Latvia: Riga

Just a short bus ride south of Tallinn is Latvia and it's capital Riga. It is very quaint, a great walking city. The architecture is very eclectic. We made our way through the city and past some quirky looking places, such as "The House of the Blackheads" below.

This little row of houses was my favourite - especially the yellow place with purple flowers, such a great colour combination!

We weren't sure what this tower was exactly, but we definitely have a thing for buildings covered in vines around Europe. There's something a little bit magical about them.

Later it started to rain, so we decided to pass the time in a local pub with a pet bunny!!! There was a rowdy bunch of Irish that I kid you not, had about 8-10 shots in the space of an hour. I felt like throwing up on their behalf. 

We crossed the bridge and went for a walk through a park that had been decorated with installation art. You follow a path that eventually takes you along the river and to the outer part of the city. 

Latvian orthodox??

It was nice to explore some of the very medieval parts of Europe and its culture. Would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

- Kate

Finland: Helsinki

Just a 1.5 hour ferry trip away from Tallinn is Helsinki, Finland. There are dozens of crossings every day amongst several ferry companies, and ours seemed to be full of Finns who had come across to Estonia to take advantage of the cheap alcohol. The guy behind us was taking 5 cartons of beer back with him.

Once we arrived we hopped on another ferry for the short trip to Suomenlinna Island, which has an old fortress which protected Helsinki harbour. It was very peaceful walking through the old rock fortifications built into the hills.

We found a cafe hidden within a boat yard and tried a reindeer sandwich and some sort of warm bready thing with rice and meat inside. The reindeer sandwich was a tad strong tasting for my liking, but not too bad. It definitely needed mustard.

Kate made friends with a little bird who was eating bits of bread off her leg.

There were millions of little yellow flowers on the dunes, along with cannons pointing out to sea. The icy wind was starting to pick up which thinned out the tourists a little.

Everyone was doing it....

As we took the ferry back to the city the weather started to turn a bit grim. Compared to Tallinn, Helsinki seems a much more modern city with newer buildings and wide streets.

We didn't venture too far because we weren't really dressed for the cold and one of us was complaining a bit. So back to the warmth of the ferry and back to Tallinn.

- Joe

Estonia: Tallinn

Our trip to Tallinn involved a flight via Vilnius in the smallest plane we've ever been in. As the bus at Munich airport pulled up next to a plain white unmarked plane at some far flung part of the airport, I got the impression that the Munich-Vilnius route doesn't have a particularly high priority. Our pilot (who looked like a gangly 15 year old in his dad's suit) announced that the load sheet was wrong so there would be a delay while they sorted it out. For the second leg from Vilnius to Tallinn we were upgraded to the pride of the Air Lituanica fleet (which consists of 2 planes) which was somewhat larger but ironically only had about 20 passengers. Anyway the flights went fairly smoothly and we made it to Estonia in one piece.

Near the harbour is a disused theater hall built in the Soviet Union days for the 1980 Olympics as the sailing events were held here. It is made entirely of concrete and doubled as a bomb shelter in case Finland ever launched an attack. It is rapidly deteriorating and will probably need to be fenced off soon.

Back in the centre of town, the medieval quarter is still surrounded by the original stone wall which is one of the best preserved in Europe.

We saw a sign advertising "Elk Soup" and thought we'd better give it a go, so we headed into this dark medieval looking kitchen and ordered the Elk soup, pastie, a jug of beer and fished some pickles out of the pickle barrel. The food was brilliant, the beer ridiculously strong, and the ambiance was perfect including the suitably surly serving wenches.

We went to "Estonia's oldest pub" for dinner and watched the world cup with a bunch of disappointed Italians.

Tallinn has one of the best old town centres we have seen, combined with good food, nice people, and a quick ferry to Helsinki, it's a really nice place for long weekend.

- Joe

Dresden

On our way home we stopped in at Dresden for the afternoon. Before it was fire bombed during the war, Dresden was considered one of the most beautiful European cities.

The city has been partially restored with some very grand looking buildings. We walked through the city and over the river before taking refuge in the shade for a little while. Again, the 40 degree days here slow you down a bit! 

In this heat our priority was finding shade and beer. The local Augustiner was in a nice spot overlooking the square.

Oh yeah, and it doesn't get dark until about 9 or 9.30 here at the moment. And honestly, 5pm sun is just as hot as midday sun.

On the way back we saw a building being renovated that had a communist themed mosaic underneath from when this was East Germany. It was enormous.

Here, I've stolen this photo so you can see it.

- Kate

Poland: Wroclaw

Our final stop in Poland is in the western city of Wroclaw. The train journey from Krakow was about 5 hours which turned out to be fairly horrendous as the air-con broke about an hour in and the temperature outside was 40 degrees! We arrived dripping with sweat and found our hotel which was mercifully air-conditioned.

Wroclaw is the least touristy of the places we visited in Poland, but certainly isn't lacking in charm. It was part of Germany before the war but was returned to Poland in 1945. The town hall is the focal point of the old town and is surrounded by markets and cafes.

There was a bride in the square having some photos done in front of a fountain which was handy for a few nice shots.

Heading down to the river as the sun set it started to cool down. There was a band in the park butchering various 80's rock classics which we managed to avoid. There are a number of churches on small islands in the river which we had a wander around.

We headed for a traditional restaurant where most of the Polish things on the menu were unavailable for some reason, but we still managed to order way too much food. The pierogi were really awesome along with the curried sauer kraut that came with them.

I think we over-ordered...

Is that Indiana Jones on my beer?

We had to get rid of our Polish money at the train station so we picked this lot up from the vending machine for the equivalent of about €4.

Poland was excellent and really surprised us with its rich history, great food, and diverse architecture. It's definitely worth a look if you are in the area, try to get in before it's completely over-run by tourists.

- Joe