Happenings from 10 – 17 Apr
The Easter break saw 14 of us head up north to the capital cities of the 3 baltic states. First to Vilnius in Lithuania, then to Riga in Latvia and finally Tallinn in Estonia. The trip consisted of some pretty good sight-seeing, good parties, long walking tours (as well as biking ones), and many little dramatic events.
Vilnius, Lithuania
I wanted to get a kebab before boarding the 10-hour bus. It says Kebab 24h, but it was closed. So maybe it's closed 24h a day... winners.
Breakfast at Double Coffee after we arrived in Vilnius at 7am.
The main street outside out hostel.
They just love the Americans.
Our free walking tour guide speaking about the Jewish memorial and district.
Another one of the many churches, check out the crown at the top.
This nice little "graffiti" was found on one of the walls.
The view from the top of a small hill. See the skyscrapers in the distance? Our walking tour went all the way there!
My favourite part of Vilnius. Please allow Wikipedia to give you a brief explanation of the place: Užupis is a district of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, partially located in the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its name means "on the other side of a river"; that river is the Vilnia River which gave Vilnius its name. The region has been popular with artists for some time, and is often compared with Montmartre in Paris. The district houses art galleries, artists' workshops, and popular cafés. The district declared itself an independent republic (the Republic of Užupis) in 1997 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C5%BEupis).
The river that separates Užupis from the rest of the city.
Couples getting married would engrave their names on these locks, attached them to the railings and throw the key into the river. The guide joked that if they wanted a divorce, it meant that they had to search for their key in the river to unlock their lock.
I like the artistic wall set against a backdrop of ruined houses.
The entire town was just filled with unique art pieces on architecture, or just any object that artists could work on.
The artists didn't leave one bit of blank on the wall, did they?
The bridge that leads to nowhere.
This is my favourite piece - a washing machine out of a rock.
Local market in the Soviet District.
Only a street divides the run-down and backward Soviet District and the modern skyscrapers.
One of the many churches in Vilnius.
Local traditional Lithuanian food - sticky potato with meat inside.
Picture of 2 famous Lithuanian pilots (who look a little homo) - apparently you can exchange this for 10 pounds in certain gay bars in England.
One of oldest (if not the oldest) churches.
Pre-party in hostel (where we spent an hour drinking non-alcoholic beer because we simply chose the cheapest option and didn't see the "non-alcoholic" word).
Partying in Vilnius!
Room-mate Mike and Nicolas
Took a day trip to Trakai - it was a beautiful island!
Trakai is a historic city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies 28 km west of Vilnius.
Outside Trakai Island Castle.
Wiki says: The first settlements in this area appeared as early as the first millennium A.D. The town, as well as its surroundings, started developing in the 13th century in the place of Senieji Trakai (Old Trakai). According to a legend, after a successful hunting party, Grand Duke Gediminas discovered a beautiful lake-surrounded place not far from Kernavė, then capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and decided to build a castle in the location. That is how the Old Trakai Castle was built in Senieji Trakai. The name of Trakai was first mentioned in Teutonic Knights chronicles in 1337. This year is considered to be the official date of town's foundation. When Grand Duke Gediminas finally settled in Vilnius, Senieji Trakai was inherited by his son the Duke Kęstutis. Duchy of Trakai developed and the town entered its best decades.
Getting a kick before being beheaded.
Although there were quite a lot of tourists, the town was still very quiet and tranquil.
Vita brought us around her hometown and was extremely hospitable.
Riga, Latvia
Entering Riga's Old Town.
Outside a traditional Latvian restaurant.
Locals and tourists chilling in the sun (it is colder than it looks) at an open square in the Old Town. Very quaint and relaxing space to have an afternoon beer in.
Another church in the Old Town.
Latvian Bank.
There was an entire row of these weird-looking sculptures along one of the streets.
Another quiet and nice street in Riga's Old Town.
Colourful flags outside a bank.
