Latvia

The last stop in my little mini trip was Riga.  When I was on the walking tour in Vilnius I'd met a couple of cool girls from Riga who'd offered to show me around.  They wouldn't be back in in Riga until my last day there, so I'd also have to do some of my own exploring. 

I arrived in the evening and quickly started by checking out a couple of bars and finding some dinner.  After an early night, I decided to kick off the next day with the walking tour.  The walking tour was great and was almost entirely outside of the old town. 

We then decided that we had to see the beach.  We took the train out and wandered down the beach a some, but it was a little cold and windy.  Luckily we had seen a bar while walking from the train to the beach, so we went there and enjoyed a couple of nice pints.  The beach however, was amazing and I will definitely have to go back to Riga in the summer to enjoy it!

After arriving back at the hostel I discovered that Team Briton had arrived (unexpectedly), so we all sampled the "Tipsy Sally" drinking game, which was rather entertaining.  (Also rather effective!).  After another night on the town I met up with my new friend from Vilnius who gave me the personal tour. 

The personal tour was great! We wandered around the old town, went to a great bakery, and I enjoyed some traditional food and a glass of traditional Riga black balsam.  After all this I managed to grab my bag and only had to run about 2 blocks to make it to the bus for the airplane.  (The bus passed me and I had to chase it down)

 

Stalins Birthday Cake (yes... another one)

 

Freedom Statue

 

A really nice beach near Riga

 

 Me on the beach

 The usual hostel crew.

 The Opera House

 

A cool building I saw someplace in the old town.

 

Me and my Black Balsam

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Lithuania!

Next stop is Vilnius.  I was joined by the two British guy's I'd met in Poland.  There are so many different things to like about Vilnius, its a nice little town, the beer is cheap, and the mayor is awesome!

Example of awesome mayor: http://en.ria.ru/strange/20110803/165538168.html

Thats right ... don't park your car in the bike lane or he will run over it with a tank!

 After people started parking in the bike lanes again he decided to provide the local citizens with stickers to put on any cars they found in the bike lanes:

In addition to an awesome mayor Vilnius also has an arts district that issues passport stamps.  The district is called Užupis and is full of statues, signs, and all sorts of other artwork in addition to an interesting constitution and a law that you have to smile.

If this wasn't enough they also have a castle, on an island! The castle technically isn't in Vilnius but is in Trakai a quite close on the train.  We made a day trip of going to the castle and found a really nice restaurant near it to enjoy some traditional Lithuanian foods.  My favorite was Didžkukuliai which is a bit of meet surrounded by potatoes (always good!), we also sampled the rye bread (bread bowls for soup seemed popular), Bulvinai blynai which are potato pancakes (and a close 2nd for favorite food).  We also tried Gira which is some kind of fermented drink made from bread (non alcoholic).

I stayed at a hostel called Jimmy Jumps, it's owned by a Canadian guy and is really awesome.  Great atmosphere and also amazing staff!  We had a fantastic time here!  Link if you want to stay there too: http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Jimmy-Jumps-House-Hostel/Vilnius/43131

After one of the rather fun nights I decided that I should do something cultural and did the walking tour.  Highly recommended as it even goes up to the top of a large hill and you can climb a random old tower.

Pictures:

 

Vilnius Town Hall

 

Trakai Island Castle

 

Trakai Island Castle

 

The art republic

 

My favorite sign in the republic. (Apple republic Sign)

 

I love when I see old trucks still being used.

Next stop: Riga! 

Curious how many countries I've been to?  You can follow progress here:Current Progress

*Note that only countries I have written the blog post for are posted as done!.

Poland

I had decided before leaving Malmö that I would stop in Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.  I hadn't decided yet where I would stay, or even which cities to visit.  After inquiring at the Stuttgart train station I decided that the night train to Warsaw sounded good.  Taking the night train would allow me to save one nights hostel plus it would get me out of Munich (which is very expensive to stay in during Oktoberfest).  The night train had a short stopover in Vienna but I had already decided to save Austria for later when I could visit some friends and see the country properly.

I managed to book my hostel while on the train (it had wifi while it was in Austria).  I booked here: New World Hostel this turned out to be a great hostel in a really good location.  I definitely recommend it, if only for their policy that guests shouldn't bother to wash dishes but instead just leave them in the sink for the staff!

I decided to start my trip in Warsaw with a free walking tour: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g274856-d4025523-Reviews-Orange_Umbrella_Free_Tour-Warsaw_Mazovia_Province_Central_Poland.html

The walking tour was great and as a result I made some new friends to go for lunch and drinks with.  I was also shocked to find out that there are apparently perogies that are made with blueberries... didn't expect that when I ordered perogies for lunch!  This was also the first time I've gone on a walking tour that ended at a bar with a snack and a free vodka shot!

The Warsaw rising museum was also great.  Also the cheap drinks and food were amazing!  I was also shocked to find out that my buddy was living in Warsaw working at the hospital.  It was great to catch up after about 6 years and have a few beers!

