Bobsledding with Bolsheviks


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June 2nd 2006
Published: June 18th 2006
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Tartu, Estonia


May 14, 2006

Shannon: We left Riga (and Latvia) behind yesterday. After experiencing true sticker shock at the lodging prices due to the World Hockey Championship games, it seemed prudent to leave as quickly as possible and head to other (cheaper) pastures. Thus, after dropping my mom off at the airport, we made our arrangements to head into Estonia and our first stop: Tartu.

Sean: Tartu is a small college town that made a nice break in the trip from Riga to Tallinn, Estonia. We just had to get out of Latvia. The overwhelming amount of partying hockey fans made it not only crowded and noisy, but made all the prices horribly inflated. We’ll return, but let the country come down from the tourist boom first. Riga seems to have a much nicer old town than Vilnius so we’re excited about going back when it’s not quite so…much.

Little Tartu is the place to go to college. The greatest Estonian minds were matriculated here and the ill-fated 1905 independence movement was fomented on its streets - Russia wouldn’t grant them that short lived right until 1918. Their most acclaimed writer, Eduard Wilde, had a printing shop
Eduard, Sean and OscarEduard, Sean and OscarEduard, Sean and Oscar

Great minds at work...
here and there’s even a statue commemorating him and his self-perceived literary equal: Oscar “no relation” Wilde. (Note from Shannon: The statue of Oscar and Eduard is actually the original of the very same one you saw us lounging on back in Ireland. The Estonians, as a symbol of friendship with the Emerald Isle, gave a copy of the statue to Galway as a present. Check out the picture at the end of our Ireland blog by clicking here).

In the spirit of the town, we stayed in a college dorm that rents a few rooms out as a hostel. It was very modern, clean and had internet cable jacks in the room (very exciting to us as that particular luxury wasn’t much of a reality the last time Shannon and I lived on a campus. Damn kids have it so easy. In my day we had to walk uphill - both ways - to get to the computer lab).

Shannon: Tartu is a quiet but very pleasant town. Due to some unfortunate timing, though, we were unable to see their KGB museum, something that came recommended to us. Instead we whiled away some pleasant hours in their cafes (including
The Three Most Important Words in Construction:The Three Most Important Words in Construction:The Three Most Important Words in Construction:

Foundation, Foundation, Foundation
Café Wilde, home of the statue we mentioned above) and poked around some of their other sites. All-in-all, it was a very relaxing introduction to Estonia.


Tallinn, Estonia


May 17, 2006

Shannon: So here we find ourselves again, sitting in a bar (this time by the name of Molly Malones - obviously Irish-themed) with 150 of our closest Estonian friends, watching Arsenal play Barcelona in the Champions League final. It’s a rowdy crowd, but then, aren’t they all? Sean’s rooting for Arsenal and being the contrary person that I am, have chosen Barcelona and the one man tour-de-force that is Ronaldinho as my team. As its halftime now, we’ll let you know which of us goes home crying.

Today was our first full day in Tallinn and we’re really enjoying it. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for in an Eastern European destination - the sort of place that everyone keeps saying that you have to get to before it’s spoiled. It has a very pretty Old Town, with all the accoutrements that you would associate with that, decent prices coupled with a favorable exchange rate and good traveler services. And best of all, while not
Lovely TallinnLovely TallinnLovely Tallinn

Clean, relatively cheap and easy to get around.
exactly unknown, at least it’s not on the forefront of everyone’s lips. So by those criteria, it’s a success so far.

Today we splurged and bought something called a ‘Tallinn Card’, which is basically a pass that gets you into most museums and sightseeing attractions for a set price. It’s not the sort of thing that we would normally buy, but it seemed like you got a lot for the money. We opted for the 3 day card which seemed like the best value and did quite a bit with it today, visiting various museums and basically wringing every “free” thing we could get out of it. In that respect, we’re seeing much more of the city than we normally would.

Barcelona 2, Arsenal 1.

