Bencito

http://travel.webshots.com/album/564101642tAgPOc

Please have a look at my second album of my June 2008 trip to Eastern Europe.

This album covers Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Estonia - Tallinn
· A surprise stop for us as our lovely tour leader arranged this stop and did a walk of the beautiful old town Tallinn.
· Weather was nice and the small town feel of Tallinn was quite a change from St Petersburg.
· We had a wonderful breakfast in Tallinn. Tallinn was quaint, beautiful and medieval. I was glad to spend some time in the Estonian Capital.

Latvia - Riga
· Our driver met us in Tallinn and we were on our way to Riga.
· We did not have a lot of time to explore Riga as we had a great lunch at a medieval restaurant in the Old Town. The fried garlic bread and the rabbit were very good! The medieval restaurant, although quite pricey, was a lovely experience.
· Riga was well known for its beautiful Art Nouveau architecture. We saw the major landmarks and learned some history about the city.
· Riga struck me as a vibrant, cosmopolitan city.

Lithuania - Vilnius
· Vilnius's old town is charming and highly walkable with world heritage status.
· St. Peter and Paul Church's baroque interior was particularly striking. It is not right within the Old Town but well worth visiting. The Vilnius Cathedral is simple and beautiful. The KGB museum is thought provoking with another aspect of local history.
· don't forget to try local specialties like the melted hot chocolate, Zeppelin and fried garlic bread! They are very good.

Poland - Warsaw
· after one day of travelling from Vilnius, we arrived in Warsaw in the evening.
· We had one full day for all the sights of the Polish capital. Our tour leader did a wonderful walking tour of historic centre of Warsaw, superbly rebuilt from the second world war. This is probably one thing that impressed me the most about Warsaw.
· The old town market square is splendid, as are the Wilanow park and Royal Castle.
· The Stalinist Palace of Culture and Science is pretty impressive as well.
· We went to a Communist themed restaurant. Food was great and the atmosphere was nice! We saw local people have fun.

Poland - Krakow
· The former imperial capital of Poland with the impressive Wawel Castle and Cathedral. The interior of the Castle was different from others I have seen - medieval looking to me rather than the ornate golden baroque.
· It was raining when we were visiting the beautiful historic centre but it was not raining too bad. The Jewish quarter was interesting as well.
· We visited the Auschwitz - Birkenau concentration camp. The Birkenau was the more shocking one. It was an experience to see this sad chapter of history.
· Other day trips opportunities I did not do but would love to do are the Salt Mines and the Nowa Huta Communist Tour.
· The pierogi in Poland come with many different varieties with meat, potato and fruit. I tried the Spinach one with Garlic sauce and it was very good.

Thanks and I hope you enjoy the album.

Ben

amp322

Thanks for posting these! I went to Moscow, St P, Helsinki, and Tallinn this summer. Really want to check out Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, also, so I will be coming back to check out these photos some more.

I liked the small town feel of Tallinn, also. I will definitely be going back to explore some more. Maybe next time I'll stay over for a few nights. I just took a day trip by ferry, this time.

pdx

Very nice and thank you, Ben. Now that you have been there with a tour would you have any concerns about attempting a trip without a guide? Finding people who speak english not too hard? And were the prices similar to Euro countries? Meaning, would we be able to budget less for Poland and the Baltic States than for a trip to Spain or Italy?
I loved those underground restaurant shots. I want to eat there too!

Treesa

Bravo, Ben. Great photos. Thanks for sharing.

Marija

Great photos. Thanks. Hope you washed down the cepelinai with some Svyturys Extra!

Prices in Lithuania are less than in the eurozone and English is widely spoken in tourist areas.

lanejohann

thanks bencito!
Tallinn does look lovely
i really want to go - if we can squeeze it i after / before Russia

Bencito

Thanks for all the comments!

To pdx – I think these countries are quite easy to do on your own. After having been there, if I am going to these places the second time, I feel that I can do this on my own, but with much more planning of course. I think that from the Baltics to Poland and then Czech Republic and Slovakia, it should not be a problem even for first time visitors to go on their own. On the whole I found prices in Eastern Europe lower than in Western Europe, but not substantially lower. Lithuania and Poland appear to be the cheaper ones. English is quite widely spoken in touristy areas, and there are tourist offices to help you. That said, I ran into language problems, but nothing substantial. I find that the hotel staff are another good source of information. I also found the street signs to be well marked in Vilnius, Warsaw, Krakow and Prague. So places are easy to find. Of course for this trip our tour leader was very good and I definitely appreciate her great work! Regarding the medieval restaurants, the one I went to in Riga was expensive, but the ones in Vilnius were quite reasonably priced. The other point is transport between the Baltic states. My tour leader did comment on that the transportation between the Baltic States is not as frequent, that is one of the reasons why she chartered a driver for us to get from Tallinn to Vilnius. So plan this part accordingly.

To lanejohann – I hope you have a chance to go as well. It is quite a change from Russia for me and I love it.

skatedancer

great pics. We were in Krakow, Warsaw and Vilnius last summer. No problems traveling on our own, by and large. The only place where most of the staff did not speak English was at a little lakeside resort we stayed in outside of Vilnius. The only other issue was buying our train ticket in Krakow, where agent did not speak English, and then trying to decipher the ticket to figure out where in the world we were supposed to sit.

tower

In traveling virtually every one of the Soviet bloc countries, long before it was popular to do so, I must admit that language was not a major problem (petrol and food were!). Finger-pointing works as well there as anywhere else....and learning just a few relevant words and phrases are welcomed. The Baltic States, before they were independent, even under Soviet repression, had the old world charm they appear to maintain today. I'm planning to return to Russia for the third time, the first since USSR days, and will be visiting Belarus and Ukraine for genealogical purposes....combined with a river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg. I'm sure the changes will be eye-popping.

Bencito, excellent fotos...you captured the essence.

stu t.