We knew we were going to skip Central Europe while planning this trip for a few reasons. One being we had seen a lot of it between the two of us and another being cost. It turns out there are some European countries and cities that haven't quite been discovered by the tourist masses and we were lucky enough to stumble upon some if those.
I'm not sure who suggested it, but we decided to explore the Baltic States while in Europe. We had a week between flying into and out of Riga, Latvia. I tried to fit them all in, but we had to skip Lithuania in the end and just spent our time between Latvia and Estonia.
These were really interesting places. It feels slightly Germanic and Northern European, but at the same time there is definitely a connection to Russia as well.
We started in Riga and stayed right in the center of Old Town; as in our hotel stepped right out to St. Peter's Cathedral. We have never stayed in such a central location, it was great.
We spent our time walking around Old Town and eating. There was a mall with H&M and a great grocery store, so we were both happy. We also found an amazing restaurant called the Folkklub. I mean, the name alone is amazing. It's set up in a basement and is brick and dark with candles. There's a stage for concerts, and when there isn't a concert, the most amazing folk music is playing in the background. It sounds almost Celtic, but I guess it's Latvian. We tried a lot of the dishes, which were so cheap, and drank the cranberry beer, hemp-ginger beer and sea buckthorn wine. Matt was so excited to find sea buckthorn here. The only other place we've encountered it, is Nepal! We ended up having it on our meat dish later in Estonia and finding sea buckthorn ice cream as well.
But, back to Riga. We also found a cafe called Black Magic and it looked very medieval, which was fun. They had a delicious hot chocolate that we enjoyed.
From Riga, we went further north to Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn felt a little less updated than Riga, but it was still beautiful. The Old Town was really fun to wander. There was a fortified wall and Orthodox Cathedral on the hilltop and narrow streets below. We found another delicious restaurant before walking through town. We went to St. Olaf's Church and walked all the way up the spiral staircase to the top where we could walk on the roof and look out to the city. It was impressive and slightly frightening.
The next day, we went out to the open air ethnographic museum. We just love seeing those old houses. This one was well done with some nice exhibits set up in most of the buildings. They also had a special exhibit of the circle of life and the importance of these milestones in Latvian culture. I enjoyed the displays showing birth, confirmation, marriage and death. It revealed more about the daily life and beliefs of the people. There were quite a few traditions and superstitions surrounding these life events. There was also a display about modernization of farm homes with lifestyle magazines dictating what homes should have in order to leave behind the peasant identity. It was really interesting. The textiles of Latvia were really beautiful. We even found a room covered in pieces, some had price tags and some didn't. Matt and I liked one without a price tag and he said we should ask how much. Unfortunately, it wasn't for sale. Alas, no Baltic textiles for us.
There was a giant swing, so we played.
At the end, we went to the restaurant for a traditional meal. Matt had a soup and I had potatoes and cheese. We were also surprised to see root beer on the menu and had to try that. I think they is a different root than we're used to.
After Tallinn we made a side trip out to a small Estonian town. One of our favorite composer's, Arvo Part, is from Estonia. In fact, one of his songs is on my running/hiking playlist- it's just so joyful. Along our travels we've enjoyed going to concerts here and there. As we were planning Estonia, we thought it would be amazing to find an Arvo Part concert. We actually found one on a date that worked and it happened to be in Paide, Part's hometown. So, for 7 euros we got tickets and hoped it would be worth it. There is pretty much no other reason to go to Paide, unless you just want to see everyday Estonian life.
That evening we went to the church, sat in the front and waited for the choir. It was incredible. But most music, to me, is impressive, I can't distinguish between good and amazing music. In one of the short breaks I asked Matt if he liked it and he smiled and said yes, so I knew it was good. After, he said it was one of the best concerts he had ever been to, he said we may never hear anything so good again. So, it was worth our time.
We returned to Riga for a couple more nights, enjoying more Folkklub and Black Magic (and Milka bars because they are the cheapest I've found so far!).
Now, we're on a plane heading into our final two countries (final four, if you count airports). In two weeks, we'll be back in the states. I'm looking forward to hugging our family and getting dressed by choosing my clothes off of hangers, rather than from ziplock bags. It's the simple things sometimes.