Sean: Yep, the soccer team I’d been following these last few months in the Champions League playoffs was finally bested. It was a good win for Barcelona, though. They dominated the English team from the beginning. Oh well, not much left to do but quixotically root for the Americans during next month’s World Cup.


May 18, 2006

Sean: Hands down, Tallinn is the prettiest city we’ve seen so far
You want what?You want what?You want what?

With a name like that, you wouldn't think we would have a problem ordering a mocha, but I guess that's not on the menu.
on this trip. Their old quarter is much larger and better preserved than either Vilnius’ or Riga’s. The guide for our bicycle tour today said that was because Riga and Vilnius had much more money (and hence development) over the years, while Tallinn wallowed. So while the other two towns modernized their old quarters with newer construction over the years, Tallinn was left only with what it had. This works out excellently for tourists because we don’t want to see contemporary buildings amidst medieval architecture; we want picture postcard scenes from our imaginations. And since independence, Tallinn has worked very hard (and is still working) to reel us into spending a few days and lots of dollars in their fair city - not to disappoint, we obliged.

Shannon: We really got our money’s worth out of the Tallinn Card today and had a great time doing it. First thing this morning, we signed up for the “Welcome Tour of Tallinn” bicycle tour. Instead of doing the more tame guided walking tour of the Old Town (much of which we have already done on our own) we decided to do this tour because 1.) it is infinitely cooler to see
Cheese and Bacon PancakeCheese and Bacon PancakeCheese and Bacon Pancake

These were huge, delicious and you could find them everywhere. We split one between the two of us and were still full at the end.
the sights on a bicycle and 2.) the tour included some of the attractions on the outskirts of the city (i.e. places we might not have seen otherwise). After choosing bicycles and helmets, off we went.

Sean: The tourist card is a good value because we saved quite a bit of money (I’ve got the spreadsheets to prove it!) even though we did more things than we would have because we had the card. But even just participating in the activities we had originally planned, we would’ve at least broken even. The bicycle tour was one of the things we wouldn’t have done, but was well worth it. There were only three of us on the excursion (the other guy was from Florida) along with our chatty guide. She took us to many of the sights just outside of the old town like the President’s house where - thanks to some amazingly good timing - we saw a Chinese official being formally received. There were lots of soldiers and sailors on review with the band playing both the Chinese national anthem and the Estonian one.

Just before that, we had biked by Peter the Great’s summer residence (although
Lenin...Lord of the TrashLenin...Lord of the TrashLenin...Lord of the Trash

Poor Vlad - one step away from curb side recycling.
he didn’t spend much time there - construction only began in 1718 and he died in 1725). It’s a beautiful palace that now houses an art museum, but, like Graceland, it’s smaller than you think it should be.

From there we pedaled over to a huge, ugly Soviet monument falling into decline - which makes sense as no one really wants to pay for the upkeep and be reminded of what the all too recent past looked like. The monument’s form is really more like a big concrete road with steep, sloped concrete sides (it reminds me of the Los Angeles flash flood protection channels - Go Greased Lightning!) that leads to the ocean. No one really knows where this monument cum avenue is supposed to go - The Future…Finland…it’s all a guess. On our way to this, we biked on a trail that hooked behind one of Estonia’s history museums and there, in the back behind the building, was a pile of discarded Soviet statues with a lone upright Lenin - looking regal and proletariat at the same time, clutching his coat and workmen’s cap - standing like a sentinel before them. Our guide said there was a
M/S EstoniaM/S EstoniaM/S Estonia

Very Sad
movement to display these statues, but at the moment, there was an equally strong movement to send them to the scrap heap. She explained that, back in 1991 (the year Estonia achieved independence), she was only a young girl so she has no real recollection of the dark era that befell this small Baltic country. It’s just as well, in my opinion, because I think it’s up to her generation to preserve this history as dispassionately as possible to show the rest of the world what it was like under Soviet occupation. For an older generation, the wounds may be a little too raw. (As a side note: an entrepreneur in Lithuania bought a bunch of these old statues and created a whole park centered around them. We’ll be going there later when we pass back through Lithuania).

