Our Baltic Tour

Erik and I got back last night from traveling the Baltic countries. We are SO glad that we left ourselves a cushion of 24 hours on either end of the 7-day trip so that we can slowly enter back into normal life today. We feel thankful for the chance we had to get away. Our spirits are refreshed and our interest in life at LCc has renewed energy. I propose that everyone should follow the schedule of a student. It is so helpful to occasionally switch up one's routine and pace of life in order to better focus on one's work. Ah, the seasons of life.

Speaking of seasons, the sun didn't rise until 7:42 this morning. As I write, the sun is on its way down, officially scheduled to set at 4:56 this afternoon. Sunshine is becoming an elusive memory around here, scarcely coming out of the clouds in between all the rain showers. I hope to take advantage of my time indoors this winter. Some of my aspirations include reading books, working on knitting projects, and continuing my study of the Lithuanian language. I am hoping to read books and watch documentaries that help me learn more about the history and culture in the Baltic countries. My attention was captured while exploring this last week and I realize I still have a lot more to learn.

Quick Trip Summary - We took a bus from KLAIPEDA to RIGA, the capital of Latvia. From there we rode a bus to TARTU, a university town in the country of Estonia. We went by train from Tartu to the capitol city of Estonia, TALLINN. Yesterday we took a 9-hour bus ride back home to KLAIPEDA from Tallinn through Riga. I included the map so that you can get an idea of how accessible these places are to each other. My friends and I used to drive the 8-hours out to McLaughlin to spend the weekend in South Dakota in college. That is pretty much the same distance we traveled to get to our farthest destination this week. The part that stands out to me is how different everything is in between these 2 cities only 300 miles apart. These photos will give an idea of what Erik and I saw on our journey, starting with RIGA.

The city of Riga is situated next to the Daugava river and is filled with beautiful old buildings (in Art-Nouveau style for any art history buffs) and lots of statues and monuments. The Freedom Monument, erected in 1935, is one of my favorite statues of the week. It is a symbol of Latvian independence and continues to function as an unofficial location for political debates. When we there, we were able to witness the hourly changing of the guard. You can see the flowers that people bring to cover the base platform of the statue.

On a very important note, The Museum of Occupation in Latvia provided a detailed timeline with pictures of the Soviet and Nazi occupations between 1940 and 1991. Of the 3 Occupation museums we have visited, this presentation was the easiest one to follow, showing the progression of the events in history, as well as the dismantling of culture, education, and economy in Latvia as a result of these events. On a less important note, we also found a bakery similar to Hermann's Bakery in Cambridge that we visited twice for its very delicious Latvian pastries and lattes. Our next stop was TARTU, a university town in Estonia of 101,000 people and 11 institutions of higher education.

Erik and I noticed a difference about Estonia immediately upon our arrival. It was obvious that education and the arts are valued in Estonian culture. Research, philosophy, literature, and music were emphasized by the things we saw and read, as well as by our interactions with people. It was fun to be among students who were creative and idealistic. We didn't even realize how much we had missed the presence of this until we witnessed it again in Tartu.

We enjoyed our 24-hour stay here, which included walking through multiple parks, reading more descriptions of statues, touring old church structures, eating at delicious restaurants and cafes, and even a brief visit to Tartu University's Medicine Faculty building with its "Frankenstein-style exhibition of all kinds of body parts." Eek. Too many preserved body parts for me. Then again, I don't know how many preserved body parts I would actually enjoy seeing. Not my deal. And of course, Tartu wouldn't be a college town without a second hand store. We checked out Humana (the Baltic version of Savers) before grabbing a bite to eat and heading out of town on our way to the capital of Estonia, the coastal city of TALLINN.

Our hostel in Tallinn happened to be the 7th floor penthouse suite of one of the new commercial buildings near Old Town. I have no idea how we got so lucky. It seriously came up as the cheapest price as I was booking a place to stay for the last 3 nights of our trip. We have a funny story about our experience here, but I'll save that for another conversation. Ask me about our shady hostel host sometime.

Tallinn combines a unique mixture of building structures; medieval style, Soviet times style, Soviet-remodeled to modern style, and brand new modern style buildings form an architectural mosaic. We appreciated the variety. We continued our touring by strolling the windy streets of Old Town. We ate Estonian style pancakes and listened to live jazz. We visited the Museum of Occupations and watched video footage of the Soviet control in Estonia. We walked the promenade through Kadriorg Park down to the sea to the mermaid statue, passing a palace and 19th century villas along the way. A friend that we met on the train to Tallinn offered to show us around the city one day and took us to a modern art exhibit at Kumu (Art Museum of Estonia), which was given "The 2008 European Museum of the Year Award." She even brought us along to her professor's art show that night where we got a personal tour and explanation of the paintings from the artist himself.

Thanks for staying tuned to hear about our trip. We are back home and ready to stick around Klaipeda for a while. Please come and visit. We'll bring you with us on our next Baltic road trip!