Vilnius

I spent three days in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania, and it was really pleasant. Vilnius is known to have the biggest old town of Europe, which is quite nice to look at. They have a huge university with several courtyards, lots of small parks and churches everywhere. 

Besides the Repubic of Uzupis there are severall other things I found that are nice to see. So for example the tile with the star on the cathedral square. It marks one end of the human chain going from Vilnius to Tallinn to peacefully protest for independence from Russia. It was 650 km or 2 million people long. After the start of the second world war, first the Sovjets then the Nazis and then the Sovjets again deported or killed loads of Lithuanians. I saw the genocide museum that focussed on crimes to surpress lithuanian independence through Stalin and afterwards. And while it surely was a harsh time for jews there when the Nazis had Lithuania, it was still a better time for everyone else than when Stalin had the country. It got better after he died but most of the deported people (about a tenth of them were children) never saw Lithuania again. Good to know: one big player in reaching independence in Lithuania was the church fighting for their right to believe. So when they made this human chain and it finally lead to independence of the baltic states, they placed the tile and wrote "stebukla" around which means "wish" and they say if you spin once on that tile your wish comes true.

Of course I tried it – but first I had to figure out what to wish for. Love, money, success? Way too ordinary and boring. I won’t tell you what I wished for but I will tell you if it comes true.

Another great thing was the hill of the three crosses – another memorial for the resistance against the Sovjets. In the 17th century three missionaries were cruzified there, and the crosses where kept in shape by the population. But the Sovjets destroyed them as well as all other crosses anywhere. So the people of Vilnius just put up new ones and left the destroyed ones there to see. Nevertheless, you have a great sight over all the city from up there.

I even went up once in the late evening to get some pictures of the skyline. It turned out afterwards that I forgot my SD-card, therefore I only have one picture in bad phone quality. But at least I could enjoy the great sight up there. Also, it was the same day when while walking through the old town of Vilnius and all ist parks I saw in total ten different brides, mostly shooting photos or on their way to their wedding party. But on the three crosses hill in front of the skyline of Vilnius, while enjoying the warm evening, I could even see a guy proposing to his girlfriend. Of course she said yes and then they were both so happy, it was really heartwarming to see. Who says Paris is the city of love? Come to Vilnius!

Some of you may have heard about the urban knitting thend – in Vilnius I found, as I would call it, urban sewing! Found in front of the St. Annes church.

And of course, for one day I went to Trakai, a village on a peninsula of a lake with a really beautiful castle on an island (but connected to the peninsula with a bridge). The village was originally inhabitated by the Karaites („Karäer“), a turkspeaking jewish community. They had a quite original style of houses, with the gables facing the street and having exactly three windows there. I only have a photo in bad phone quality as well because I forgot my SD-card, but it is totally worth to google for pictures of „Trakai“, because it is really beautiful there! Still, I had a wonderful hot day on the castle island. The water of the lake was cristal clear, you could see every fish, and the temperature was just right for swimming. And besides, it was just half an hour from Vilnius.

Republic of Uzupis

Today I arrived in Vilnius and got some time to discover the inner city. I will write about the city seperately when I saw all of it but today I really want to share a part of the city I discovered and really enjoyed: the Republic of Uzupis.

It is a small district in the center of Vilnius, directly next to the old town, just seperated by the Vilnia river, so you have to cross the bridge to get there. In 1997 one person living there decided they should be independent from Vilnius as well as Lithuania and therefore became president. I read they even established a military force consisting of 12 soldiers, but when nobody feared them they became obsolete. And by now, they are still independent.

To make their republic official, they also have a parliament, which is the first building after the bridge on the left - the "Uzupis Kavine", the café next to the river. And on their national holiday, the first of April, they place guides on the bridge so people who enter have to apply for visa. Which they get by a stamp on their hands. Also there are parades where people who participate borrow costumes from the circus. But since the district is really not that big, the parade does not take long.

In the middle of the district, there is the landmark of the republic: the liberty angel. When I first heard about the republic, I thought it to be like Cristiania, the freetown in Copenhagen - but while Cristiania is more like a hippie town with its main focus on weed, the focus of Uzupis seems to be celebrating life.

They also have a constitution, it is written in about ten different languages on one of the streets in the center of the district. The constitution consists of 41 articles, which all make pretty a lot of sense. So just to show you an abstract:

1. Everybody has the right to live by the River Vilnelé, and the River Vilnelé has the right to flow by everyone.
10. Everybody has the right to love and take care of the cat.
12. A dog has the right to be a dog.
13. A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in times of need.
14. Sometimes everybody has the right to be unaware of their duties.
16. Everybody has the right to be happy.
17. Everybody has the right to be unhappy.
20. No one has the right to violence.
37. Everyone has the right to be individual.
39. Do not defeat.
40. Do not fight back.
41. Do not surrender.