After turning in our bikes, we continued racking up the savings by visiting the Maritime Museum (I had to at least give it a glance). Unfortunately, it was fairly unremarkable (lots of exhibits on fishing) except for the tribute to the M/S Estonia which, in 1994, was one of Europe’s worst maritime disasters since World War Two. The Estonia was a ferry traveling from Tallinn to Stockholm when, in very heavy, late night seas, its movable bow section ripped free and flooded the car deck. It’s a very sad tale as there was only about a 15 minute window of opportunity for the survivors. Needless to say, of the 989 people aboard only 137 were saved.

The museum itself is housed in the northern most cannon tower of the old town (dubbed Fat Margaret Tower because of its squat architecture). Along with 45 other towers, the entire town was once ringed by over 2 kilometers of walls and fortifications. Currently there is still 1.86 km of the wall remaining along with 20 towers. Due to this, and coupled with the cobblestone streets, the city still retains its medieval character and ambience.


May 19, 2006

Sean: One of the best views of the town is from its highest point at the top of St. Olaf’s Church. Today was a beautiful (but windy) day and after a dizzying walk up the tight spiral staircase to the 124 meter high (that’s 400+ feet for all us metric-challenged people out there) viewing platform we were rewarded with excellent views. The city
Working on the Blog...Working on the Blog...Working on the Blog...

under Lenin's watchful eye.
is a tourist dream in that the majority of its important sights, coolest cafes and best pubs are tightly packaged in the Old Town. I can attest to this because with our Tallinn Cards, we jumped on a hop-on/hop-off bus yesterday and saw a bit more of the city. We quickly realized that the rest of it is rather drab compared to the splendor of the oldest portion, and hence have spent our time accordingly.

One part of the city center that wasn’t quite up to snuff, in our opinion, was the Occupation Museum. We haven’t gone to Riga’s yet (we will go when we pass back through heading south), but compared to Vilnius’ outstandingly vivid depictions and KGB-office-location (which really brought the past to life for the foreign naïf) it was lacking.

Shannon: Our chief complaint with the museum is that it relies on 7 or 8 videos (shown on screens about 5 feet apart, so there is room for 2-3 people to huddle around each) to tell the story of the occupation years. Not 7 or 8 short videos, mind you, but ones that are 35-45 minutes long each. Poor planning, if you ask me, because
Lonely watch towerLonely watch towerLonely watch tower

Part of the Kuressaare Castle complex.
no one is going to wait around for 25 minutes to see the start of a video if they came into it part way. And to be honest, the videos themselves weren’t exactly riveting for the most part - and that’s coming from someone who was interested enough in the subject matter to seek out the museum. Sean and I watched about 20 minutes of one before the restlessness set in and our attention wandered. I can’t imagine anyone hanging around for the 4 hours it would take to watch them all.


Kuressaare, Estonia


May 22, 2006

Sean: The last few days have been spent lounging around Estonia’s largest island, Saaremaa. We took a bus (and ferry) out here after the densely packed sightseeing extravaganza of Tallinn as we wanted to see a bit of small town life.

Kuressaare is a tourist town, known for their beach in the summer months, but with the weather still a bit cool we came instead to enjoy their other attraction, Kuressaare Castle. Finished in 1380, it’s one of the best preserved medieval stone castles in the region, complete with a huge moat and well preserved fortification walls. Inside it’s a confusing warren of rooms that don’t flow very well together; hallways dead-end and stairs lead to long ago bricked-up openings.

The interior houses an Estonian history museum, starting from the Stone Age and continuing into the present. Most of the exhibits are bilingual only in Russian, but the newer rooms, devoted to the island’s experiences being occupied by the Nazis and the Soviets from 1940 until 1991, are in perfect English. As with the rest of Estonia, the island’s inhabitants suffered greatly during these years. Even though the museum wasn’t all that comprehensive, it was very modern and well put together with videos, colorful maps, and tons of artifacts detailing daily life in this dark era. It was a much better museum on the subject than the one in Tallinn.


