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Published: August 3rd 2013
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Our GPS has been of great help guiding us around Latvia, Estonia and now Lithuania but it needs to be used with discretion, as one morning it took us down a cart track which ended in a very rickety and narrow pedestrian suspension bridge. It also tends to send us in circles when trying to get us to a tourist information centre that can only be accessed on foot. And several of the centres we have tried to reach can only be accessed by foot or via complicated one-way systems which, when you want help finding somewhere to stay for the night and only have ten minutes to reach the information centre before it closes, can be frustrating.
We've also noticed, when asking for a room for the night that as soon as we ask whether they can give us a better rate, we are told that it's the last available room in the hotel. We've been told this at the last three places we've stayed. Also, if the elevator is out of order, the 'last room' is inevitably on the fourth floor.
Tourist information uses mostly superlatives as in the
most powerful castle of the Livonian order, the GPS dilemma
Back to the paper maps! best preserved medieval castle, or the most romantic castle ruins
in the town/country/Baltic States/E.U. or the biggest potholes you've ever seen in your life - okay that last one wasn't in the guidebook but it applies to Latvia and Lithuania. And did I mention that there are a lot of castles? Quite a few palaces too, which vary in condition from disintegrating to being restored to something like their original grandeur and operated as a museum.
These castles or palaces can be hard to find without knowing the language though. There are lots of signs but they rarely include a picture so if we don't happen to know that juga is the word for falls, then we don't know which sign is pointing to the highest falls in Latvia. This does make finding the most restored castle in the Baltics or the newest museum in Estonia a challenge although, so far, we have always managed to find what we are looking for eventually. It would help if guidebooks included phrases such as
where is the widest waterfall in Europe as well as the usual
where is the toilet or how much, or no thank you. In hindsight, of course,
Ventra falla
Widest waterfall in Latvia in Kuldiga I should be picking up information in both English and Latvian/ Estonain/Lithuanian so I can match up the English names of what we want to see with the local language.
These countries are very flat so ideal for cyclists. In Estonia we were told the highest point in the county is 58 metres (or was it 38m). The people are very fond of root vegetables, or maybe they just have a short growing season.
Roasted vegetables on the menu are likely to be carrots and turnips. Not surprisingly, many of the rural homes in Latvia and Estonia have large and sometimes very fancy root cellars in their gardens (think of the hobbit houses in the Lord of the Rings movies) Pickled cucumbers and lettuce were our vegetables one evening. Keith says he's developing a craving for frozen green peas (or green beans or green broccoli or green asparagus). This doesn't mean that we haven't had some excellent meals, however, and ordering dinner is a bit of an adventure because we are never sure what we are going to be served.
Our 2007 (okay, it took us a while to actually get here) lonely planet Eastern Europe guide is
Sundial
Atop the 52m sand dune on the Curonian spit, Lithuania quite correct about small towns not having cash machines. For two days in Lithuania this wasn't a problem as everyone accepted Visa --- until we tried to get into the Kervane Archaeological and Historical Museum. Despite being new, the ticket seller wouldn't take Visa. Keith then tried to negotiate with Euros or American dollars or Lats but she wouldn't accept for those either. Back outside the museum Keith found a tourist who spoke very little German and although Keith also speaks very little German he managed to trade 4 Euros for 7 Lithuanian Litas (not to be confused with Latvian Lats - the euro does make things easier!). I have a feeling the tourist got a good deal but hey, it's all about supply and demand. I had not witnessed the exchange so we returned to the museum with Keith thinking he needed 6 Lits to get in, rather than 12 Lits for both of us. At this point, the ticket lady actually smiled - an unusual event in the Baltics - and let us in.
The museum was one of the best of the many we've been in this trip. It told the history of the peoples from
Curonian Spit
Sand dunes for miles the original hunters who followed the reindeer as the glaciers retreated after the ice age, explaining why the Estonians were of different origins from the Latvians and Lithuanians, and showed artifacts from the nearby excavated hillforts that we walked round afterwards, as well as videos on how the people made the things they needed for everyday life, such as their tools, clothing, weapons and pots.
At dinner that night, Keith said he felt very cosmopolitan wearing a jacket made in New York, a linen shirt from St. Barts, linen trousers he bought in Luxor, Egypt and shoes from Mountain Equipment Co op in Calgary (being indoors he wasn't wearing his Parisian hat). Unlike the ticket seller in the museum, our waiter had no qualms telling us that a tip was not included in the bill and, yes, he would accept Euros.
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