Klaipeda

First I want to say, sorry for having such a huge gap between Tallinn and Riga, but I had some technical problems which seem to be solved now. Also, if you want to, I added a function where you can receive a mail as soon as I post something new, so if you are interested, just sign up! Who knows where I am going next ;)

Klaipeda is the third biggest city of Lithuania and more or less the "door to the Curonian Split". Inside the city itself there is actually little to see. I spend some time in the sculpture park with some weird sculptures just in the middle of trees, and even more time in the very small old town with one popular square in front of the theater, a place where a fort used to be which is now a park and a really nice alley with lots of different restaurants.

What was really worth the trip was the visit on the Curonian Split. Like the hostel recommended, I rented a biketook it to Nida, the village at the russian border, by bus. From there I cycled all the way back, which is about 50 km. But first, I visited the really high dunes just in the south of Nida. The top of the highest dune is 52 meters above sea level, so it is definitiely not just a part of a beach.

Then I started cycling back the path just as long until I reached a beach. I passed a lot of very cute buildings, but unfortunately I did not take a picture because it was midday heat and I really didn't want to stop. Furthermore I didn't bring enough water with me, so at some point I was just looking where I could buy something to drink and not what to see. But luckily I found water as well as a very beautiful beach.

The beach goes down all the way of at least the lithuanian side of the Corunian Split so it never gets crowded. And the sand is so soft like I haven't seen anywhere else in Europe. The water was quite cold but just as refreshing as it should be after a bike ride.

All in all, I really think this is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been, and definitely the best sand beach in whole Europe. And if you are here by bike you are free to choose which part of the 52 km long beach you want to enjoy, depending on how long you want to go there.

The bike trail itself was really nice and there was no way to get lost. It gave me the opportunity to see all of the beautiful nature as well as the nice villages on my own. Especially the forests are quite great, there is
moss everywhere on the ground, and you can see that underneath is not earth but sand.

It was definitely the best decision to discover the peninsula by bike!

Travelling is...

I tried to write down some thoughts on travelling, especially on travelling alone, like I prefere right now.

Travelling is...

... getting out of your comfort zone
... meeting new people
... trying something new
... experiencing the world as a whole, not country vs. country
... realising how small you really are
... discovering new ways of thinking
... solving problems on your own
... learning to ask people for help
... understanding different lifestyles
... finding out what really matters to you
... learning to make quick decisions
... freezing all problems (some will magically disappear!)
... discovering the beauty of your home
... understanding who you really are
... feeling alive

Riga

Riga is the biggest of the baltic capital cities, which you quickly realise when walking along. It is not as compact as in Tallinn and the walls around the old city are missing too. Still the inner city is easy to recognize because of it beautiful old buildings with high rooms and sometimes even small towers on the edges.

What’s really special about Riga is the narrow park around which probably used to be the moat. There is still a narrow „lake“ inbetween the green areas which is long enough you can do boat trips on it. Also, you can rent a rowing boat or pedal boat and explore the lake on your own.

Also, the market of Riga used to be the biggest in Europe. Today it is probably the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but still the market of Riga is pretty big and you can easily get lost there because it does not only cover 4 big buildings (which used to be halls for building Zeppelins) but also the surrounding squares and streets. There you can buy fruits, fish, meat, spices, clothes, furniture, accessories, handcrafts and many more. What I liked most is that you can buy really tasty peas. After I discovered they sell huge peas here I started buying a big bag of peas everyday for dinner.

Directly next to the market is the academic tower with the best view over the old city of Riga.

From Riga, you can visit several other great places, and one of them is Sigulda, about an hour with the train (but remember, trains here stop like all the time and it takes a long time to get somewhere outside of the city). It is a town located on the edge oft he Gauja Nationalpark with lots of castles and manor houses. From the castle of Sigulda you can see Krimulda manor and Turaida castle on the other side of the valley of Gauja river. Unfortunately there is only one small wall left of Krimulda castle, the third within reach. Of course I visited them all and enjoyed the view of the tower of Turaida castle down the valley.

Just in the middle of the three castles there is the Gutmans cave, the biggest cave of Latvia that got known through a legend of two lovers from different castles who used to met there, but it ended deadly for the girl which is now known as „Rose of Turaida“.

On the other side of Riga, there is Jürmala, the beach region of Riga. Just behind the beach there are lots of impressing villas that are probably owned by the rich people of Latvia. The beach itself is really beautiful, but there are nearly no waves and you have to walk quite long until the water gets deep enough to swim. Also, it is quite uncommon here to have more than 25 degrees so for me it would be too cold for swimming. But spending the last evening in Latvia on the beach is still a pleasant experience.

Tallinn

When walking through the streets of Tallinn, you always feel like a fairytale - you always expect a knight to come around the corner. The city consists of a pretty huge old town that looks like it was a great castle once and around the modern parts of the city including some more shopping centers like in Helsinki, but nowhere as much as over there.

Everywhere around the old town there is a wall which is nearly completely intact. Inside, the roads are pretty rough because of the flagging. I would not even try to go there with high heels, it was even hard to walk along without stumbling or spraining my feet. Everywhere inside the old city there are those old churches with quite peaked church spires.

On top there was a special church that looked quite different than the others - the orthodox Alexander Church. They also had another Alexander in Finland who granted them autonomy, so now there are lots of memorials. I guess it is a different Alexander but I feel like there are only important Russians named Alexander. Or Alexej. The church nevertheless is really beautiful, it is built with the same red bricks that are used quite often in Finland as well as in Norway and I think also in Ireland if I remember it right.