Parnu, Estonia


May 24, 2006

Sean Long bus rides are a drag, so sometimes we see if we can break up the journeys with smaller intermediate towns along the way. Our next stop from Kuressaare is back to Riga (Hockey Championships are over…Sweden won) and Parnu is one of these interim places. Some of these stops turn out to be real gems, but sometimes, as in the case of Parnu, there’s really not that much to do or see. With my beautiful wife fighting a strong cold anyway, perhaps this is a bit of a blessing.

Without much to mention about our current location, this a good time to divulge that leaving the island of Saaremaa and Kuressaare and traveling south wasn’t our primary plan. Originally, we were going to head back to Tallinn and then on to St. Petersburg, but with the troublesome Russian visa issues being what they are, we are now going south and will wind up in Prague at the end of June where we’ll start our journey to Seoul, South Korea (via London). It’s unfortunate, as we would have really liked to see Russia, but fate will leave that for our next trip. Besides, we are now excited to see some of the sights along the way to Prague such as Krakow, Warsaw, Auschwitz and Plzen (birthplace of Pilsners and all their hoppy glory).

While sitting here though, I’ll interject and mention an interesting tidbit about Estonia: wi-fi is everywhere. The whole time we’ve been here, we haven’t been very far from a free hotspot. We’re not sure what the government’s role in the wi-fi program is, but there are official Estonia Wi-fi stickers on every business that’s a part of this network…and the stickers are placed in just about every place we’ve been. Not only has every hotel we’ve stayed in had connectivity, but just about every café and bar we’ve seen is set up as well. I haven’t seen anything comparable anywhere. These Estonians have embraced the technology and seem poised to take advantage of the foreseeable wireless future.

Shannon: One of the interesting things about being at this latitude (Tallinn is just a hair under the 60th parallel, making it the highest latitude that either Sean or I have been before) is the amount of daylight you experience. Reportedly, Tallinn receives about 19 hours of daylight during mid-summer, which seems freakishly long for two people who formerly lived at the 30th parallel (New Orleans). And since our hostels haven’t generally splurged on black-out curtains and plush window treatments, we’ve been greeting the dawn at ungodly hours (throwing a t-shirt over our eyes helps a bit) and staying up well into the nocturnal hours, lulled by a false sense of timing. I’ve always heard
The Rocket on WheelsThe Rocket on WheelsThe Rocket on Wheels

I kept wondering if the driver (that's him in front) is actually a professional getting in some practice in the off season. He probably makes 40 or so runs in a day...
about the long Alaskan summer days and St. Petersburg’s “White Nights”, but for some reason I didn’t associate Estonia with the same latitude. It’s a bit disorienting at first and is playing a bit of havoc with our sleep patterns. It won’t be until we reach the southern part of the Czech Republic in about a month that we will finally be “out of Canada” (below the 49th parallel), so we’ve got a lot of daylight hours ahead of us.


Sigulda, Latvia


May 27, 2006

Sean: We can check off “hurtling downhill on a bobsled” from our list of things to accomplish in a lifetime. We came to Sigulda two days ago for a bit of outdoor adventure. The town promised canoeing, hiking and yes, even summer bobsledding. How could we pass that up? So from Parnu, we zipped into Riga and then jumped on another bus for the short hour ride to Sigulda “The Switzerland of Latvia” (we’ve encountered so many of these superlatives - probably cooked up by some ad agency hired by the tourism board - that we just laugh when we see them). The canoeing turned out to be a bit of a
Bobsled Course from AboveBobsled Course from AboveBobsled Course from Above

The tourist bobsled enters the track on the right hand side (from the upper of the two buildings with a red roof) and exits the track about mid-way down the long straight stretch at the end. The entire track is 1,420 meters long (.88 miles) and the professional bobsleds finish in under one minute. That's fast, paw paw.
bust (uncooperative weather) but we managed to get our nature-on with numerous hikes in the surrounding woods in the beautiful national park surrounding the city. Complete with a cable car ride across a deep valley and castles situated on distant hills, this portion of Latvia is full of beauty.

