Me and Jimmy took a very short, one week trip to the Baltic States in July. We basically visited the major/capitol cities of each of the three countries. We visited Riga in Lativia first, then Vilnius in Lithuania, and finally (and the best) Tallinn in Estonia.

I have been so busy at work that I have not even been able to get the pictures up on my website yet. Now it's almost the end of August. I have a free moment though, and thought I would try and write a short blog of the trip before it's gone from my brain forever. One of the big reason for these entries, since I don't keep a diary (anymore) is so I can remind myself of what has happened to me in my life... pretty bad when your memory is that bad... oh well, I know it's been fun!, I just need to remind myself every now and then what happened... :)

Any ways, so we started the trip in Riga. One thing that surprised me a little about all three cities is that they are a little more under-developed that I thought they would be. I guess I figured 10 years of liberation would have kick started the economies quite a bit. The only thing I had to base that on was my impressions of Warsaw, Prague, and Budapest, all of which seemed to be much more affluent than the Baltics. There was many more abandoned and run-down buildings than I thought there would be. It was still quite nice, don't get me wrong, and the centers and old towns were very nice in all cities.

Riga's old town was surronded by the river on one side and a park with a small creek wandering around the other side of it. If was very nice, and had lots of little resaurants, squares, and old restored buildings. The thing I think I liked the most about Riga was just sitting and relaxing with a beer or snack in the main/busiest square. About half a dozen different restaurants had beer gardens setup during the day (and night) where you could just sit and relax and watch the people wander by. It was nothing like Munich's beer gardens, but still it was relaxing in a different way.

The thing I didn't like the most was the ever persistant call of; "sweet ladies". This is an expression we would hear over and over again anytime we walked through the old town. The call comes from the toutes trying to get you to come into their sex clubs. Apparently these have become very popular in Riga because long ago, before the cold war, the English started visiting the city and visiting the cheap, attractive women also became popular. Modern times seems to have carried it over, as we saw more than a few big groups of English lads, probably in town for stag parties. It kinda tainted the city (both the toutes and the English), but not enough to take away from all the other great sights.

The most interesting museum that we visited was the "Museum of the Occupation". We actually visited a similar museum in Vilnius as well, and it seems all three countries refer to the years when they were first occupied by the Russians, then by the Germans (during WWII) and then again by the Russians, as the "occupation". What I found the most interesting was just how much they really really hate the Russians. It was interesting to read information printed in the museum, and although it did not come right out and say it, basically the meaning or jist of many things was always that the Nazis were better than the Russians. For example they would compare statistics about the Nazis killed this many Latvians compared to the terrible Russians who killed three times that many, etc. I was quite interesting to read all about their history and their perspective on those terrible times.

Vilnius was the city of a million churches. There was literally a church on almost ever single street corner. It was quite amazing. At first it was fun, but after a while it became almost overwhelming. I think by the time we left, we didn't want to see another church for a long time.

In Vilius, jimmy wanted to visit another occupation museum, and this one had pretty much the same information as the previous one. The interesting thing about this one was that it was housed in a the former KGB building. After the museum tour you could go downstairs and view where they kept, tortured and even killed the "political dissidents". I knew Jimmy was a big war monger before this trip (he loves tanks, fighter planes, and all big war machines), but I didn't realize he was also so interested in the death side of war. We went to this occupation museum, as it had the KGB cells, and he was also keen on visiting the areas where the Nazis executed the Jews. I think Tallinn also had a similar occupation museum, but luckily since the first two were very similar we skipped on that one.

Vilnius did not have the concentrated old town that Riga had. Instead the whole area was much more "real" or lived-in, and a lot less touristy I guess you could say. We saw many more people living in the buildings next to the resaurants, or simply going about day-to-day life, than we did in the old town of Riga. Of course I thought Riga's old town was much prettier though. I guess you always have to substitute pretty vs. touristy, because the tourist are always going to be more dense the prettier the place.

Oh, speaking of tourists, one very strange thing, at least for me and Jimmy, was the lack of asian tourists. We noticed this in all three cities, but especially in Riga and Vilnius. I didn't know that there was still anywhere on earth that you could go and not have an asian snapping a photo. It was kinda strange, and I think a little wierd for Jimmy, who got a few stares. It was nothing like Morocco though, where they were just extreamly rude. Here it was more like they were just curious. I think the one time that Jimmy said it effected him was when a little kid of 6,7,8 years old (I don't know kids ages), any ways, the little kid was playing in the street, and then all of a sudden caught sight of Jimmy and stopped dead in the middle of the street and just stared at him. I think Tallinn was much better though, as it's probably the most touristy of all three cities.

