To the Baltic and back
We are home and we are safe. We've had an amazing time and I really do want to write about it at some point (plus, you know, the wedding...) I know I'm pretty rubbish about writing in here these days (see also, the bit where I never actually mentioned that we moved house 16 months ago) but I really, really do want to preserve some memories on here - and tell all you guys.
Need to sort through the 7000 photos (plus Guido's ones) first.
And also, get used to typing on an English keyboard again. After three weeks on Guido's German kezboard, I'm really, really struggling!
But the (not-so-) short version:
Finland I left Helsinki the day before midwinter and returned on midsummer. I could hardly have seen a more different city. I'd forgotten just how beautiful the city is, we stayed out walking until almost midnight every night and I was pleased by how much still felt instinctive. (We returned to where I lived and I became withdrawn and miserable, the torrent of memories overwhelming me. But I think it was the right decision to go back. And now I never, ever have to again.) I don't think the demons from my time there are totally exorcised - I don't think they ever can be - but it was a relief to discover that they can, at least, be compartmentalised. I've always said it was the experience that was bad, not the place in which I had it. We will return to Helsinki, it will always be a city I (we) love and it will always be the city in which I first fell in love with my husband. And I'm so glad now that my memories of it are in the light.
Russia Oh boy. We were nervous about Russia. Just the process of applying for the visa was scary enough. (One of our invitation letters - you can't visit Russia without being invited - was riddled with errors. Guido's date of birth, our date of entry, my name... oh and calling Guido British. It's a good job we checked it. Which wasn't easy, since all this was in Russian.) In a bit of political tit-for-tat they make the application process harder if you're American, British or Georgian so Guido's form took 30 mins, mine took FOUR HOURS. And then even once we'd been accepted, our guide books were full of so many warnings about pickpockets and muggers and the corrupt police force. (We took half our money for Russia in rubles, the rest in dollars. Euros are just as easy to exchange, and obviously far more convenient for us, but we were given to understand that US dollars are the currency of choice for policemen fining you for 'errors' in your paperwork.) Don't go out after dark, the guides made it very clear.
Well fortunately it didn't get dark. We actually didn't see darkness for a week, except for an incredible storm which rolled into St Petersburg on the Saturday evening. That was a memorable experience, a bit like being in an apocalypse film!
And perhaps in part because it didn't get dark, we had an absolutely wonderful time. In St Petersburg at least. It was founded by Peter the Great to be Russia's western European city and it very much felt that way, with a little bit of Paris, a little bit of Amsterdam, some of this, some of there. It is a real east-meets-west and absolutely fascinating. We ended up out until almost midnight most nights there too, a mark of how comfortable we became in the city - and that we felt safe because everyone else was out too, enjoying the White Nights. This was a theme of our whole trip - people who know dark cold winters, definitely know how to appreciate when the sun returns.
Moscow, on the other hand, we did not like. It's hard to imagine a capital city being less welcoming to tourists. (The funny thing being, it's actually safer for them than St Petersburg!) It was huge, it was intimidating, it was confusing, it was unwelcoming. We were there for 48 hours and couldn't wait to see the back of the place. (The airport was unfun too. Queue for a security scan on entering the terminal, queue for bag drop (amongst people checking in), queue for the entrance to immigration, queue for immigration (we were initially sent to the Russian and Belarussian queue...), queue for security, queue for the gate. And all this in an airport designed by people who don't know how to organise a queue, surrounded by people who don't know how to be in one. (And then as soon as we got off our plane at the other end, we went through another security check which meant another queue.) At one point I bent down to do my shoelace or something, when I straightened I discovered that the queue I had been in was no longer there - someone had stood next to me and poached it, so that I was now out of the queue. At the gate, we saw something similar happen... maybe 3 or 4 times, as we had to keep rejoining queues we had already been in because they'd moved to no longer included us.
It was a horrible experience and the advice we plan to give to everyone is "if you're in the area then Moscow is worth a trip to see the Kremlin, but make it the start of your journey to somewhere better". Our travel agent kept trying to get us to finish our holiday in Moscow and we're so glad we persevered. It would have left such a bad taste to end it that way.
Lithuania We were so relieved to be back in the EU! I would like to think, though, that even without that relief and sense of safety, we would still have loved this country just as much. We both fell utterly in love with Vilnius. We were talking about returning before we even left. What a magical, wonderful place. Bohemian, creative, defiant, scarred, healing, proud, inspiring, outgoing. Just fabulous. I like to think it's a taste of what Montmartre must have been like before the tourists arrived. I fear for what will happen if Vilnius is discovered, and selfishly want to preserve it in July 2013. We arrived just a couple of days into Lithuania's EU presidency and left on their national day.