The highpoint though was from the huge bobsledding and luge track that the Soviets built in the mid-eighties. It’s used for competition and training during the winter, but in the summer they have a sled fitted with tires for tourists to shoot downhill at speeds that force you to your seat when you hit the banked curves. We just had to experience this rare event for ourselves, so we paid the good man, put on sweaty motorcycle helmets, and hopped aboard. We started out fairly slowly but it didn’t take long until we had a decent head of steam and were banking high and hurtling through the curves at a break neck pace. The immense g’s were definitely something to feel and the whole trip was a great rush. When the pilot slammed on the breaks (forcing us into a skid and bouncing off the walls - that can’t be good for the sled) we were sad it had to end so quickly. The whole ride was only about a minute in length but was an absolute hoot. I really wanted to go again, but with a big group of drunk Englishmen on their stag party crowding the line, we didn’t want to wait that long.

Shannon: I’m going to have a whole new perspective the next time I watch a winter Olympics - bobsledding is my new armchair spectator sport! Though the “tourist” bobsled on wheels doesn’t go as fast as the real ones on ice, it was still a great time. They put 3 people in each car with a professional driver in the front doing the steering and it really is something to experience. I was sitting right behind the driver and had a pretty good view of the upcoming turns. You start out a little slow at the top, but after you go through the first few turns it really picks up speed and you’re flying. And man, did we bank high on the side walls in some of those turns! Instead of that roller-coaster-sick-to-my-stomach feeling that I was expecting, I found myself really enjoying
Cafe cultureCafe cultureCafe culture

Riga certainly had some nice outdoor cafes and when they're located within stumbling distance of our hostel (which is the red building in the center of the picture), how could we NOT spend our time there?
it. Like Sean, I was ready for another turn but we had a pretty big group in front of us. But if you’re ever in Latvia on a summer weekend, it’s well worth your time to check it out.


Riga, Latvia


May 28, 2006

Shannon: When we left Riga last time, as it was in the throes of the World Hockey Championship, it was with a somewhat tepid feeling for the city. Sure, it seemed nice enough, but the steeply marked-up room prices left me with a bad aftertaste. The noise-making drunk hockey fans didn’t help that impression, and the perception that Riga was more expensive than Lithuania (without any increase in value) sealed its fate: we were less than impressed. Sean and I really only came back because there were a few things we still wanted to see before skirting our way to greener pastures further south. With that said, now I’m glad that we did. While I am not going to profess my ardent love for the city, at least I will be leaving this time with much warmer feelings.

Arriving back in a city where we’ve already been is always easier: we know
Art NouveauArt NouveauArt Nouveau

Approximately 1/3 of Riga was built in this style.
where we’re going and how to get there, how to navigate the public transportation, and where to go to meet our basic needs (namely food and lodging). So our arrival back in Riga was off to a good start for those reasons, at least. Having taken a train from Sigulda, we arrived well before noon and thus had almost an entire day ahead of us. We chose the Janis Rozentals Museum as our afternoon destination, which entailed a very pleasant walk along the entire length of the canal that cuts through the middle of the city. The green space that surrounds this canal is absolutely beautiful and there are plenty of people about, walking, rollerblading or hiring out the paddleboats to cruise leisurely along the waterway. I mentally gave Riga a few more points for having such a wonderful pedestrian parkway.

After reaching the end of the canal, we found ourselves in a very pleasant part of town - full of embassies and some of the city’s best Art Nouveau architecture. We had seen some pretty nice examples of this building style in the Old Town (our hostel is actually in a very pretty building), but this neighborhood happens
A Bouquet of Dried FishA Bouquet of Dried FishA Bouquet of Dried Fish

Just one of the many products available at Riga's blimp hangar market.
to have what is considered to be some of the finest. Sean and I spent a while examining building facades and their details, and then headed for the museum, itself housed in one of the best examples. The Janis Rozentals & Rudolfs Blaumanis Museum is named for the famous Latvian painter and writer, respectively, who lived in the apartment that the museum now occupies. And though I don’t doubt that both of them were very fine artists at their respective crafts, I really only wanted to go to the museum to see the building interior. It didn’t disappoint. Basically taking up half of the top floor of the building (and including a spectacular loft studio), they had some premium digs.


