when i travel aboard, besides the language, culture, currency, history, etc, there are little things that are so different or you don’t see in america that make the feeling of being outside of the country more poignant and fun or funny depending on what it is.

in regard to my latest trip to finland, estonia, latvia, and lithuania, i maintained a list of little things that were different or things you never see in america. without a bunch more blah blah, here is the list.
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while in latvia, i bought a bottle of riga black balsams. i knew it would force me to check my bag at the airport, but i didn’t mind the idea. this morning as i thought about the multiple airports and the possibility of having to recheck my luggage in helsinki, i decided i would ditch the black balsams. i was disappointed i would be losing the souvenir and thought of a way to remember it; by taking some shots of it before i left. it has a chocolate taste sort of like kalhua and the burning sensation of vodka. it was 45 proof and a couple shots did the trick. I took the cork bottle top with me for olfactory reasons.
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leaving kuressaare was bitter sweet. we have come to the end of the tour, the last location, which presses on the fact we would be heading home soon. however, for me at least, tallinn is my favorite city, and i was looking forward to wandering the old town streets again, taking in the medieval setting, and checking out some of the other sights i had intentionally missed on our first visit to the old town.

the bus must have run out of sleeping gas cause i couldn’t fall asleep the entire time we traveled from the islands to tallinn. before leaving the islands, we made a quick stop at another church, which is a 14th century church that was once used as a fortress.
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woke up today in kuressaare to the sound of rain. not a good sign. so i went back to sleep. john and i figured we would skip the bus tour around the island and rent bikes to explore the island. sleeping in felt so good that i didn’t care if we had missed the tour, however, the breakfast ending at 10am is what got me out of bed.

after breakfast, the rain had stopped, and we walked down to the lobby about to head out when we spotted adam in the hotel office. since the weather wasn’t great for biking, we decided to catch the tour of the castle once they finished with the bus tour. adam gave us instructions on when and where so we headed toward the castle.
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slept fine and woke up alert. with 5 minutes remaining before departure, i was the last one on the bus. i got the ol’ stink eye when i boarded. there is one thing i can say about our group, at least they are extremely prompt and on time. we left sigulda in the morning for the islands off the coast of estonia. i love estonia due to the free wireless, the fact that you don’t have to pay to use facilities, and the friendlier nature of the estonians (english is spoken more widely here than in latvia and lithuania). in a strange way, i felt like i was going back home. plus, if you remember from my time in vilnius where i made a wish on the miracle tile in the cathedral square, i will see if it comes true.
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another early morning start. went down to breakfast and barely anything was left. breakfast started 20 minutes ago! oh well. that’s what happens when you are touring with people who go to bed at 10 and wake up at 5. they were ready for breakfast even before it started.

the agenda was filled to the brim with castles. six castles total. being a castle junkie, i will finally get my fix. we were driving from madona to the gauja national park in latvia. the national park contains a bunch of little towns, and we would visit the two main towns. the first town we will visit is cesis with two castles and then on to our final destination, another town called sigulda, which has four castles in the area.
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we went down to breakfast and only a few people remained. we were curious as to why we were close to the only ones having breakfast. maybe we were early. as we were finishing breakfast, everyone was loading the bus. we had mistaken the time for departure by 15 minutes, and we had to run to get our stuff and be on the bus on time.

the itinerary for the day was a relaxing day filled with nature walks and lounging in a national park. we would be leaving lithuania and crossing back into latvia. we are coming back around, which sort of marks the beginning of the end. so, after what feels like 3 months, we will be traveling back to NYC in less than a week. i am pushing the thought of working as far away from me as possible, which is easy enough.
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woke up ok, had breakfast, and the old town tour guide met us in the lobby of the hotel. that’s when i heard about the no alcohol day, which was taking place on sept. 1 (tomorrow). we learned later in the day that lithuania imposed this rule to dissuade kids from parties after the first day of school. the school kids would sneak out of the house and drive to these parties, and when they attempt to return intoxicated, they would wreck the car. restaurants and bars had already found a workaround. the workaround is basically it is illegal to sell alcohol, but not if you give it away. so, either they will double the cost of your food or just maintain a tab, which would be paid at a later date. very clever, these lithuanians are.

in addition, we were informed to pick up a picnic lunch from the grocery store for the next leg of our trip in a national park. i added beer to the grocery list for good measure.

today was an old town tour and then free time to explore vilnius.
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waking up today wasn’t as painful as yesterday. perhaps the four star treatment soothed my tiredness. the breakfast at daniela’s was the best so far. in addition to the usual fare, they also had crab tempura. weird breakfast food. course, i tried it. nothing special.

today we would be on a guided tour of kaunas, have free time to explore, head to trakai (pronounced trah-ki; ki as in kite) castle, and then into vilnius with plenty of time to explore the capital.

we loaded up into the bus, luggage and all, and drove to the start point of the tour, kaunas castle. much to my surprise, the tour guide for the kaunas tour was already on the bus and began talking about kaunas over the speaker system.
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ugh. the 7:00am wake up came way too early, although on the positive, there was a dramatic sunrise with lots of clouds. i was so lethargic that i am surprised i was able to shower, pack, eat breakfast and get on the bus before falling asleep again.

today was exploring an area called the curonian spit national park, another unesco world heritage site for being a cultural landscape. the spit is a forested sand dune that stretches from lithuania to the tiny piece of russia on the coast of the baltic sea and creates the curonian lagoon. after exploring several parts of the spit, we would drive to kaunas, lithuania’s second biggest city.

to travel onto the spit, our bus boarded a car ferry that took us a very short distance across the water. along the waterfront was the shipping docks and massive cargo ships. the weather was playing in our favor; still a strong wind, but the sun was breaking through the clouds and we could see the blue skies behind them.
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