The Baltic States

After travelling by bike and ferry for 8 days, we finally end off our journey through the Estonian Islands in a Parnu, a beautiful little beach town in Estonia.  It's a bit of a local seaside tourist destination for Estonians and Finlanders and a perfect place to rest up our weary legs. 

From Parnu, we take a local bus and travel to Riga, the capital of the neighbouring country, Latvia.  Riga is a charming place, with its mix of new and old.  Vic and I take a walking tour of the city on our arrival day and then spend the afternoon relaxing on one of the many patios in the old town.  Enjoying the local fare, we get addicted to a popular local fast food option, pimeni, which is a meat or vegetable filled dumpling topped with sauce and sour cream.  

Riga is right by the water and close to many beaches, so for the next couple of days, we take the local train out to visit some of the more popular hot spots to soak up some sun and sand.

A cell block inside the Genocide Museum

From Riga, we take another local bus to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuanthia.  Vilnius is like an larger version of Riga and to me, reminds me of a smaller version of Berlin.   It is pretty and has a little bit of everything all within a very small radius.  There are cobbled stoned streets on one end of the city and a large commercial shopping district on the other.  We go visit the Genocide Museum which gives a grim and fascinating account of the country's turbulent history through communist times.  We spend most of our time exploring the city, save for taking a lovely day trip out to visiting one of its local castles.

So I married Susar Lee

Since Vic has never had long hair in his life (mainly because of work), he decided to grow his mane until we got back to Canada and he had to start working again.

This is how my hubby looked when we got married (in August 2010).

This is Vic about a month before we left for our great adventure (when I started calling him Fluff in light of his fluffy hair).

This is about a month into our trip, when Vic had to start borrowing hairbands and accessories off of me in order to keep his hair away from his face (he had to wear it inside out because it was too "shiny").

Brown hairband from H&M ($4.95 for package of 3) 

And now........it's official!!!!

Vic's First Ponytail!!!!

Biker's Butt

We take a bus from St. Petersburg and cross the Estonian border and arrive in Tallinn, its capital city.   As we enlist the assistance of a local Estonian to make our way to our hostel in the old town, we are thrilled to find out that many of the locals (especially the youths) speak English.  After over a month in Russia and China, this is a very good thing. 

Being in the old town of Tallinn is like being in a dream and waking up as Cinderella.  It is a perfect little medieval town surrounded by an old wall, with cobbled streets and pretty pastel coloured buildings with a large clock tower in the town centre.  Many of the people working in the restaurants even dress in medieval styled clothing, adding to the 14^th century feel.  We spend 3 nights in Tallinn, exploring the old town before commencing an 8 day bike tour through Estonia.  We had booked a self-guided 470 km bike tour through the western islands of Estonia where each day we would be riding according to a set itinerary with all of our accommodations pre booked.

Just as we never fully thought out what it would be like to sleep on a train for 4 nights, we also hadn’t fully considered what it would be like to bike 470 km for 8 days after doing virtually no exercise for almost 2 months.  The first day is gruelling.  It is a 60 km bike ride and thinking that it will take us around 3 hours to get to our destination, we leave Tallinn late in the day.  Not anticipating going against a strong wind for the entire trip or following directions that are completely wrong, we find ourselves travelling at slower than walking speed for parts of our journey and in the middle of our ride, finding ourselves in rural Estonia asking a farmer’s wife for directions (contrary to my previous comment, rural Estonians do not speak English and after a lot of pointing and hand gesturing, we proceed down a dirt path in the direction we hope will get us to a main road).  With only 10 km left on our first day, quads burning, we end up sitting in the middle of a road for 30 minutes (without one car passing us) before setting off and getting to our accommodations at past 9 pm at night.  Thank goodness for being in a country where daylight lasts until 11 pm.

The next day, our legs and knees aching, me and Vic look at each other and again ask, did we really agree to sign up to bike 60 km a day for 8 days straight?  But fortunately, our toughest day end up being that first day.  We learn not to rely on the maps that we are given and use google maps instead (Estonia is the only country in the world that has free wi fi EVERYWHERE) and as the wind turns in our favour, we find our bike rides getting progressively easier as we complete one of our days in only 3 hours. 

