are now my Facebook and studiVZ (German Facebook) friends, but I can’t say that three days of getting to know these people created a strong enough bond. Still, I am really grateful to them for keeping me company, for sharing laughs, and, most importantly, for renewing my faith in humanity.
Now I am in a financial pickle. I technically spent more money than I have in my German bank account, and at the same time managed to take out $1.28 more than I have in my American bank account, which I am sure means I will have to pay a huge fee. So that means that I have a negative amount of money that I can spend between now and the end of May, when I get my next paycheck. Man, I gotta eat though! And it’s really unfortunate that I don’t at least have some money, since I have another week of vacation this week. Oh well, I guess I will take the time to get a lot of things done that I have been meaning to do for a while now. Like financial aid! Ugh. Back to Berlin means back to the real world. I’ll probably lose a bit of weight too, seeing as all I’ve got in the cupboard is some rice and soup. Yum.
And now I can’t wait for my 18-day trip coming up at the end of June! It’ll be bigger, better, and warmer!
Football Fever. Can only imagine what the WM was like!
Typical sight these days.
Apartment building in Kreuzberg. No German flags. Where I work, if I a window has a Turkish flag, then it also has a German one. Not so here. All the cars in front had Turkish flags as well.
After the game in PBerg. If only I knew how to put video on here.
Gotta get innovative during the EM. Every restaurant and bar wants to show it. This bar backed a car up and showed the game from the trunk. Awesome!
Me with a group of 11th-grade students. A very rowdy class. Notice the Turkish flags, t-shirts, and headbands. Most of the kids in this class are Turkish (only three total are German) and were celebrating Turkey's victory against the Czech Republic the next day. The teachers found this disturbing, as they put flags on the windows and wouldn't stop chanting things in Turkish. Oh yeah, the picture was taken because they threw me a (premature) goodbye party, which I will talk about soon.