And, of course since I just said Tallinn is the most touristy, I think it was also the most beautiful of the three cities. The nicest feature of the city were the largely intact medieval walls, that surronded the old town. They were very picturesque, with red topped roofs and largely, I think 80% intact. Combined with a castle and hugely ornate russian church on a hill (surronded by the walls), it's was quite a striking city.

I think because of the intact medieval city walls, the whole old town has adapted a kind of medieval "theme". One of the best meals I think I had on the whole trip was wild boar in a "medieval" restaurant. We also drank honey mead from huge clay gobblets. And there were ministrals and bar wenches, all dressed up in the appropriate costumes. It was, as you can tell from the description, touristy. But surprisingly enough, it did not seem overlly touristy at all. It was actually quite fun, the building had a great atmoshphere, wonderful old wood timbers, gas lamps, everything, and the meal was amazing. The mead was kinda gross though.

Unfortunately the level of tourism in Tallinn also meant that the main square was past of the point of being pleasant, and was just touristy. We did not spend much time there, ate lunch once I think, even though there was live local music. There were many other little places that were interesting and cool though. The streets were the typical wandering cobblestone streets of europe and I really liked the old town quite a bit. Still 2-3 days were more than enough to explore everything.

We ended up the trip with a couple of days in London. We arrived on Friday and Jimmy stayed 4 days, but I had to leave on Sunday to get back to work... even though when I got back basically nothing had happened in a week and half. Oh well. I'm basically an overpaid babysitter a lot of the time. Any ways, we were able to get together with the whole gang of ex-Canadian Londoners. We had a wonderful dinner at Scott & Vil's new apartment on Friday night, and then met up with Dr. Ian and Ashok at a new club called Barcode. And of course Barcode is just accross the street from Fire, so we ended the night there.

It was not an overlly abusive night though, so me and Jimmy were up the next day and walked from Kings Cross down to Oxford street so we could do some shopping. I didn't get what I wanted, but I think Jimmy picked something up. Then we briefly saw some of Hyde Park and Speakers Corner, which was deserted because of prior rain. After that it was back to change for early dinner.

We met up with Phil, Lee, Ashok, Scott, and Vil at what we thought was a fancy restaurant. But somehow we ended up being the only table of men there. The rest of the restaurant was made up of hundreds of women out for Hen Parties... fun... if you know the UK you can imagine the scene... if you don't, there is no way I can describe it. Oh well, the consensus was that the food was actually pretty good, and we vacated as quickly as possible to the Edge for a few cocktails. For some reason I think I end up in the Edge almost every time I am in London, even though it's not anything special. Must be the location.

Then we were all going to go to G.A.Y. (club) as it was a special night of Swedish pop bands. You can imagine how excited Phil and Lee were for that. Unfortunatly, I had unknowlingly had some "party leftovers" stashed in the little pocket of my jeans. I guess it must have been in there for about a month (since I was last in Vancouver), and even survived a tumble through the wash. Any ways, it was found and I was kindly notified that I would not be let in that night. Jeez, if I could count the number of bars/clubs that I have been "asked to leave"... I need to start a list.

Any ways, that sucked because Lee was meeting friends inside, so him and Phil went in, but it was kinda OK because Scott really really did not want to go. I think Scott really hates G.A.Y. but doesn't like to admit it. So any ways, the rest of us then headed just down the street to the new G.A.Y. "Late". Seems like there is a G.A.Y. of some sort or another on every corner in London these days. None of us had been to this one yet, so we wanted to try it out. It's basically somewhere between the other two G.A.Y. bar/club. It's bigger than G.A.Y. Bar, but a lot smaller (obviously) than G.A.Y. Club. It had a dancefloor, and the same G.A.Y. young crowd, but it also had the same pop music that we all became sick of after about an hour, and called it a night. I had to fly out the next morning and was painfully aware of the side-effects of too much to drink the night before a plane ride at my age.

So that was the short week (and a half) vacation. That was the first vacation I think I have ever taken in the middle of a contract. Me and Jimmy had planned it before my current contact in San Antonio. I don't think I will plan another one in the middle of a contract though. Having to cut it so short was kind of annoying.