May 29, 2006

Shannon: One of the things that was high on our list to see upon our return to Riga is their Occupation Museum. Before venturing there this morning, though, we decided to first visit their central market. Housed in restored Zeppelin hangers - not many of those still left in the world - it’s a pretty neat place to browse for a while. All of your shopping needs can be met by going from one
Swift JusticeSwift JusticeSwift Justice

Found outside City Hall.
hanger to the next, as they are filled with an endless array of cheeses, smoked salmon, cakes, meats, vegetables and breads all neatly segregated into different areas. There was even a pretty big section of vendors selling pickles and sauerkraut - you could smell it a mile off - both of which seem to be fairly popular foods. I liked the market mostly because it seemed to be a very local thing - sure, there were lots of tourists about, but it was mostly locals selling to other locals.

From there it was off to the Museum of Occupation, similar to the ones that we’ve seen in Estonia and Lithuania. All have told the story of the Soviet occupation in different ways and this was one of the better ones at giving a complete picture of everything that transpired in the years 1939-1991, when the Baltic States regained their independence. One of the things that I liked about this one was that it covered the Nazi occupation in some detail, where the others do not seem to focus on that issue at all. (My theory is that the Nazi occupation - lasting about 3 years - severely affected some
Fancy ScuppersFancy ScuppersFancy Scuppers

We see these everywhere in Eastern Europe. I wonder if these would work on a ranch house?
groups but not the entire population, as the Soviet one did. Also, since it was comparatively brief and Germany had many other things occupying their attention during that time, there may have been less devastation under the Nazis. Plus, the Soviet occupation ended only a scant 15 years ago, so any atrocities the Nazis committed are further from the collective memory).

The story of occupation in Latvia is essentially the same story for all the Baltic nations: Lithuania and Estonia unfortunately shared the same fate. On August 23, 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (at the same time that Stalin was openly negotiating with France and the United Kingdom for an alliance against Germany). This was a secret non-aggression pact that basically divided up the Baltic States and other parts of Eastern Europe into “spheres of influence” (marking their future territories, if you will). This allowed Germany to invade Poland just over week later (kicking off WWII), having guaranteed that the Soviets would not move to stop them. Quite the contrary, Stalin used this move to force each of the Baltic States to sign “defense and mutual assistance” pacts and to move the Red
Lock Up My HeartLock Up My HeartLock Up My Heart

Another interesting cultural phenomenon: couples engrave their names on locks and then secure them to prominent bridges in towns. We saw this in Lithuania and Latvia.
Army in to “protect” them against Nazi aggression. Unaware that Hitler and Stalin had already divvied up their countries without their consent, and with Stalin threatening invasion if they didn’t agree anyway, all three states agreed to have Soviet troops stationed in their respective countries.

In June 1940, with the rest of the world watching German tanks roll into Paris, Stalin led a full-scale invasion of the Baltics under the premise that they were colluding with each other against the Soviet Union, thereby voiding their earlier agreements (widely regarded as a sham allegation). After moving in thousands of troops, forcing government officials to resign and holding new “elections” (only Communist-candidates need apply), the new puppet governments then “appealed” to the Soviet Union for inclusion into the Soviet Socialist Republics. Not surprisingly, they were then accepted without hesitation.

