The Baltics in General

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The Baltics in General

While the music is a little cheesy, Kraftwerk's dream of Europe Endless became a stark reality after 17 hours on the road from Croatia to Cracow, and the further 12 required to go from Cracow to Vilnius. But, their vision of a future Europe no doubt included freedom of movement, and that is the reality today, 30+ years after their album TransEurope Express was released. It really is amazing to float in our little car effortlessly through checkpoints that were once once as rigorous as Panmunjon. But today, the border checkpoints we passed are dark, empty shells somehow reminiscent of America's derelict drive-in movie theatres. I don't know why one reminds me of the other.

Joining the scrap heap in Eastern Europe were no doubt the ideas and systems of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, having been replaced a hundred times over by McDonalds, email, Levis and satellite TV. Living in Hong Kong, we have perhaps lost sight of the ubiquitous nature of American culture, but here in Europe, where you'd least expect it, there it is. I flipped past Prison Break dubbed in Lithuanian. Then we saw the Terminator dubbed in Latvian. MTV dubs or subtitles many programs in German, including (unfortunately) that weird show featuring thinly disguised hazing of young contestants at the behest of a Zen master. We've seen the same (rather disturbing) Coca Cola “gremlin” add in every language and every country we've visited. A cynic would argue that America is much better at propaganda than the Soviets. But just where does propaganda end and pop culture begin?

OK, enough of the marvel of American culture. Now down to business.

The Baltic Republics have been a welcome respite from the crowds of tourists we've been bumping into for most of our trip. Since we've been here, we've felt like we have the place to ourselves. These quiet, remote countries are busily modernizing after 20 years of independence.

Riga is noted as the “Paris of the North” and Vilnius is called “Jerusalem of the North” but anytime I hear that, I try to think of places that dub themselves “Riga of the South.” These cities won't knock your socks off. But they have a charm and an intimacy that does make you stop and look and will definitely impress. And again, we don't have to fight any crowds to see beautiful churches, and castles, the main ones having been nicely restored.

We planned our arrival with the height of summer, which means the weather is a blazing 75 degrees Fahrenheit (about 22 deg C or so) during the day, dropping into perfect sleeping weather at night. Air conditioning? Not required. No plans to come back in Winter, though.

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Photos

The Baltic States
courtesy of Worldatlas.com