Riga

28/10/13 - 31/10/13 

Riga - Latvia

Our last stop before going back to Tallinn our last month, we were really a bit lazy in Riga. The weather also did not help either as we were met with cold and rainy weather when we arrived by bus from Vilnius.

We checked into our hostel, which was VERY quiet because it was off season and mid week. It was kind of nice because we had a room to ourselves and could get a peaceful sleep and some RnR. That night, we went out to an underground Latvian club called Ala, as recommended by our friends Rein and Leah. Of course we started our meal off with some delicious fried black bread with garlic, the standard beer snack in the Baltics. We then had some old school medieval dishes like grey pea stew and washed it down with some local beers. We then decided to check out some of the mid week night life in Riga, which involved going to several bars owned by a kiwi guy, of course!

The next day, after a sleep in, we pottered around Old Town and surrounding areas, looking for a place for breakfast/lunch. We ended up stopping for lunch and cake at a cute little café near the town hall square. On our travels we were stopped by an older, slightly still-drunk-from-the-night-before Danish man who just wanted to chat. He told us some history of Riga and went on about how much he loves Princess Mary. Interesting guy but we politely declined his invitation to go for coffee from fear of being stuck with him all day.

Brunch

with sweets of course

The next day our friend Liz from Estonia came to meet to show us around as she lived in Riga for some time this year. We had a great time just relaxing and walking around and it made us even more excited to get back to Tallinn. We made some homemade hearings for dinner and then ventured back down to Ala again later that night for a beer and some late night beer snacks; fried black bread and potatoes, cheese, ham and these tasty fried beans. I also tried some Riga Balsam, the national liquor. I didn’t really like it, to me it tasted a bit like blackcurrant cough lollies. They were also having a traditional folk dancing night, with traditional music and the locals dancing up a storm and getting all sweaty. After we had stuffed ourselves and all felt sick, we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep before our bus back to Tallinn in the morning.  

sunset from the hostel

ultimate beer snacks

- Leah

Vilnius

25/10/13 - 27/10/13

Vilnius - Lithuania 

After a 9 hour bus ride on a comfortable Simple Express bus complete with personal multimedia screens and WIFI, we arrived in the Baltics for the last leg of our journey. We stayed in a homely- like hostel where we were treated to free waffles for breakfast every morning. We went out for a traditional Lithuanian meal that night. We started with some beer snacks, which included some delicious fried black bread with lots of garlic, local cheese, bacon and smoked pigs ears (we were not too keen on those). We then had the local dish of potato dumplings filled with meat drizzled with a sour cream and crackling sauce. It tasted good but left us feeling stuffed and unhealthy for the next 2 days.  That night we went out to a few bars with the people from our hostel.

sliced pigs ear anyone?

The next day, Arvi was a bit worse for wear and wanted a bed day so I ventured out for a walk around Old Town. I walked up the hill to the Castle, one of Vilnius’s main attractions. From the top you can enjoy a beautiful view of old town and the rest of the city.  After a long afternoon nap we headed out at around 12am for some food and a look around.

On our last full day we spent the day sight seeing. We visited the castle again, walked through the beautiful parks and visited Užupis, a district of Vilnius which became an independent republic in 1997. As well as being an UNESCO heritage site it also has its own constitution that is printed in many different languages. Some of the articles are quite strange such as ‘A dog has the right to be a dog’ and ‘Everyone has the right to love and take care of a cat’.

Constitution of Užupis

We spent our last night in Vilnius eating sushi and watching foreign films with some people in the hostel.  Next stop, Riga

- Leah

War- saw

22/10/13- 25/10/13

Poland
Warsaw 

For a town that was almost completely flattened during WW2, Warsaw is a large cosmopolitan city complete with fancy high-rises, huge shopping complexes, a grand old town and beautiful parks. It is hard to believe that this city was all rubble and ruins less than 65 years ago. It is quite strange to walk through the ‘old’ town, a UNESCO heritage site, knowing that it was actually completely rebuilt in the 50’s.

