Baltic

14.8.2019 – Ljubljana

After work I came home, packed, had dinner, and went to “Roza slon“. There we played FIFA on PS4 and had few beers until it was time to go on a bus. I must say I was better then Tedej 🙂

15.8.2019 – Vienna, Tallinn, Helsinki, Tallinn

flight
flight

First, we went to Vienna with Flixbus. We started at 1:15 AM from the main bus station. We arrived at 6:00 AM. It was half an hour earlier, the price was 40€. While the bus was half full I had two seats for myself. I tried to sleep, but with my height, it was a lot of yoga kind positions and no luck in the end. We caught the AirLiner bus to Schwechat Vienna Airport for 5 €, the ride was 17 minutes. There we had enough time for security checks, homemade sandwiches, a few beers (6€), and cigarettes. We flew to Tallinn with airBaltic (8:50 till 11:55 – UTC+2, 89€). While we were sitting apart we tried to persuade our neighbors to change seats. No luck, but a row over wings was empty, so we moved there and head even extra leg space! We also had some nice chat with a stewardess (beer 6€). After landing we just caught a taxi (10€) to the ferry.

seagull
seagull

Boarding the ferry to Helsinki (32€ return ticket Tallink) took some time and a beer (13:30 – 15:30) crossing Baltic sea over the Gulf of Finland. The megastar ferry was huge, we found a spot on the deck where I could smoke. We enjoyed the wind and talking to the Russian football fan, beer 6€, cigarettes 3,9€. We moved from Terminal 2 a few stations toward the city, 2,8€. At Helsinki we just visited a few bars and spent a lot of money, a round of beers was 10+ € and cocktails 25€ at Huutokonttori pub (bar as a ship)? At one moment we were sitting with locals that were playing bingo. Had a burger and beer at Henry’s (35€), moved to Hemingway’s, and from there back to the ferry, where boarding was a challenge (22:30-00:30)… 

16.8.2019 – Tallinn, Riga

We were back in Tallinn, bought some water at Olerex gas station, tired and looking for a place to sleep. After more than an hour we finished in suburbs, Stroomi Residents (taxi 10€ for 4 km) that was full. In the end, we agreed to sleep on the couch in the lobby for 5€. After a few hours of sleep, we moved back to the city center, after the walk we took a taxi 15€? Walked to the bus station, ticket to Riga 23€. We noticed that there were no coffee shops or bars in the business district, in the old town they were opening at 9 a.m., beer and coffee at Reval Café for 8,5€. There we sat and watched delivery vans, probably more than 100 in an hour. We took a stroll around the old part, tourists were pouring in by the minute, but we saw nice medieval structures, cigarettes 4,5€. It was time to go, on the way we grabbed a sandwich in Rimi shop, LUX Express bus was great, big leg space, tablet with movies (you needed your earphones, I watched 1000 ways to die in the west just to kill some time), free coffee. After a bit more than 4h on regional roads, we arrived in Riga. The part around the station was really ugly, old zeppelin hangars (market), canal with banks covered in trash, and we were afraid that the whole city is like this, but in the end, Riga was nicest on this trip. We moved toward the center, at the old town pub beer was 3€. We found a Doma hostel in a good location, 15€. But service and the beds were not the best. Went out for a walk, a few drinks (beer 3,7€), and dinner at Golden coffee – soup in bread cup and plate with local dishes, raw fish, beans, horseradish nice but the service completely inexperienced. While for two nights we didn’t have much sleep we went to the hostel around midnight after visiting Beerhouse N1.

cat
cat

17.8.2019 – Riga, Vilnius

The next morning after bathroom we packed and moved to town and after a drink at Golden coffee again we buy a sandwich to eat in Rimi shop for 5€ and moved to another LUX ride to Vilnius (18€), part of the ride on the highway, watched Tomb Raider: Becoming Lara Croft, bad movie. We arrived at the main train station, Brolio kebabi there had beer for 2€, but also needles lying around. Stopped at Margarita’s casa mexicana, beer 4€. Finding a hostel with a vacancy was a challenge. Walked around the old part and found 3 fully booked places, beer 3,5€ at hostel Jamaica. Finally close to the station we found a hostel for 13€. Bunk beds with weird stairs and altogether not nice. After soup and pizza for dinner 39€ at Čili pizza, we opened a bottle of gin (22€ airport duty-free). Ivan, a Russian worker joined us and I had a chance to practise my ‘Russian’. Later we went for a few beers (2,5€), walked around town. I went to bed around 2.a.m.

needles
needles

18.8.2019 – Vilnius, Treviso, Ljubljana

After morning routine to the bus station, in the shop for cigarettes 3,9€, with van (2€) to the airport. At security, they completely went through my stuff in a bag. At Subway two sandwiches 16€. Flight with Ryanair to Treviso (106€) was bad, no leg space had awful back pain. At Treviso, we had to wait for 3,5h. We went to a Chinese owned restaurant for pizza and a few beers (39€). We came to the Nomago bus (9€), mostly empty, I had 4 seats for myself, but with back pain, I couldn’t utilize them to the max. We arrived a bit before 23h. Took a cab back home, 6€.

Summary

So a general impression is nice, tiring. The whole cost was around 600€, mostly transportation and beer, sleeping, and eating were peanuts. All cities seen were Unesco protected. As for countries, they have different languages, the same currency, the same percentage of Russian minority – 30%. The scenery in the countryside looked dull, flat, tall trees of birch or pine, some lakes and green pastures. The best view was of wooden houses. Estonia has a close cultural and economic connection with Finland, while it was the most expensive. Latvia is in between. Lithuania is cheapest, least developed, still has a bit socialist look, but on the other hand, only had a highway. City size also increases from north to south as prices decrease. But prices differ between tourist and local places for more than 100%. This was a boys’ prolonged weekend. So one can try this kind of express movement. You still got to taste country differences, but for something more you’ll need more time.

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