We landed in London and boarded the bus for the 10 minute drive to Terminal 5. Unfortunately I discovered you can’t leave Terminal 5 without an escort. It’s 12:05 and I just missed them and they only come once an hour. I wait and guess what? The 1:00 person never showed. Turns out I could [...]
I can’t decide whether I’m happy to be heading home or not. I’m not despondent about leaving Helsinki (I can’t afford to stay here any longer!) but if I were moving on to somewhere cheaper that would be ok. Carolyn came over to the hotel for breakfast and to walk me to the bus. I’m [...]
I feel a little better this morning but I’m not 100% by any stretch. To that end, as we were getting on the bus I saw something fall to the ground in front of Carolyn and stopped her saying “wait, something fell off your face.” Not “your earring fell off” but “something fell off your [...]
Driving, driving, driving. On our way back to Latvia we visited Aukstaltijos National Park and went on a hike. It was a very nice change of pace and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many mushrooms in one place. If I haven’t mentioned it already, people in the Baltics are big on foraging for [...]
Standard drill (which is fine, I’m not complaining). City Tour followed by wandering about on our own. This city tour was a bit different though, we actually drove around to parts of town outside the Old Town before heading off on foot. We began at an overlook with great views of the city, and much [...]
Ah, Radisson hotels, how comfy are thy beds and how nice are thy rooms. Thy showers leave something to be desired, however. The tiny lip around the floor and the slow drain made what should have been one shower four. Get wet, turn the water off so it doesn’t flood the bathroom, wait for the [...]
A quick ferry ride and we were on the Curonian Spit, off the coast of Lithuania. It’s 97 kilometers long but only half of that is Lithuanian land, the other half is Russian (why does Russia have a little disconnected piece of land sitting there? Not just the spit but an actual chunk of land [...]
Even without an alarm I was awake at 8:00. Didn’t get up and going until almost 9:30 though. It’s absolutely beautiful out today, sunny with not a raincloud in sight. Breakfast and then over to Alberta to look at the all the Art Nouveau buildings. I thought for sure I’d catch up with Carolyn and [...]
Up at 4:45, on the bus at 6:30, arrived in Riga at 11:30. Out the door and off to the Menzendorff House, “an impeccably restored merchant’s house decorated in grand style and adorned with period furniture”. No big thrill. I was worried about the exchange rate here since it’s pretty much 2-1 in favor of [...]
Hop on the bus for the ride to Tartu. Can’t believe I missed the Plink Plonk Festival. We only have one day here which, until we saw the town, didn’t seem like enough. First stop, the KGB Cell Block which felt dank and dismal from the minute we walked in. The cells themselves weren’t terribly [...]
