While living in Prague a few years
ago (*cough 6.5, accept that you’re getting old, Than*), I had the random idea
to travel to Estonia and maybe the rest of the Balkans. I knew nothing about
the area. In retrospect, I think the ideas appeal was I didn’t know anyone
who’d ever been out that way. Ironically enough, I think the area’s draw for me
was the reason no one else wanted to join back then.
So this year I decided to go
alone. In continuing with the year’s trends, I took a day off school and flew
to Tallinn, Estonia with a return flight from Riga, Latvia.
First thing I noticed right away:
how friendly Estonian people were to an obviously lost tourist. *Hot tip: Most
airports have decent Wi-Fi (except you, Istanbul Ataturk Airport; your Wi-Fi policies
are dumb!), load your route with Google Maps before you leave!* Luckily for me,
the bus I took out of town turned around and went back toward the city center
and eventually, after missing my stop because its name was different on gMaps
and walking an enjoyable 20ish minutes, I made it to my hostel.
It was early evening by the time I
arrived, so I grabbed my book (we will get into the book, A Little Life, in another post because it’s one of the best I’ve
ever read), asked for a sunset spot suggestion, and headed out on the town.
There was mention of a hostel pub-crawl but I just didn’t have it in me.
The Old Town reminded me a lot of
a much, much, much smaller Prague: cobblestone streets, a mixture of
architectural styles set next to each other, gothic next to renaissance next to
art nouveau. It’s history, as I would learn on the next day’s free walking tour
with Jonas, (though actually, brb because I forgot to write him a review on
TripAdvisor and he was fantastic)… …(okay, I’m back.) is one of constantly
being conquered and subsequently has an interesting mix of cultural and
architectural influences. If I’m not mistaken, Estonia has been conquered by
the Danes, German mercenaries (who became the lords during serfdom), the
Swedes, Russians, Nazis, and again by the Soviets, before finally claiming true
independence in 1990/1. But even better than its history, Tallinn (and Riga,
but we’ll get there) are so far north the sun didn’t set until almost 10:00pm!
Night one was spent with my book, sitting out on a ledge overlooking the Baltic
towards Helsinki, watching the exhausted blue sky fade into shades of soft reds.
The next night I decided to be
social. After a full day of walking/touring the city (and meeting my first
Colombian Jew and one of only a few in Estonia), I went out in search of fun
with Brook, a junior in college passionate about photography and astrology, and
Carrie, a woman closer to my age who also enjoys true crime documentaries like
I do. It was fun to socialize with strangers and feel like I could bring myself
to the conversation and contribute. This solo trip was good for a lil
reaffirmation. The craziest mind-trip, though, besides our 4am deloishis kebab,
was that we entered a bar a little before sundown and came out just as the sun
was rising around 3:30am. NUTS. It was super weird, but I didn’t hate it. What
I would hate is winter in Tallinn when it’s apparently pitch black by 2:30pm…
Yikes.
The next morning, I hopped on a
van with three other travelers on a tour through the Estonian and Latvian
countryside on our way to Riga, Latvia’s capital. We stopped in some very
quaint, cute little towns, a (maybe the?) Latvian national park named Gauja
National Park (where I got bit by a tick but it’s all good, or at least a few
weeks later I’m symptom-free), a war museum, and finally at a
bobsled/luge/whatever the opposite of luge is track, skeleton? My favorite stop
on the trip was our first in Viljandi, a cute little town home to the
University of Estonia’s arts college. Check out this massive swing:
As it was explained to us,
Estonians aren’t super great athletes so they like to make up sports at which
they’ll succeed! Love the attitude. This giant swing, which is at least 12 feet
tall and can hold ~20 people at a time, is the centerpiece of a sport played in
Estonia. Hm. Curious. But it was super fun, obviously, because it’s a swing and
swings are fetch.
Here’s the website for the tour: https://www.traveller.ee/tour/tallinn-riga-bus-tour.
I would say if you have lots of time, go for it, do the 12 hour tour. If you’re
strapped for time like I was, there are definitely things to appreciate in the
countryside, but I think I would’ve been just as happy getting to Riga faster
(and for cheaper).
Riga is a bigger city than
Tallinn. Honestly, I forget the history, though its relatively recent history
(last hundred years) feels very comparable to the plight of the Estonians
during the same time. Again, I took advantage of the free walking tour offered
by an organization in the city and had a wonderful time with the charismatic
guide (though sitting us all in a bar at the tour’s conclusion and saying he’s
going to walk around and collect tips, going from person to person, was a little
tactless, it lacked tact. *hope that’s the right word here*).
