Baltics

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THE BALTIC COUNTRIES – (September 2007)

- (Tuesday 11th September to Thursday 20th Sept 2007) -

As I sit here trying to write this blog in May 2011, it’s now such a long time since my trip that I must admit that this next stage of the journey has just blended into one. The cities I visited, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius are all beautiful cities, but I can’t really remember too much about any of them and it is proving very difficult to distinguish in my memory between each of the cities.

Therefore, in the interests of my fading memory and to try and get this damn Travelblog finished once and for all, I’m going to try and keep the following as brief as possible. I have therefore combined my time in Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius into one blog.

What I can remember though is that whilst Tallinn may have been the more beautiful city of the three in terms of its historical architecture, it wasn’t my favourite. The city was very beautiful and historic, but I can remember thinking at the time that it lacked that urban, lived-in feel that is as important to any city as beautiful historic architecture. Tallinn felt too touristy and museum like, or at least the parts that I saw did. I preferred Riga..................., or is that Vilnius? I can’t remember! But while both these two cities had their beautiful historic core, they also had their ‘urban, run-down’ and dilapidated bits quite close to the centre as well which just made them seem more lived in!

This said, all three cities are very similar in that they were occupied by the Soviets just before the Second World War as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop non aggression treaty between the Soviet Union and Nazis Germany, and then by the Nazis during the war and then again by the Soviets after the war, an occupation which lasted until fairly recently. The cities populations suffered greatly especially the former Jewish populations of the cities which were all but wiped out by the Nazis during the war.

I can vividly remember wandering around the less touristy, more urban areas with their old run down Central European style buildings, particularly in Riga and Vilnius and sensing the history of the streets and the ghosts of the Jewish populations who lived in the cities in their millions until the Nazis came and wiped them out.

- ESTONIA -

Tues 11th Sept – Thurs 13th Sept – (Tallinn)
I booked a ferry ticket from Helsinki to Tallinn for the Tuesday morning. As it had been throughout my stay in Helsinki, the morning was sunny and bright with an autumn crispness in the air as I walked down to the ferry terminal.

The ferry across the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn took around 2 to 3 hours. The ferry terminal in Tallinn is slightly out of the historic part of town although still within walking distance. As with the last couple of places I’d visited, I’d already booked my accommodation for the next couple of nights and once I got off the ferry I headed off to try and find it on foot. With the twisting narrow streets of the historic old town it took me a while to find the hostel, but I eventually did.

The hostel (Tallinn Backpackers hostel) proved to be a good place to stay although after months of staying in either private or relatively small shared rooms, I was having to get used sleeping in large mixed dorm rooms again. The hostel, which was reasonably modern and clean, was located in the old town within a 5 minute walk of the old town square. I can’t remember much about the hostel but I can remember that the dorm room was very open and you didn’t get much privacy.

The historic old city of Tallinn is indeed very beautiful with lots of old historic architecture to wander around and gaze at. There are also plenty of cafe-bars around the old square which were good to sit outside in the afternoon sun. St Olav’s Church in the old city also had a viewing platform at the top of its spire which offered good views of all of Tallinn.

Because of its location, over the centuries Estonia has been the scene of a tug of war and a battleground for controlling interest between various rival countries in the area. Denmark, Prussia/ Germany, Russia, Sweden and Poland have all fought many wars over controlling the country. Apparently the name 'Tallinn', is derived from the Estonian words 'taani linnus,' meaning 'Danish castle' and it was not until the mid-19th century that ethnic Estonians replaced Baltic Germans as the majority amongst Tallinn’s residents.

It was not until 1918 that Estonia declared independence. This lead to a war that had to be fought on two fronts between the newly-proclaimed state and Bolshevist Russia to the east and the forces of the United Baltic Duchy (the Baltische Landeswehr) to the south. However, the war eventually led to independence for Estonia.

As with the two other Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania, on the eve of the Second World War Estonia was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. During the war, Estonia was occupied by Nazi Germany, then reoccupied by the Soviet Union in 1944 and it wasn’t until 1991 that Estonia regained independence after the collapse of the USSR.

Perhaps the most interesting thing that I went to while I was in Tallinn was the ‘Museum of Occupations’. The museum had a few exhibits on the Nazi occupation of the country but was more about the Soviet occupation. The museum left me in no doubt that the Estonians certainly didn’t like the Soviets!

I spent all afternoon in the museum watching the many TV/ documentary clips that were exhibited in the museum which detailed how the occupations had come about, how life was during the various decades of occupation and how the Soviet occupation eventually ended. The museum is well worth a visit if you are at all interested in modern European history.

At nights, the owners of the hostel where I was staying opened up a sort of bar (i.e. creates of larger on the floor) in the courtyard which was a good place to catch up with people after sightseeing during the day. As a consequence most of my nights in Tallinn, or certainly the end of nights, were spent here. (Although I didn’t go, apparently Tallinn has a bar that is dedicated to the group Depeche Mode and plays the group’s music 24hours a day. Some people from the hostel decided to go one night, but not being a fan, I stuck to the comfort and familiar surroundings and sounds of the hostel’s bar).

While I was in Tallinn, England were playing Russia at football in a European qualifying match. I went to see the game in a pub which was packed out like it would be in England, albeit in this particular pub, around 90%!o(MISSING)f people watching the game were Russian. England won 3-0 with, if I remember correctly, Michael Owen who had been recalled into the team for the match scoring 2 or 3 goals. Despite the English being heavily out-numbered in the pub, it was a good atmosphere and it reminded me of home!