Thus began the first Soviet occupation, characterized by murders and deportations while the countries were assimilated to life under Communist rule. It was no surprise, then, that the Baltic countries cheered when Nazi Germany set their sights on invading the Soviet Union and marched onto Baltic soil a year later. The confetti was still floating in the air, though, when Hitler
Cat HouseCat HouseCat House

Named for the black cats that perch on the top of its towers. Legend says that 100 years ago the man who owned the house was excluded from the powerful merchants guild (located across the street). He had the cats turned around, backside facing them, to show his disdain for his enemies. The cats were eventually turned back around after he was finally admitted to the guild.
decided to do his own house-cleaning. More murder and deportations ensued as the Nazi government sought to suppress dissention. And if you were unlucky enough to be Jewish, life became harder still, as the Nazi propaganda machine worked hard to turn the tide of popular opinion against them. In some cases, Nazi troops dug up the graves of those murdered by the Soviets and accused Jews of collusion in those deaths. Hitler eventually established death camps throughout the region and killed almost 400,000 Jewish people in the Baltics alone (it is estimated that fewer than 1,000 Latvian Jews lived through the occupation). But by 1944, with Stalin now on board with the Allies, and the Germans in full retreat, the tide turned once again and all three countries found themselves besieged from their eastern neighbor a second time. But this time it was even worse, as Stalin accused many of conspiring with the Nazis against him. Between the two oppressors - Germany and the Soviet Union - more than 550,000 people were either murdered, killed in battle, deported, disappeared, fled the country or sent to the gulag in Latvia alone - that’s more than 1/3 of the pre-war population! Relief
Heads, Heads, Heads...TailsHeads, Heads, Heads...TailsHeads, Heads, Heads...Tails

Sean, Vlad, Vlad, Vlad and Vlad again. Amazing how mass produced these civic works of art were.
would only come more than 45 years later with the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Sean: Riga’s museum covering the inglorious era of occupation was very well done. They told a complete picture and covered many aspects of how backwards the Sovietization really was in practice. For example, the centralized powers-that-be decided to remove successful farmers (confiscating their machinery, as well), cut up their parcels and allow less experienced people to work the land - wondering the entire time what happened to the productivity.

Of course there were the countless tales of family members who were never heard from again and the “democratic” elections where the Communist party won with a staggering 96%!o(MISSING)f voter support. Talk about a landslide!

Another aspect of this excellent museum that bears mentioning is that it’s completely free. Not that any museum we’ve entered has ever been onerously expensive, but I feel it shows the importance the country places on the dissemination of this knowledge. The adage about those forgetting history being doomed to repeat it applies here.


Druskininkai, Lithuania


June 2, 2006

Sean: From Riga, our next stop was to Druskininkai at the extreme southern edge
Friends, Romans, CountrymenFriends, Romans, CountrymenFriends, Romans, Countrymen

The thumb was a casualty of the move.
of Lithuania, just a few miles north of the Belorussian border. We couldn’t get a direct bus of course and had to layover for a night in Kaunas (where we began this Baltic trip) and then caught a morning minibus south for the rest of the way to this small town.

The majority of Lithuanians (Poles and Germans, too) come here because of the renowned mud baths of this spa town, but our journey was to spend a bit more time with the iconic figures of Lenin, Stalin, Marx and Engels at Gruto Parkas a.k.a. STALIN WORLD!

When Lithuania seized its independence in 1991, they were left (as was every other Soviet satellite) with a plethora of statues honoring someone else’s dead heroes. In fact, in contemporary Lithuanian ideology, some of those people really were the antithesis of a national, celebrated icon. So what is a small country to do with all these relics of their former oppressor? As I mentioned when we were in Estonia, these are touchy matters. But here, a wealthy businessman, Viliumas Malinauskas (known as the Mushroom King of Lithuania for the crop that launched his empire) bought many from an all-too-willing government and
Papa JoePapa JoePapa Joe

Looking a bit unsteady on his feet now that, well, he's dead.
placed them on his land, forming an amusement park (many were not amused). But after five years in operation, it’s been quite a hit. We went there today and the place was mobbed by tons of people and numerous preteen school groups who seemed unsurprisingly disinterested at the fierce history on display.