A small river along a park.
Park in the city.
Freedom Monument.
Another church?
At the sky bar where the drinks were grossly overpriced.
City view from the sky bar.
The big building at the back looks exactly like the Palace of Culture in Warsaw. Nothing surprising since they were both "gifts' from Stalin and the Soviet Union.
Maybe the drinks cost so much because the toilet was really nice and also had a bird's eye view of Riga.
Nicolas making full use of the bar to make his money's worth.
Pre-drinking in the hostel. The hostel was run by a British, American and Australian. No wonder there was a bar in the hostel and there was broadcasting of the EPL there as well.
Mike.
Nicolas and Downey.
Three Kings in the club.
We partied till there was only 6 of us on the dancefloor at 4am.
And the deejay tried to chase us away by playing Backstreet Boy's "Shape of My Heart". When that didn't work, he changed to some weird-ass electro track and that finally chased us off the dancefloor!
Some nice wall paintings along the underpass.
Another one in the same underpass to the local market.
And this time the picture of a heater.
The local market. Each building sells different foodstuff. One for poultry, for meats, seafood, dry food etc.
We explored the "Meat" building. Looks rather similar to the markets in Singapore.
The gift from Stalin and the Soviets - looks like a smaller replica of the Palace of Culture in Warsaw (see below).
The Palace of Culture in Warsaw - looks exactly like the one above.
The Jewish monument. The names of those who lost their lives are on the pillars (which signifies that these people are holding the wall for their community). And this is where I dropped my camera (the stupid floor was hard stone which probably broke the lenses).
And these are how all my photos look like after I dropped the camera.
Tallinn, Estonia
The main square of Tallinn's Old Town.
- One of the streets in Old Town.
Hot coffee and chocolate in cold cold Tallinn.
Yup, another church.
Estonian Colours.
Tallinn Ballet School.
Fat-ass pigeon.
View from the top.
Nicolas and his standard picture pose.
Pre-drinking and back pains from sitting for too long.
Drinking games!
Somehow the mop appeared because someone spilt something.
And with alcohol in your blood, you start doing silly things with a mop.
Another mop-shot.
I don't know what we were doing in the cupboard.
On our way to the "Bar with No Name".
People used to deposit their valuables in churches in the past as it was deemed as a safe place. Check out the really tiny window to prevent thieves from climbing into the church to steal.
The many towers surrounding the Old Town. There used to be a moat surrounding these walls.
After the walking tour we took the Underground Tour to explore the tunnels beneath the Old Town.
Inside a pancake cafe.
And then the best part - the biking tour! 7 of us took this conference bike and 3 went on single bikes.
The harbour.
His spear was really sharp.
Tallinn holds its annual song or music festival at this outdoor theatre. All the stairs will be filled up with singers during this time!
Simply love the coastal line.
The Tallinn Zoo was huge!
The zoo really had all kinds of animals - don't think I've seen these before.
And many exotic birds as well.
Really huge camels.
Siqing, this is a bison.
Love the colour of this duck.
A pelican! The good thing about the Tallinn Zoo is that all the animals have a really large open space and the habitats are as natural as one can get.
The kangaroos were really still.
I was surprised by the strength of their trunks and tusks when they were breaking the branches to eat.
3 reasons for Mathias headbutting a wooden statue to get a bleeding forehead: (1) High alcohol levels in the blood, (2) We were watching Dirty Sanchez the Movie (similar to MTV's Jackass) at the hostel while pre-drinking and (3) I said to him "Hey that statue looks like a real person in the dark!"
And this was the wooden statue that got headbutted for just standing outside a restaurant.
Indian lady.
Trying to do the moonwalk on crutches.
And so this was the last night (a pretty damn crazy one too) of our Baltic escapades. The next day was spent relaxing in the hostel and after lunch, we headed off to take a 17-hour bus-ride back to Warsaw.
Keeping it Most Real in Warsaw 