A few pictures:

 

Stalin's Birthday Cake (None that there are 2 of them, one is a gift from Stalin, and one is a gift for Stalin)

 

A really cool mural dedicated to Marie Curie 

 

The old town wall

 

I saw this cool little car, so I took a picture.  Lucky there was also a nice building behind it.

One of many cheap beers!

Next stop Vilnius!

Germany Round 2!

Well I managed to get 10 days off to do a little mini trip.  I had decided to head to Oktoberfest again this year, as it was too much fun last time to miss it when I live so close. 


I started this trip through Germany by flying to Stuttgart.  I spent a couple of days visiting a couple of great friends(Annie and Anna), Annie is currently living in Stuttgart and she was kind enough to host me!  I got to explore the Mercedes Benz museum and also experience Wasen.  Wasen is a smaller more local version of Octoberfest, that is mostly attended by locals and Germans.  Not so many tourists but the idea is the same!

Some pictures from Stuttgart (Mostly from the Mercedes museum):

 

Great way to enjoy an afternoon in Stuttgart!  (Also the food was awesome!)

 

If you see little signs with blue socks, follow them! They lead to a great beer garden on top of the biggest hill in the city.

 

A really cool church surrounded by a horseshoe shaped lake/pond.

 

One of the oldest Mercedes Benz cars in the museum

 

 A great example of how cars used to be designed to look nice not just for utility.

 

One of the coolest car transporters I've ever seen! 

 

Ever wondered what a clay car looks like?  These are used to prototype how the final car will look!

 How often do you see rally lights and headlight guards on a car like this?

 I don't know why this sign is here, but I feel better for sure!

Next stop Munich! Why Munich you ask?  Well clearly because it was time for Oktoberfest!  Since Oktoberfest was on, almost all of the hostels/hotels/ect where really expensive or full.  We did manage to find a small hotel room that was not too overpriced (100 euro's for a night) so we decided we would take the train from Stuttgart early in the morning, drop our things at the hotel and then go straight to Oktoberfest.  I love Oktoberfest, a festival where I get to drink lots of beer and also wear my lederhosen.

 

See! Lederhosen!

This is the second time that I've been to Oktoberfest.  As always it was great!  If you've never been you need to make it one of your life goals if you like food, beer, and dancing on tables!

Pictures: 

 

I've Arrived! 

 

One of the "Tents" the tents are huge! 

 Annie and I!

Waiting for Beer!

New Friends!

These are my favorite! 

Just an idea of how big the tents are on the inside!

Of course there's a lot in Munich aside from Oktoberfest.  I only had a day to check it out before I left to go to Poland.  I decided to do the free walking tour ( http://www.newmunichtours.com/ ) and then we went for soup.

 

These two towers are one of the only things that were not destroyed during the war.  The allied air forces kept them so they could use them for navigation.

The "New" townhall.

Next stop Warsaw!

Ladonia (Micronation)

Well me and a couple of friends did a hiking trip today.  About 17km total.  We went from Molle to Arild along a trial that is part of the Kullaberg Nature reserve.  We also took the time to visit Ladonia, a micro-nation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladonia_%28micronation%29

The hike was quite lovely with some amazing over the ocean from above on the various cliffs, hills, and rocks.

The micro-nation was definitely the best part of the trip, although the second best thing was that we also got to see how Sweden responds to a broken arm ( 1 boat, 2 paramedics, 1 command post (Fire department), at least 5 firemen, and at least 5 fire trucks).  All of these first responders came down the hiking trial in full climbing gear and wearing climbing harnesses... seemed a bit overkill for a little hill I walked up, and a lady at the bottom with a broken arm.

Ladonia is mostly comprised of wooden sculptures (Although there is a stone one too).  If you want to imagine the wooden sculptures the best way that I can describe them is to suggest the following:

Imagine you told a 5 year old to build a wooden fort.  Give him as many nails as he needs, and a hammer, and a pile of driftwood.  After a couple of days perhaps he now has a cool little fort... now multiply this by a couple of hundred, and make the tallest parts of it up to about 3 stories tall and the entire thing is built out of approximately 75 tonnes of driftwood.  This is the wooden sculptures found in Ladonia.  I was impressed how even the smallest peices of wood were held in by at least 5 - 10 nails seeming to just attach everything to each other and how so little of it was built with any thought to right angles ect.  Its just kind of there.  Very rigid though since everything is attached to each other!

Pictures from the hike before the micronation:

Near Molle looking out over the water.

A nice spot for lunch perhaps?

Parts of the trails go through some fields so I found this new friend.  I named him "Ribeye"

Near the lighthouse overlooking the water.

I wish this was my house.  Such a beautiful view and a nice area.

Pictures of Ladonia:

Example of the inside of the fort descending down the "Stairs"

View from the halfway mark or so as you explore the forts.

Should I climb this?

View up the side of part of the fort.

Yes we should climb it!

Like a big kid... climbing up the outside of things.

The "border" between Ladonia and Sweden.

The end town of Arild:

Arild... finally done walking!