Warsaw just after WWII

Modern buildings and skyscrapers 

 During our free Walking tour we learnt a lot about Warsaw’s past and the spirit of it’s people.  After the heavy bombing in WW2 many remaining Warsaw-ians returned to the destroyed city and were literally living in the ruins fighting for their freedom. The city’s national pride is still alive in Warsaw today, with many children still being taught that the best thing they can do for their country is to fight and die for it. We also leant of some famous people who had a love for Warsaw. During a visit to the capital, Picasso painted the mermaid in battle (Warsaw’s symbol) on a wall of an apartment where he was staying in old town. During soviet times, the family who were placed in the apartment complained about receiving 100’s of visitors a day to see a Picasso artwork so the Soviet officers painted over it! We also visited a bar and learnt how to drink polish vodka, no hangovers! ; cold, shot straight, never sipped and always with food.

The Palace

not so 'old' old town

Mermaid statue

Part of the old fort walls

After the walking tour and a picnic lunch of herring, we went for a long walk in the many parks dissecting the city. We felt that it was well and truly autumn, with golden leaves covering the ground. We walked all the way to the statue of Chopin, who was born in Poland.

Autumn is here!

Statue of Chopin

The second day was rainy and cold so we decided to visit the Uprising Museum. During WW2, some of the people of Warsaw banded together in the rubble of their destroyed city to fight for freedom. They made use of everything they could find, from broken guns discarded by the Germans to home made explosives. The museum was full of interesting things from this time, including a impressive donated firearms collection. It was moving to see that although they were outnumbered by the German’s and had limited resources they still fought for the city. 

Some of the museum's firearms collection 

Now off to the Baltics :)

- Leah

Kraków

18/10/13- 22/10/13

We were a bit unsure about how we would get to Krakow from Ždiar with busses to our stop over town Zakopane in the south of Poland having been cancelled the week before. We caught a bus to the boarder town and into Poland we went. All we had to do was walk across a bridge with a little Poland sign to the awaiting mini bus on the other side. Piece of cake.
We had a couple of hours to kill in Zakopane so we walked around the old town, which turned out to be quite a fancy alpine ski village. We ate some traditional Polish food and had cherry vodka tea and hot wine in big, log cabin style cafés. 

Beautiful Zakopane

An alpine town. 

A short 3-hour comfortable Polski bus ride later we were in Krakow. We stayed in a very new hostel that offered free dinner every night and had a pub downstairs.

The first night was cool because by chance we ran into a friend football friend from Wollongong who was also traveling. So we hung out together along with some other hostel guests and another Australian that we found out had Estonian heritage.

Old city wall

During our time in Krakow we enjoyed trying some Polish food in cafes, walking around old town and foraging through the flea markets in the Jewish quarter. We choose to abort the free walking tour early (about half the group had the same idea) because we were on the verge of being bored to death! Instead, we walked around the autumn coloured parks surrounding old town and visited the castle and fortress ourselves. We also sampled some of Krakow’s nightlife, visiting some cool hipster- like bars and finishing our night like the Polish do, with a freshly made Zapiekanka. This was like a halved baguette topped with a topping and sauce of your choice, delicious! 

pretty parks

cute cafes

Polish fast food

old town

old town

building inside the fortress

One of our most interesting and eye opening days in Krakow is when we took a tour to two of the Auschwitz Concentration Camps. Auschwitz was one of the handful of camps labeled ‘extermination camps’ which were built with the aim of killing people on a large scale, primarily people with Jewish heritage. Even though the Nazis destroyed many buildings in both camps when they realized they were losing the war, there is still plenty of evidence of the horrific events that took place here. One of the most moving things we saw on our tour was a room of different possessions of the people who were sent to the gas chambers, including almost 2 tones of human hair. These items were sent back to Germany to be resold if they were in good enough condition and hair was made into ladies hairnets. A very shocking but eye-opening experience. 

fences at Auschwitz 

some of the shocking statistics

 deceased people's possessions were sorted an sometimes resold.

shoes that were not good enough to resell. 

                                   

one of the trains which bought in prisoners 

some destroyed barracks where only the chimneys remain

remaining barracks where the prisoners lived

The railway to bring in prisoners. The trains went right inside the complex for more 'efficiency'. 

We enjoyed the city of Krakow and our introduction to Poland. Next on to the country’s capital, Warsaw.

- Arvi