Latvia If you're ever tempted to lump the Baltic states together and characterise them as one people, think again. Riga and Vilnius could hardly be more different, considering they're 180 miles (300km) apart. Catholic, Italian-facing Lithuania has a capital city which would look at home on the Med. But Riga, a Hanseatic port which leapt at the idea of Lutheranism, is firmly Germanic. If someone changed the signs to be in Dutch or German, you'd be fooled for quite some time. It is also home to the world's largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings and over 4000 historic wooden buildings. Incredible how much has survived. The Baltic's largest city, and it definitely felt that way. In Vilnius I was always surprised, and incredulous, when we stumbled across a governmental building, perhaps an embassy or a ministry. It just did not feel like a capital city, or even a second city. Riga felt like a capital, yet was still compact. We loved it in an entirely different way.
Tallinn A revisit for me (I took a day trip when I lived in Helsinki) but new for Guido. Again totally different to its southern cousins. We bought a postcard of Tallinn which, in one aerial photo, sums up the city rather nicely. In the foreground, the historic heart. Terracotta rooves, higgledy-piggledy streets tumbling up and down, the wall and its towers still largely intact. Behind that is an industrial area, built first in the days of Tsarist Russian rule, abandoned in the first independence, rejuvenated under the USSR, abandoned once more on the second independence. And then beyond that, sprawling into the distance, the Soviet city. Tower block after tower block, stretching on and on. (Though nothing will ever compare to Moscow from the air, nothing but tower blocks as far as the eye could see. And as we flew over more just kept coming.)
I'm glad I visited Tallinn in 2004. I'm glad I saw it before the tourists swarmed in. It feels overrun now, and whilst that brings undoubted benefits (financial, for one - and Estonia in general is in an enviable state on that front) it also brings harm. Tallinn was the realisation of my fears about Vilnius. It is still a marvellous, beautiful city and I would recommend it to anyone. But the constant cruise ship tour groups, the street vendors, the waiters accosting potential customers, the Ye Olde Shoppe (no seriously, in English even)... it was tiring. I'm glad I will still have memories of my first trip to help counteract those.
Hmm, that was at rather more length than intended :0D (Struggled with the keyboard all the way through...)
I will leave you with a final thought. 100 years ago, we would have made that trip entirely within one country.
Need to sort through the 7000 photos (plus Guido's ones) first.
And also, get used to typing on an English keyboard again. After three weeks on Guido's German kezboard, I'm really, really struggling!
But the (not-so-) short version:
Finland I left Helsinki the day before midwinter and returned on midsummer. I could hardly have seen a more different city. I'd forgotten just how beautiful the city is, we stayed out walking until almost midnight every night and I was pleased by how much still felt instinctive. (We returned to where I lived and I became withdrawn and miserable, the torrent of memories overwhelming me. But I think it was the right decision to go back. And now I never, ever have to again.) I don't think the demons from my time there are totally exorcised - I don't think they ever can be - but it was a relief to discover that they can, at least, be compartmentalised. I've always said it was the experience that was bad, not the place in which I had it. We will return to Helsinki, it will always be a city I (we) love and it will always be the city in which I first fell in love with my husband. And I'm so glad now that my memories of it are in the light.
Russia Oh boy. We were nervous about Russia. Just the process of applying for the visa was scary enough. (One of our invitation letters - you can't visit Russia without being invited - was riddled with errors. Guido's date of birth, our date of entry, my name... oh and calling Guido British. It's a good job we checked it. Which wasn't easy, since all this was in Russian.) In a bit of political tit-for-tat they make the application process harder if you're American, British or Georgian so Guido's form took 30 mins, mine took FOUR HOURS. And then even once we'd been accepted, our guide books were full of so many warnings about pickpockets and muggers and the corrupt police force. (We took half our money for Russia in rubles, the rest in dollars. Euros are just as easy to exchange, and obviously far more convenient for us, but we were given to understand that US dollars are the currency of choice for policemen fining you for 'errors' in your paperwork.) Don't go out after dark, the guides made it very clear.
Well fortunately it didn't get dark. We actually didn't see darkness for a week, except for an incredible storm which rolled into St Petersburg on the Saturday evening. That was a memorable experience, a bit like being in an apocalypse film!