As a former disinterested preteen myself, I don’t blame their apathy, but Shannon and I were fascinated as the chronicle of Soviet Communism was enacted before us in stone and iron, with all the regular Bolshevik players - there were even a few honored Red Lithuanians thrown in for good measure. Not unexpectedly, when the Soviets fled from these parts after the Nazis came through, they left a few patriots scattered about and the ones that weren’t “disappeared” by the occupying Germans, were later hailed as patriots by the reentering Red Army. Unfortunately, for a lot of these distinguished local commies, they were honored posthumously by much later Soviet governments because Stalin had many of them purged, presumably because he thought they might be a future threat to his power. As a side note: I’m definitely going to look at those old photos of Churchill, Roosevelt and
Communists like animals tooCommunists like animals tooCommunists like animals too

Gruto Parkas - come for the commies, stay for the zoo. Fun for the whole family.
Stalin in a different light since being here in this region. I wonder what the other two knew of their Red counterpart and his brutality (I’m sure they knew everything), but knowing what I know now, I would’ve had to have thoroughly washed after shaking hands with “Papa Joe”.

While the park isn’t awash in verbose analysis and historical perspective of the times, it does display these huge monsters of oppression (literally), gives some perspective, and describes where they once stood in Lithuania. There’s the colossal Lenin with his hand outstretched (the thumb broke off in transport) that stood across the street from the Vilnius KGB headquarters, the cast in granite visage of Marx reminding everyone of just how important this German’s ideals were and, lest we forget him, the stately figure of a bronze Joseph Stalin, in full military dress, the protagonist overlord of many peoples’ nightmares.

Also scattered throughout the park are little museums with tons of paraphernalia depicting what life was like here during the era. There are certificates for the “Best Combine Operator of 1963” and “1971’s Best Milkmaid” both donated by the truly esteemed recipients. Plenty of medals, oil paintings, busts, and miscellaneous artifacts were displayed that reminded the Lithuanians daily of just how lucky they were to be a part of this grand empire.

For an added affect, the entire park is ringed in barbed wire fencing interspersed with watchtowers manned by cardboard cutouts of menacing looking Russians and also fitted with speakers blaring Soviet songs (so they tell me) - all designed to get you in the mood.

Then there was the gift shop. Plenty of Soviet themed items for sale, from “CCCP” t-shirts to mugs with pro-collectivization slogans to (of course) vodka glasses proclaiming that you too can drink like a Soviet. And lest we forget what all the hoopla was about, you can even buy reproduced Communist Manifesto’s to start your own regime. Tacky, but we love it.

After leaving Stalin World, we rode our rented bicycles out to another sculpture park - admittedly more benign in its subject matter. The last time we were in Lithuania (in the coastal town of Klaipeda, to be exact) we took a ferry over to the Curonian spit and went to a wooden sculpture park depicting all sorts of devils and mythological figures from Lithuanian folklore. One of the
Homemade windmillHomemade windmillHomemade windmill

Inside the windmill is a gallery displaying some of his smaller works. Note the airplane wing blades. Very cool.
sculptors whose work is exhibited there lives near Druskininkai and, on his land, showcases his own work. Carving in wood, as we’ve seen so far in Lithuania, seems to be something of a national pastime with statues and other mythical and/or religious figures adorning every other kilometer of road. This particular, highly prolific sculptor (one Anton Ciolionis) has set up his own tourist attraction by scattering many of his artful works throughout his yard. My favorite was the life-size St. Christopher he placed, fording one of the streams on his land. As travelers, we always give a little thanks to this saint whenever we successfully complete a journey.


Additional photos below
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Man can this guy whittle a little wood...Man can this guy whittle a little wood...
Man can this guy whittle a little wood...

It's hard to see, but there is a building in the background for scale - this sculpture is HUGE!
Orthodox ChurchOrthodox Church
Orthodox Church

Very common in the Baltics.
The HeroesThe Heroes
The Heroes

Shannon's mom took this picture when we were on the beach in Klaipeda (see last blog) and we promised her we'd put it in.


11th July 2007

Sick First Picture
See above!

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