ALSO, the Riga Marathon took place
the weekend I was in town! People from all over the world, though mostly from
Europe, came to partake, which made for a very interesting crowd at the hostel.
I was a little worried it would impede my ability to see the city but its planners
did well. It’s a very easy city to get lost in but you can’t really be lost for
long. Built on a gorgeous river, it’s hard to get far without realizing you’re
going the wrong way, or just a different way.
Thought: I don’t love eating by
myself in restaurants. Don’t get me wrong, I did the whole “closed-off,
reading-a-book” routine to conceal any vulnerability (phew, I know.) but that’s
only fun for so long. I kind of already knew that but this solidified it for
me.
Just as I did in Tallinn, I found
myself a quiet spot to enjoy the sunset my first night in town: stairs leading
into the river looking out at the sky’s pastels breaking behind a beautiful
suspension bridge with the moon just above, already in sight and awaiting its
turn.
Day 2 was all the walking. After
eating at a popular spot for lunch where I met a lovely Latvian woman who’d
just ran the marathon and offered wonderful tips on the restaurant’s best side
dishes, I tried to go to Riga’s synagogue and its Ghetto Museum. Ya know, might
as well learn something new/different about the plight of the Balkan Jews.
Unfortunately, both were closed. I guess it’s fair that the same reason I had
off from school would be the same reason those places would be closed. It was a
bummer, but without it, I wouldn’t ever have walked through the beautiful
farmers’ market.
Later, while reading a book on a
bench by the river, a nice German couple named Magnus and Karen sat beside me
and we struck up a conversation. A little Trump, a little Israeli occupation, a
little Merkel, the uszh (how do you spell the first syllable of “usually?”). Lovely
people. The best. It was cool to just chat with strangers sans danger. It felt
very old timey, like something Momma Rossoff would do. Shout out to Frannie.
I ate dinner at an underground
restaurant with a reputation for authentic Latvian cuisine, Folkklub ALA. I can
now say that I cannot eat a lot of authentic Latvian cuisine. After eating in
Estonia, I wasn’t surprised by the heartiness of the food, but I definitely
don’t need lots of it. The winning part of the meal was my traditional black
bread garlic bread (Latvians are known for black bread). It was thick,
thoroughly fried, and thoroughly drenched in garlic. It was pretty solid, but
an entire loaf of it was a bit much.
That night I ended up grabbing
drinks with hostel people from England, Australia, German, and India where we
talked about everything from gun rights to language acquisition, sports to
history. The German woman with us shared she’s studying Hebrew (Kabbalah
recently grabbed her attention so she wanted to learn) so I had fun teaching
her some of the phrases I’ve picked up along the way.
And just as quickly as I’d come
in, I left Riga the next morning, completing my short, 4-day solo travel
adventure.
Some of the following I learned and
some I simply reaffirmed for myself:
- I love the freedom of traveling alone during the day, being able to focus only on what I want to eat, where I want to go, and with whom I want to speak.
- As stated, I don’t like eating out alone. My favorite meal was a quick and simple panini in Tallinn where I met a Colombian Jewish friend, Alex. He worked in the restaurant owned by a Peruvian man who’d found himself in Tallinn 20 years ago on his way to St. Petersburg and never left. As I was the sole patron at the time, we chatted as I ate. Really nice peoples, it was very comfortable and comforting.
- I don’t want to learn about the Soviet occupation of Central and Eastern Europe. Though I heard wonderful things about the occupation museums both in Tallinn and Riga, I didn’t really feel compelled to enter, especially after falling asleep in one in Budapest earlier this year. The Soviet regime was horrific and run by a-holes, but I was on vacation, sooooo…
- The Balkans are beautiful and a wonderful place to escape the noise of bigger city life… I would imagine. I live in a small town. They’re quiet and gentle. Neither the architecture nor the people nor the food were too imposing or abrasive; all were pleasant and present but not too much. I liked the visit; both were easy cities for walking and thinking, good for sitting and reading, or other combination of those and other peaceful verbs. So much greenery everywhere! I would definitely recommend these places if you’re looking to get away from hustle and bustle.
- Though both on the Euro, Tallinn and Riga are cheaper cities to visit. Dope.
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