The Baltic Trilogy — Estonia & Lithuania 2
Since we knocked down two of the three Baltic countries, it only made sense to complete the trifecta by visiting Estonia, too. Given that we were also in the trend of visiting capital cities, we were likewise heading to Estonia’s capital as well: Tallinn. The problem is that the order in which we were visiting the Baltic countries (from Lithuania to Estonia) meant that we kept travelling further and further North. This meant it was getting colder with every visit and by the time we reached Tallinn, the temperature took a nosedive. For any Canadians reading, Tallinn is just shy of the same latitude separating the Western province borders from the territories!
While I did buy a scarf, gloves and boots from the two countries prior to this one, it still didn’t prepare me for the frigid temperatures and wind I would soon face. The cold air found its way around the material I wore; I felt that my legs were going to give up on me. Even the Lithuanians were shocked by how cold it was!
These frigid temperatures actually made sightseeing in Estonia extremely unpleasurable and since one day in Tallinn was all we had room for, there was no opportunity to wait for better conditions. If we wanted to sightsee, we would have to brave this weather in a tactful way. Looking back at it now, it was funny how we managed to get around…
Essentially we mapped out a route of the fastest way to see everything important so that we could minimize our outdoor exposure. If the distance between two locations exceeded 10 minutes, we would walk into a random building (usually a souvenir shop) pretending we were interested when we were really just using the heat to thaw our bodies. This was a very frequent activity we felt was necessary to survive both the temperature and wind for prolonged hours of outdoor exposure. Of course, souvenir shops aren’t located everywhere and occasionally we were forced to walk into more public places. The best laugh we got from this was when we walked into the main lobby of a concert theatre and a receptionist who couldn’t speak English attempted to remove us by repeatedly making the shooing sound “tru do do do do do do” waving her hands at us. Then she proceeded to pick up the phone and shouted “turisti, turisti, turisti!” as if we were a group of felons!
Now let’s rapid-fire through my favourite stops with the same speed and dialogue when I visited.
Our speed through these sights is only slightly exaggerated. We started at 9 a.m. and finished nearly everything we wanted before noon. Yep, we really rushed it. As one of the group members said however, “we’re seeing these sights just because we should, not because it’s fun”. Well said.
The rest of the afternoon was exploring indoor complexes, such as malls but the majority was bar hopping and searching for some cheap dives. The Lithuanian crew was very adamant on taking a bus to the outskirts of town where prices were less expensive and so we did exactly that. They were right on — prices were much cheaper once we left the core city. We stayed at this one small family restaurant for hours. Perhaps too long. I felt bad that most of the day was spent indoors but there was no inclination from any of us to go outside again — it just wasn’t worth it. Unfortunately for me, the combination of drinking, exhaustion and cabin fever got me really sick that night and yet somehow I managed to make the night bus departing at midnight for an 8 hour journey back to Lithuania.
You may be thinking the travel cost for such a great distance must be really expensive, right? After all, if you’ve ever travelled 8 hours on a bus in North America, you’re well aware that the cost can crack the triple digits. But here, the cost to travel between these countries was negligible. The average cost was about €8 and that was considered “expensive” since booking the buses a few weeks prior would have halved the price! As if what I was paying already didn’t feel like a discount! Boy, do I love how cheap European travelling can be.
The plan to get back to Canada was to fly from the Baltics to Marseille (since that’s the ticket I originally booked). I’d be connecting through Paris, which is a whole trip in itself, but to get there I’d have to fly from the Vilnius airport since it was the only airport in the Baltics that had direct flights to France during my timeline. This left me with one extra day and night in my favourite of the three countries we visited, and that’s why I finish this post with a short revisit to Lithuania.
A Quick Return to Lithuania
The main objective for this bonus day was to visit Trakai Island Castle, which is a very beautiful and well-known landmark in the surrounding area. Getting a train there was easy but the castle is a surprisingly far walk from the train station, which I found peculiar given that the castle is the main attraction in Trakai. Nevertheless, the walk there was serene and the castle is definitely worth the visit. There’s just an incredible amount of history regarding the rise and fall of power in the ancient era of Lithuania as well as a variety of artifacts that bring you back to a time of such simple and primitive means, as well as the evolution of society over time. The castle is effectively a museum.
You have the opportunity to see both the entire inside and outside of the castle. It’s pretty awesome. Expect to spend at least 2 hours exploring the castle alone.
Getting back is trickier though because the trains run very sparingly, with big 2–3 hour breaks in between. If you don’t properly account for this, you may find yourself trapped as we did. To make up for it, we walked along the lakeside that heads back toward the castle and to our surprise, 5 minutes down the walkway we confronted a small market with a really sketchy but functional bus station with shuttles that go between different cities; we found one for Vilnius just moments before it took off!
That night would be our last in Lithuania and to make up for the fact my Lithuanian friends of the local area couldn’t stick around for my birthday, they insisted on an all-nighter until the buses started up again in the morning. When it’s the last day here and your plane is headed out in the morning anyway, you may as well just go with it. So, an all-nighter it was with us wandering and going about from one venue to the next making the hours of the night pass by.
The next morning, before flying out, the travel group and I bought souvenirs to bring back to our friends. This was my chance to buy my girlfriend back home a really great gift from Europe. I was made well aware that Lithuania is known for it’s amber since 80% of all amber comes from the Baltic region. Amber is just fossilized tree resin but its mining process and clarity makes for a very expensive final product. A piece of jewellery that’s region specific to its origin seemed like a great gift idea, on top of the fact that amber is gorgeous. I couldn’t resist buying her this heart shaped amber necklace and I surprised her with it on her birthday when I returned back to Canada.
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This blog entry is part of the publication Robert Cekan Travels & was originally written on January 31, 2013
Robert Cekan is a young entrepreneur and proud Hamiltonian. He is the founder of the Hamilton discovery website True Resident, as well as Cekan Group, a property management group. He is also a Hamilton REALTOR® with Ambitious Realty Advisors Inc., Brokerage and an active blogger.
For all of Robert’s projects, please visit robertcekan.com