There are lots of other really nice buildings which I will show you in the next pictures, but also I want to tell you a little bit about Estonia in general. They have nature everywhere. In the city there are so many parks, and when there is no park, there are still some small green areas, sometimes even nobody cares for it - almost in the middle of the city.

Also, there is a big gap between inside the old town and outside. While inside everything looks like perfectly cared for, outside there are some places that slowly fall into a state of disrepair. A perfect example is the Linnahall, the city hall. It was closed in 2009 for some reason I don't know and even when it has the perfect location, just inbetween the old city and the sea, right next to the harbour, it slowly starts to look ugly.

The good thing is that you can just walk on top of it without feeling bad. And the sight is really great. From the Linnahall you can watch the ferries approach Tallinn, see the sunset (even if it is quite late), have a look over the old town and maybe you will even see somebody trying to take a bath in the cold sea. Some even used the big amount of stairs for training purposes by running up and down all the time.

If I was living in Tallinn, I would probably come there everytime when hanging out with friends - it is the perfect place to be in the city but still somewhere else. Some teenagers thought like that and annoyed me with their music for a short time but then they fortunately disappeared again. Nevertheless I am sure it was also a really beautiful city hall and it surely is a pity that they don't use it anymore.

There are lots of street artists in the crowded streets of the old town and also there are lots of people trying to sell you something which made me conclude that estonian people probably aren't that rich even if it looks like that on first sight. Fortunantely they are not as agressive in selling you something as people in southern countries are. I never know how to react. The food the inner city is as expensive as in Austria - but this is probably just for the tourists. In the shops everything is obviously cheaper, except from alcohol.

I realised that Estonia has a great national pride, they only became independent in 1991, but still most of them can speak english fluently. And I found out that going by train is more or less an ordeal of my patience. There are so many stations and everytime the train not just only stops until the passengers entered but some more minutes and I was always like: "Why are we still standing here? We are already late." But seems like they don't mind. It was acutally interesting for me to realise how much this annoys me.

Maybe I will post some more about Tallinn tomorrow but I can't tell for sure now. And I already know what to visit when I come to Estonia next time: The islands on the coast.

Helsinki

I think it was April when I decided I had to go somewhere in the summer even only for a short time because I knew I could not afford that much. About the same time, I was in Poland and did not expect I would like the country that much. So when I decided on coming back and visiting Warsaw, I realised that Vilnius was not that far away from there. And from Vilnius, it was only a short distance to Riga, and from Riga to Tallinn, and Tallinn is connected to Helsinki by lots of ferries every day. And after I learnt that there are lots of affordable busses connecting the cities, I decided it is totally worth to travel there. First, I wanted to include St. Petersburg and Minsk as well but in the end the Visa was too expensive for just staying there two or three days.

So my first stop was Helsinki, and since I did couchsurfing there, I also learnt a lot about the people living there. The first thing to mention was that I saw a lot of shopping centers. I have no idea how they can survive, but I have never seen so many shopping centers in such a small area. And as I recall, Helsinki also only has about 600.000 inhabitants, therefore there are not that many people to shop there. Furthermore, when I decided to have a look at those shoppingcenters in the city center because I was hungry and it seemed like it was starting to rain again, I did not find any entrance. I walked around three of those shopping blocks but there were only entrances to shops or restaurants. So I can't tell you how the inside looks like. But unlike Austria, shops here are open even on Sunday.

The first thing that is on every travel guide is the evangelic cathedral. Because it is situated a little bit higher than the building surrounding it, you can see it when entering the harbour by boat, which was probably exactly what they wanted to reach. Since I heard that most of the people entering the city come by boat, they are welcomed by this pleasant view as well as the market place with lots of regional food as well as handcraft. For example I saw a bottle opener attached to the horns of a deer. I don't know who would buy that.


Next to the cathedral, there's the university, and if you enter the metro from here, you get a quite stunning sight.

I would like to think that it was a student project because the idea is really creative. But they have another attraction they built "into stone": A church built into the rock. From outside, you just see the glass-cupola, but inside it really looks stunning.

Other than that, Helsinki is mostly a modern city, with - like I mentioned - a lot of shopping centers, and also a lot of forest. When my plane approached Helsinki, I saw more trees than houses. There are parks everywhere and in one of them, I found my perfect place to stay and enjoy the sun after the rain while looking at the sea.

In front of the coast there are lots of islands, some uninhabited and some with houses on them. The houses mostly were small red cottages, like you would think of when thinking about Norway.

Unlike Austria, the Finns are proud that the refugees come to them and are especially proud that they are one nation. Also, they all want to posess their own cottage next to a lake or the sea somewhere in Finland. And they really love their Sauna as much as everybody says. They even like to say that no other country knows how to build a Sauna properly. Another funny thing was that it didn't get dark. Only after ten the sky turned red and showed the first signals of a sunset. And there were still so many people out. But when I come to Finland again, I won't spend time in the cities but will use my time to explore the nature which is definitely the most beautiful part of Finland!