The Baltics

The Baltic countries include Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and I visited all three (in that order). Tallinn (the capital of Estonia) has a fantastic old town, and we toured the whole thing. There is so much history there! Estonia also brought my first experience in a travelers hostel, which was quite the experience. There were so many people from all over the world that I met just by staying in hostels. And the hostel-owners were so kind and chill with everything. We got to our hostel in Estonia at 1 in the morning, and Dennis (the hostel-owner) was up waiting for us. He was totally fine with us being late, showed us to our rooms and left us to unpack. I enjoyed the whole hostel experience, for the most part.

We spent two days in Estonia, then took a bus to Riga, Latvia. Riga has a fantastic old town as well, though it’s significantly smaller than the one in Tallinn. There was a beautiful park in the city that we spent a lot of time just walking around, appreciating the fall weather and listening to people busking in the park. It was lovely.

From Riga, we went to Villinus, Lithuania. There was a lot to see in Lithuania, and we didn’t quite get to see everything we wanted to, half because there wasn’t enough time and half because we were all so worn out from traveling for a week and a half. Regardless, we did a lot while we were there, including going to the KGB museum. Going to that museum (despite the dark nature and awful feeling of the place) was the highlight of my trip to Lithuania. I learned so much and got to see first hand what a KGB prison looked like. EYE-OPENING.

I had so much fun on that vacation, but I was certainly ready to come back to Russia by the end. I may complain about Moscow, but no matter where you are, it’s a comfort to come home at the end of the day and sleep in your own bed.

NOTE: Pictures from my trip to the Baltics are available through my Facebook page. My camera ran out of battery in Riga, so I don't have many :(