- LATVIA -

Friday 14th – Sun 16th September – (Riga)
From memory I got a ‘Eurolines’ bus ticket that took me from Tallinn to Riga and then through to Vilnius and then on to Berlin and Paris. I’d heard that the trains in this part of Europe were not the best and that it would be quicker to travel by bus. From information that I wrote down at the time, the bus journey took around 5 hours and I think I arrived in Riga mid afternoon. I can’t remember anything about the journey so I assume it was uneventful - I can’t even remember whether we had to stop at the border or whether we just travelled straight through!

The hostel where I’d booked to stay at, Riga Old Town Hostel, was located just inside the old town. Again, it was a good choice, nice and clean and modern and it also had a bar (a proper bar this time) on the ground floor which proved to be good place to meet other travellers at night after a days’ sightseeing. The hostel also a sauna, which was something of a novelty, which I made use of a couple of times during my stay.

The hostel also ran walking trips around the city which incorporated some of the old historical parts of town but also some of the newer parts. (When I say ‘newer’ it is all relative. They were still old, but not as old as the buildings in the central historical parts of town). The tour was interesting and well worth going on as it gave a bit of an insight into the history of the city and also showed you parts of the city that you probably wouldn’t go to on your own.

I had been slightly apprehensive about coming to Riga at a weekend because of the notoriety Riga has for British Stag and Hen does - which is a shame. Fortunately though, I only saw one small Stag and Hen do during my time there. However, all the pubs and bars seemed to show English football which for me was good as I hadn’t seen any English football for a while, although watching the games did bring it home to me that after all my time in Australia and on the road travelling, I would be back in England in the not too distant future!

As for Riga itself, the central ‘historical core’ of the city had some fabulous buildings. With a population of just over 700,000 inhabitants, Riga is the largest city of the Baltic States and third-largest in the Baltic region - behind Saint Petersburg and Stockholm. Riga's historical centre has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the city is apparently particularly notable for its extensive ‘Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) architecture’, which UNESCO considers to be ‘unparalleled anywhere in the world’!

As with Estonia, due to Latvia's strategic location, its territories were a frequent focal point for conflict and conquest by Prussia/ Germany, Poland, Sweden and Russia, with the country for most of its history being part of some other countries territory. After World War I, Latvia finally won independence although this was not recognised by Russia until 1920 and not by the wider international community until 1921. Again, as with Estonia, at the outset of World War II, the country was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940, then invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941, before being retaken by the Soviets in 1944. Along with Estonia and Lithuania, it was not until 1991 that Latvia finally got its independence back.

As in Tallinn, Riga has a ‘Museum of the Occupation’ which is well worth a visit. While the museums in Tallinn and Riga are both very good and both concentrate on the Soviet occupation more than the Nazi one, they are very different to each other. The main difference between them is that the museum in Riga mainly consisted of still exhibits and photographs whereas the museum of occupation in Tallinn mainly consisted of lots of short documentary films.

- LITHUANIA -

Mon 17th – Thurs 20th Sept – (Vilnius)
Again, I caught the bus from Riga to Vilnius and with the passage of time I can’t remember anything about the journey. I think I arrived towards the later part of the afternoon/ early evening and stayed in a backpackers close to the old town called VB Sleep Inn, which again I’d found on Hostelworld.com.

Although it isn’t, Vilnius seemed to be bigger than both Tallinn and Riga. It may be that the city gives this impression because it hasn’t got the same small self-contained historic core that both Tallinn and Riga have, which means that the city’s historic buildings are spread out over the town a bit more. That doesn’t mean to say that some of the buildings aren’t as historic and/ or as architecturally beautiful as the other two cities, because they are, they are just not as densely packed together into one historical area like they are in the other two cities. Again, the old town is on the UNESCO World Heritage cities list.

As with the other two Baltic countries, before my visit I didn’t know too much about the history of Lithuania. The National Museum of Lithuania and the adjacent New and Old Arsenal’s were therefore well worth a visit to gain some insight.

Unlike its two neighbours Estonia and Latvia who throughout their histories were part of other countries territories, Lithuanians themselves conquered neighbouring lands and established the Kingdom of Lithuania in the 13th century. In the 15th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became the largest state in Europe when it merged into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 18th century however, Lithuania was erased from the political map with the Partitions of Poland, after which Lithuania was mostly under the rule of the Russian Empire until the 20th century. In 1918, Lithuania was re-established as a democratic state which it remained until the outset of World War II when, as with its neighbours, the country was occupied by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany, and then by the Soviets again.

As with the other two countries, Vilnius has its own museum dedicated to the 'evils' of the Soviet occupation but this time it is called the ‘Museum of Genocide Victims’! The museum is located within the former headquarters of the KGB. I didn’t go, but reading the literature about the museum and having experienced the other two museums, despite its name, the museum appears to be more about the Soviet occupation than the mass murder of the Jewish population who used to make up a sizable proportion of the Vilnius’ population by the Nazis during the Second World War.

I tried to visit the Jewish State museum but it was closed the day I went. Much of the Old Town used to be part of the Jewish ghetto but there only seemed to be a very small plaque dedicated to their memory which I think is a bit of a shame given the city’s Jewish population’s tragic history.

On an entirely different note, one slightly eccentric sightseeing opportunity in the city came via a statue of ‘Frank Zappa’! Although Zappa never visited Lithuania, after his death in 1993 a local photographer, Saulius Paukstys, who was president of the local fan club went around and collected thousands of signatures petitioning the city authorities to put up a statue of the musician. Surprisingly, they agreed, although subject to the authorities not having to put any money towards it. And hence, after a lot of fund raising by Saulius Paukstys’, there is now a statue and memorial in honour of the musician in the centre of Vilnius - which apparently, and not surprisingly, is the only one in the world!

As with Tallinn and Riga, Vilnius is a beautiful city. However, a couple of days in each city is probably enough and it was now time to move on!

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