katiesfootprints: The last of the Baltics

After the worst bus ride you can imagine – self inflicted so no sympathy required - we arrived in Latvia where the cheery girl at the hostel immediately handed us our free beers, my stomach still recoiling at the thought I ran for the bathroom. We got chatting to a couple of other kiwi girls and ended up going out for dinner to “No Problem” which delivered beyond expectations.

Our only day in Riga was upon us, we got up reasonably early to fit as much in as we could but at 10am still couldn't find anywhere open – come on Riga!! A Kiwi breakfast at Kiwi Bar (someone's gotta be onto it) while we waited for the town to wake up. Partaking in tourists obsession with climbing up things we headed to the top of St. Peter's Church, via lift this time not stairs – for a view of the city. We joined a walking tour, again, but this time our eccentric guide took us out of the walled city confines and away from the Old Town for a bit of Riga history and Art Nouveau.

Back into the Old Town after wards and we needed warming up with some traditional Latvian Food before heading to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia for a whirlwind tour through there. On the way we were blocked off by several motorcades and a lot of red tape eventually finding out that the Latvia Conference was on including NATO and the several important people from the Baltic States – in the presence of more high profile figures again.

Back to the hostel to the 24hour bar before heading back to No Problem for dinner – not sure if our waiter was happy or exasperated with our return (happy I think, we are a great laugh and good tippers) and the food was absolutely delicious as usual. A night out followed by waking up early to watch the AB's in another victory before catching our bus to Vilnius, Lithuania.

Vilnius was a delight. We arrived just in time to join Mitch, Chris and Iain - over from London for the weekend – in a few beers, dinner and a rather hefty night out. Vilnius has a great party scene – who'd have thought (actually we are becoming quite use to this, obviously this is where a lot of tourist money goes to!)? A late wake up the next morning, a quick room change (despite making the booking twice they managed to cancel it and then overbook themselves but made up for this with free beers for us, dream result), waffles with nutella for the free breakfast and it was off to the KGB Museum or The Museum of Genocide Victims. This museum is set in a building that was used by both the Nazi's and the Communists at different times and describes the atrocities imposed upon the Lithuanian citizens during the USSR ruling and the Lithuanian Jews during WWII. Perhaps the most alarming thing we saw was a video of the execution of prisoners held captive in the KGB prison only to look up and realise we are in the same room and then to see the bullet holes on the walls.

I'm pretty sure this is all we managed to do this day before a repeat of the night before... spending quality time with friends though so it's not all wasted. The next day I set out in exploration of The Republic of Uzupio – an independent community within the city of Vilnius. A very artsy little republic which boasts a president, a prime-minister, two ambassadors (one being the Ambassador of Red Wine) and of course has it's own constitution which makes for entertaining reading. You can even get your passport stamped – if you go on the right day of the year (which I eventually found out after looking for two days) which just so happens to be April 1, a fools day for most but Independence day for Uzupio. I wandered around a cemetery where in the Spring time as the snow melts you can see human bones surface – being autumn I didn't see this and am relatively thankful but was still keeping half an eye out anyway. Up to a Castle to get some panoramic views of the city and brush up on a bit more history – the Baltic Way shaped part of the history of all three Baltic States as they sought independence of the USSR. 2.5million people held hands from Tallinn to Vilnius passing through Riga (about 800km off the top of my head) to create the Baltic Way. A quiet night in was had on our last evening, and actually my last night with Tom. Today I am on my own for the first time – I've been very lucky to have three fantastic (plus many more along the way) travel buds at different times on this trip so far.

So I joined the walking tour for my last couple of hours in Vilnius – I think you should generally do this when you first arrive but its still interesting none-the-less – and learned a little bit more about the vibrant city.

I think I'll go to Poland now.

Ciao Ciao.

View from St. Peter's Church

St. Peter's Church in the background

Riga Market Buildings

Cathedral in Vilnius (yes, it probably does have an actual name and I should know it)

Republic of Uzupio - the symbols below mean you should always smile, don't drive fast or go through life too quickly, enjoy art, and because the community is surrounded by waterways on three sides, be careful of this.