With the exception of day 3 where it rains, the rest of our rides consist of sunny days, biking on lovely country roads, music pumping in our ears, picnic lunches and the world at our feet. 

Venice of the North

Inside the Hermitage

St. Petersburg is called the Venice of the North for good reason.   It is an absolutely lovely city decorated with beautiful Baroque styled buildings and encircled with a number of canals.  Each piece of the city was meticulously laid out from the outset, with Peter the Great hiring a French Architect to assist in the planning of the city in the early 1700’s.  

St. Petes is a wonderful blend of the old and the new as it houses the largest art museum in the world (the Hermitage) as well as being the most westernized city in all of Russia.  We spend three days in this blissful city, walking around its beautiful streets; spending an afternoon at the Hermitage looking at great works of art, watching an opera at the famed Mariinsky Theatre and taking a day trip out to the Russia countryside to see the Summer Palace.  It’s a amazing end to a fascinating country.

Mariinsky Theatre

Summer Palace

St. Petes

The Longest Train Ride EVER

I’ve wanted to the Trans Siberian railway for a long time, thinking it would be a great experience to ride the world’s longest and most famed train ride.  But when booking the tour for our trip, there were many things that we never really thought about.  Like what we were going to do for entertainment on a 4 night, 3 day train ride.  Or that there would not be showers.  Or that we would be hanging out with foreigners who desperately needed a shower in a train that had no showers.  All these seemingly obvious questions came to light on our train ride from Beijing to Ulaan Baatar when me and Vic looked at each other and realized, did we really sign up to do this for 4 nights in a row?

But when the time finally arrived to ride that 4 night, 3 day train ride from Irkutsk to Moscow, I had a very good time (I specifically say ``I`` here as this sentiment was not shared with everyone as some people got cabin fever and others were stuck on carriages that had no English speakers at all and were bored senseless).  With a couple shots of vodka, a laptop full of entertainment, our jolly Aussie travel companions and a deck of cards, I learned a Greek card game, met some new travellers and got through 17 episodes of the first season of Lost. 

Moscow Metro

We arrived in Moscow at 4 am Moscow time, but are used to a different time zone (had to move time back 5 hours) so it still feels like 9 am to us.  We check into our hotel and then spend the morning doing a city tour and then walking around for the afternoon.  Moscow is a really cool city.  In Moscow and St. Pete`s, as part of the communist regime where all people are considered equal, it was believed that common areas, should be made aesthetically pleasing for all to enjoy.  Thus, in pursuit of this vision, their metro (subway) is the most beautiful in the world with stations adorned with crystal chandeliers, gorgeous frescos and marbled walls and floors.     

On the next day, we spend the day exploring the Kremlin before hopping on our very last overnight train to St. Petersburg, completing our journey on the Trans Siberian Railway.

St. Basil's Cathedral

Siberian Trek

From Ulaan Baatar we board another train in the late evening for a 2 night, 1 day journey on the train.  In comparison to our last train, this train is a lot less modern and looks at least 20 years older.  But fortunately, we are still bunking with our new Aussie travel companions who make the ride enjoyable.

The scenery and climate while going through Siberia in early spring is actually somewhat similar to what you would see in Canada except instead of maple trees, the forests are filled with giant birch trees.   When we get into Irkutsk in the early morning, the landscape is hilly with the largest lake in the world looming in the background.

Listvanka

A local guide meets us at the Irkutsk railway station from where we take a one hour journey to a wonderful wooden lodge for our stay in Lake Baikal.  Lake Baikal is a wonderfully tranquil place, set amongst steep forested hills and dotted with small Russian villages around the lake.  For our first day, we do a little self-exploration of the village we are staying in, Listvanka, before heading out to the local market and picking up the local specialty, smoked omul (a type of fish only found at Lake Baikal), for dinner.  We also get our first taste of Russia’s “white night” (or what other countries call midnight sun), with the daylight lasting way past 10 pm.  In late june, it is almost daylight in Russia for twenty four hours a day.

