After my visit to the Hill of Crosses, which had been equal parts awe-inspiring and chilling (I have never seen so many instruments of torture in one place), I bussed it back to the centre of Siauliai and transferred to a plush new coach to take me over the border to Riga, capital of Latvia. Once again, I didn't know quite what to expect.
Arriving at night, I immediately picked up the vibe - it was thrumming. It was far busier than sleepy old Vilnius. Grand buildings, tall and ornate with fiddly-diddly facades, rose over the cobbled streets. This place had a pulse.
Latvia had an odd mix. Nearly thirty percent of the population were Russian, in stark contrast to Lithuania, which was far more homogeneous with only 6% of Russians. From what I have read about Latvia, the Russians aren't particularly welcome, perhaps being seen as a hangover from the Soviet occupation.
Riga was situated on the Balic Sea, so the next day I strolled down to take a look. It didn't appear particularly inviting in Winter. I broke away for a couple of circuits of the Old Town, admiring the grand architecture. Although it was undoubtably pretty, for some reason I hadn't warmed to Riga as much as I had Vilnius. Riga felt edgier. I think my Baltic heart belonged firmly to Vilnius, to its sleepy innocence - and its gorgeous women!
I was racing through the Baltics. The complete the Trinity I boarded a bus to Tallinn, capital of the northernmost Baltic state Estonia. The chap behind me was talking into his mobile with an unmistakable accent littered with flicky, rolled 'R's. Russian.
Remarkably, Tallinn was different again from the previous two Baltic states. We glided through a pristine modern new city full of sparking office buildings and car garages, all chrome and steel. I later learned that since independence - and especially since coming under the umbrella of the EU - Estonia has seen incredible economic growth.
Yet juxtaposed with this it has a dinky, beautiful little cobbled old town with a strong medieval feel. My wander of it the next day even saw some poor buggers dressing up in Middle Ages togs to offer roasted chestnuts and try to get people to sign up for reservations at the nearby outrageously expensive rustic restaurant. It was everything Lichtenstein should've been.
Tallinn felt like a good place to make camp to work for a bit before my Winter Assault on the Russian Motherland. I set up shop in a hostel which had a remarkably sound turnover of decent occupants. I met a mainland Chinese girl who was studying in Europe for a semester, a chap training to be a hypnotist who finally got me to agree to being hypnotised (he couldn't make me forget my name but he got my hand to stick to my forehead and even got me to hallucinate that there was a giant parrot called Jack in the room), and - coincidence of coincidences! - I bumped into the Dutch & German students again, who turned up one night in the same dorm of the same hostel as me! We couldn't work out who was stalking who...
