Snow, snow, and more snow in the Baltics

G'day all,

Ok so where do I start other than another busy week crossing 3 countries and going from snow to 10 degrees and sunny. My time in Tartu was an interesting one for me being from Australia because it snowed for the whole 4 days I was there. Sure I’ve seen a little bit of snow before but I’ve never seen this much so it was pretty exciting for me. I loved just walking the streets and treading my way through this nice fluffy white foreign stuff but at the same time I kind of missed feeling a stable ground under my feet. The winter in Estonia pretty much never came to the amazement off all the locals however it sure kicked in right in the thick of spring when I was there. The local Estonians were almost as excited as me about the snow as it had been a completely dry winter. I think many must have thought I was weird as instead of walking on the stamped down paths I often tended to head out in the knee deep snow and wad my way through it getting my jeans wet. Anyway that’s enough about the snow. I spent my first night in Tartu staying at this really nifty new hostel which had just been opened but unfortunately they only had a bed for me for the first night. I was lucky though because I met the great guy on the bus Jaan who set me up with some fellow couchsurfers to stay for the next 3 nights. It was so nice because they were all Estonian students and lived in this really nice house with a sauna right in the town and we all got on really well. Due to the weather I didn’t actually see a great deal in Tartu apart from the snow but it was a really nice safe town to be in. The one really cool thing I did was go to the University and look at the anatomy museum. I’d never seen anything like this before and it was so in your face and gruesome. There were walls and walls of bits of dead peoples bodies in jars from head to toe and had every disease and disorder you can imagine. There was more flesh in there than a strip joint and more bones than a catwalk model but the one thing that really shocked me was when I saw a mans full head with his scalp cut off in a jar. On my last day in Tartu the guys took me for a sauna in their house. It was unlike an Australian sauna as this was a non clothing event and was almost 100 degrees Celsius. It was a bit embarrassing getting the kit off in public but hey when in Estonia do as the Estonians do yeah. I couldn’t believe how hot it was in there and after a while I did the very Estonian thing of running outside and jumping in the snow nude. My skin was so boiling hot after the sauna that being naked in the snow was actually really nice and it didn’t feel too cold at all. The only real embarrassing thing was that I was in the public and anyone could have seen me especially the house full of girls next door. On my last nigh we decided to go out and party being the big night out in the week and the girls from next door came over for some drinks. They were all like models and I found it hard to look them in the eye after my naked rampage through the joined backyard just hours before. We had a great night and at 6:45am the next day I had to drunkenly run for my bus to head to Riga in Latvia. I was sad to be leaving the nice, friendly and hospitable people of Estonia but at this rate I wouldn’t see much of Europe. I only spent 2 nights in Riga to speed things up but I really enjoyed my time there. Riga has a different feel to it compared to Tallinn but it still has a nice charm about it even though it’s much larger. I found myself getting lost over and over again even with my map I didn’t know where I was half the time. Riga was covered in snow when I arrived but by the end of the day it was half gone as the weather really warmed up. Snow was melting off all the rooftops and large chunks were hitting me from 5 stories up everywhere I walked. It was kind of cool though because I felt like was in a computer game trying to dodge all the falling snow and trying to keep my health at 100%. I hung out with some really nice people in Riga and it was a good change having friends to do some sightseeing with. On our last night we went up to the “sky bar” which overlooked the city and sunk some cocktails while watching the sunset. One cool thing in Riga are these bridges where all the newlyweds attach an engraved padlock to them so there are thousands of padlocks everywhere. On Saturday I caught the bus to Vilnius in Lithuania where I’ve been for 2 nights so far. It does seem like a nice town too but there are a few sketchy people about and my friend got mugged on Saturday night so I’m very cautious walking around here now. Anyway I better go see some sights so I’ll have something to write about next time.

Woodsy