On the second day, we go on a guided trek through the Siberian forest with a local guide who points out all the local fauna as well as pick up various leaves and plants to use for our lunch along the way.  The views on the trek are absolutely spectacular as we transverse up steep paths to get a bird’s eye view of the lake and surrounding area.

 We stop for lunch at a small enclosed beached area by the lake where our guide whips up our lunch of mash potato, sausage and vegetables, using a large pot over an open fire.  And over lunch, our guide tells us a little about life in Russia, before and after the break-up of the Soviet Union.  Apparently, after the break-up of the USSR in the early 1990’s, the Russian economy completely collapsed and remained broken for the next 5 years as the country did not know how to deal with the changing political climate.  Food stores were completely empty, people were literally starving and alcoholism started to become a major problem (which is incidentally, still a problem today with a bottle of vodka costing the same as two apples).  Our guide, who was a teacher, stopped getting paid (along with all other government workers) and his wife left him because of their financial circumstances. 

After our lunch, we take a narrow path (if you could even call it a path) along steep cliffs overlooking the water.  The views are amazing but the walk is dangerous as a misstep would send us tumbling at least forty feet down into the water.  We enjoy our last night in Lake Baikal before stocking up food supplies the next day for a four night, three day Trans-Siberian train ride.

The Great Wall and Nomadic Life

We get to Beijing at 6 am and quickly check into our rooms before spending the morning and afternoon checking out Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  In the evening we are in absolute awe as we are entertained with a Chinese Acrobatics show performed by the Chinese national team. From one amazing act to the next, we watch the team demonstrating awesome feats surprising us with their agility, strength and flexibility. 

The next day, we wake up bright and early and make the 2 hour drive to witness the highlight of the China portion of our trip, the Great Wall of China.  It is a beautiful spring day as we walk the wall from the 10^th to 23^rd tower before walking back.  There are parts of the climb that are extremely steep but the sight of the Great Wall snaking along the beautiful backdrop of mountains is a sight to behold.  The history of the wall is fascinating.  Unlike what people think, you cannot see the wall from space and there isn’t just one great wall, but a series of 4 walls that were built by different dynasties over the span of over a thousand years.

We have a farewell dinner of Peking duck that evening with our tour group, all who have been a great bunch to hang out with for the course of 16 days.     

The next three nights are spent with Vic’s cousin and hubby, Virginia and Kelvin, who go the full 9 yards in making us feel at home in Beijing.  Among many other places, they take us to Ming Tombs, Suniten, a market street where they sell funky food items (can’t remember the name) and introduce us to the best meals we’ve had in China, including a Michelen rated restaurant in the Hutong.  Thank you Virginia and Kelvin for all of your hospitality!

On our seventh morning in Beijing, we get up at 5 am and head to the Beijing Railway Station to catch the Trans Mongolian Express en route to Ulaan Baatar.   The train is extremely comfortable and remarkably clean as we get into our 4 person train compartment.  At midnight, we enter Mongolia, and custom officials come onto our train and take away our custom forms and passports.  We then disembark the train for a stop at the supermarket and then wait for 3 hours as they change the wheels on our train as the train tracks in Mongolia and Russia are different from the tracks in China. 

When we arrive at Ulaan Baatar, we meet our wonderful Australian tour companions and are greeted by our Mongolian tour guide who takes us to visit a giant steel statue of Chinggis (Gengis) Khan before taking us 70 km out into the countryside for a 2 night stay in a traditional Mongolian ger.  The ger is a large circular tent that is widely used by Mongolians and can easily be dismantled and moved from location to location.  Mongolians has a strong nomadic culture as a result of severe weather fluctuations where temperatures go as high as 50 degrees Celsius in the summer and minus 50 degrees Celsius in the winter.  In order to survive, the people migrate with the animals so that they can avoid the massive swings in temperature in certain regions.  Today, there are many people who live in the cities but 30% of the population still live as nomads. 

Inside the Ger

Our huge ger is heated by a small furnace heated by coal and firewood which is replenished every couple of hours.  We spend the next morning riding Mongolian horses, which are a lot smaller than horses back at home and spend the afternoon visiting the ger of a local couple.

We then spend 2 days sightseeing in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaan Baatar, before boarding our next train for the onwards journey to Siberia!