Once we reached the baltics, the form of our trip changed. We went from fending for ourselves and finding the cheapest way to live possible, to visiting the towns from a much more comfortable position. We joined James in Tallinn at the hotel Von Stackelberg which to date was the nicest establishment where we had stayed. We had an incredible breakfast included at which we stuffed ourselves beyond reason.
Beyond that we enjoyed the city a lot. The old town was awesome. We visited the history museum of Estonia which was cool, enjoyed an elk soup and boar pies at a medieval bar.While we were there the temperatures hadn't risen much from our stay in Moscow and St Petersburg, but it was sunny so we had no complaints, except when we visited the waterfront where the wind was piercing.From Tallinn we took a bus train to ''Riga-Riga'' in Latvia. At the Garden Palace hotel we had another breakfast included, where we again stuffed ourselves silly.We enjoyed Riga also, it had a different feel to it but was really nice. It felt like the old town of Riga was more alive, as if people actually lived there which was cool. There were nice little bars and restaurants so we drifted around one evening seeking alcohol. That night ended with a classic nuggie run where I enjoyed my first royale with cheese. While waiting for it though we nearly froze to death, for some reason I decided not to wear my jacket.
From Riga we took a bus for Vilnius in Lithuania. There we stayed in the Congress hotel where again we had breakfast included. We again stuffed ourselves. I think I put on a solid ten in breakfast alone while we travelled with James.James thought it a good idea to train outside in Vilnius, but apparently went delirious in the cold (-15) running in shorts as he turned the wrong way to get back the hotel.We did visit the old KGB offices in Vilnius which have been converted into a museum of the soviet occupation of Lithuania, which was chilling to say the least. The stories of occupation freedom fighters left to their own devices in the hills of Lithuania, as the western forces didn't want to poke the soviet beast in the belly, left us all in a state of disgust. Adding to which there was the KGB prison in the basement complete with torture cells, all padded up for sound protection, cold chambers, where the prisoner would have had half a square meter to stand on or fall into freezing water, and not to forget the execution chamber which included the disposal chute for the bodies. It's incredible how creative the human brain can be just to cause discomfort and pain to other humans.All in all, I think all of us enjoyed the Baltics, some warmer weather and less breakfast could have made it better but one can't complain.
On our way out of the east we had a quick stopover in Warsaw en route to Prague. We only had 8 hours or so in Warsaw so I won't go into details but it is definitely a place I would love to check out.
We arrived in Prague after a long 2 days of travel from Vilnius and were quite tired. We were quite lucky to have been given the "Veranda Suite" at the Golden Wheel hotel, with a palace view from the veranda. It was incredible. Unfortunately starting in Prague the weather turned sour and we had cloud cover until we left Paris.
Other than the weather though Prague was awesome. We dined at the cafe Louvre where Einstein and Kafka used to frequent, visited the palace and the cathedral on the hill and mainly just drifted around the old town. We had three days to relax and settle in after bouncing from town to town in the Baltics.
Prague is an incredible city in a lot of ways; the architecture in unreal, the food is great, the historical significance as the Bohemian capital, and the fact that for whatever reason it is just awesome. Definitely a place to revisit.
Berlin was our last stop before Paris and a chance to stay with our friend Jana who we had met in Laos. It was a packed weekend for a few reasons; it was Easter, Jana's roommate had also invited friends to the apartment making it 9 in the place, and most importantly it was Méliane's birthday! We arrived the 28th in the evening, went straight to Jana's place, ate and promptly went to a bar. Berlin is nuts, people drink everywhere, at all hours and all ages. We got to the bar, had a few drinks and when midnight rolled around Jana had come prepared with party whistles, paper garlands and champagne to celebrate Méliane's birthday with style....drinking out of the bottle in the streets. It was a lot of fun.
We also visited the wall, only days after the Hasselhoff was there, checkpoint Charlie and the soviet soldiers memorial.
It is pretty interesting visiting a town with so much history attached to it, especially such recent history. It is a city with a lot of energy and it takes a lot of energy to keep up. As we are approaching the end of our trip I find myself with less and less energy, so I found it tough to keep up. Which is not to say that I didn't love Berlin, because I did.