And perhaps in part because it didn't get dark, we had an absolutely wonderful time. In St Petersburg at least. It was founded by Peter the Great to be Russia's western European city and it very much felt that way, with a little bit of Paris, a little bit of Amsterdam, some of this, some of there. It is a real east-meets-west and absolutely fascinating. We ended up out until almost midnight most nights there too, a mark of how comfortable we became in the city - and that we felt safe because everyone else was out too, enjoying the White Nights. This was a theme of our whole trip - people who know dark cold winters, definitely know how to appreciate when the sun returns.
Moscow, on the other hand, we did not like. It's hard to imagine a capital city being less welcoming to tourists. (The funny thing being, it's actually safer for them than St Petersburg!) It was huge, it was intimidating, it was confusing, it was unwelcoming. We were there for 48 hours and couldn't wait to see the back of the place. (The airport was unfun too. Queue for a security scan on entering the terminal, queue for bag drop (amongst people checking in), queue for the entrance to immigration, queue for immigration (we were initially sent to the Russian and Belarussian queue...), queue for security, queue for the gate. And all this in an airport designed by people who don't know how to organise a queue, surrounded by people who don't know how to be in one. (And then as soon as we got off our plane at the other end, we went through another security check which meant another queue.) At one point I bent down to do my shoelace or something, when I straightened I discovered that the queue I had been in was no longer there - someone had stood next to me and poached it, so that I was now out of the queue. At the gate, we saw something similar happen... maybe 3 or 4 times, as we had to keep rejoining queues we had already been in because they'd moved to no longer included us.
It was a horrible experience and the advice we plan to give to everyone is "if you're in the area then Moscow is worth a trip to see the Kremlin, but make it the start of your journey to somewhere better". Our travel agent kept trying to get us to finish our holiday in Moscow and we're so glad we persevered. It would have left such a bad taste to end it that way.
Lithuania We were so relieved to be back in the EU! I would like to think, though, that even without that relief and sense of safety, we would still have loved this country just as much. We both fell utterly in love with Vilnius. We were talking about returning before we even left. What a magical, wonderful place. Bohemian, creative, defiant, scarred, healing, proud, inspiring, outgoing. Just fabulous. I like to think it's a taste of what Montmartre must have been like before the tourists arrived. I fear for what will happen if Vilnius is discovered, and selfishly want to preserve it in July 2013. We arrived just a couple of days into Lithuania's EU presidency and left on their national day.
Latvia If you're ever tempted to lump the Baltic states together and characterise them as one people, think again. Riga and Vilnius could hardly be more different, considering they're 180 miles (300km) apart. Catholic, Italian-facing Lithuania has a capital city which would look at home on the Med. But Riga, a Hanseatic port which leapt at the idea of Lutheranism, is firmly Germanic. If someone changed the signs to be in Dutch or German, you'd be fooled for quite some time. It is also home to the world's largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings and over 4000 historic wooden buildings. Incredible how much has survived. The Baltic's largest city, and it definitely felt that way. In Vilnius I was always surprised, and incredulous, when we stumbled across a governmental building, perhaps an embassy or a ministry. It just did not feel like a capital city, or even a second city. Riga felt like a capital, yet was still compact. We loved it in an entirely different way.
Tallinn A revisit for me (I took a day trip when I lived in Helsinki) but new for Guido. Again totally different to its southern cousins. We bought a postcard of Tallinn which, in one aerial photo, sums up the city rather nicely. In the foreground, the historic heart. Terracotta rooves, higgledy-piggledy streets tumbling up and down, the wall and its towers still largely intact. Behind that is an industrial area, built first in the days of Tsarist Russian rule, abandoned in the first independence, rejuvenated under the USSR, abandoned once more on the second independence. And then beyond that, sprawling into the distance, the Soviet city. Tower block after tower block, stretching on and on. (Though nothing will ever compare to Moscow from the air, nothing but tower blocks as far as the eye could see. And as we flew over more just kept coming.)
I'm glad I visited Tallinn in 2004. I'm glad I saw it before the tourists swarmed in. It feels overrun now, and whilst that brings undoubted benefits (financial, for one - and Estonia in general is in an enviable state on that front) it also brings harm. Tallinn was the realisation of my fears about Vilnius. It is still a marvellous, beautiful city and I would recommend it to anyone. But the constant cruise ship tour groups, the street vendors, the waiters accosting potential customers, the Ye Olde Shoppe (no seriously, in English even)... it was tiring. I'm glad I will still have memories of my first trip to help counteract those.
Hmm, that was at rather more length than intended :0D (Struggled with the keyboard all the way through...)
I will leave you with a final thought. 100 years ago, we would have made that trip entirely within one country.