So on arrival in sweden, i realise this holiday is not getting warmer. it is cold and it is windy and it is raining. not a good start. Unfortuantely for the rest of the time here, it is cold. no sun, fine rain and stiff winds. Rubbish.

my first impression is that sweden isnt as clean as finland. the residents seem edgier than the nerds from next door with grafitti on walls, fashionable hairstyles and dirty public transport. It felt a little like being in england. All things here are in swedish. maybe being an arrogant brit, i expected 100 percent english coverage just like finland, but these swedes are obviously content with just the one language. thats not to say they dont, should or cant use english. the homeless guy i bought a magazine from could even speak in english. How mad is that? bilingual homeless...what next? cant imagine.

Walking around the centre of town, you get a feeling of the country's rich history. old buildings that are well restored, a fascinating museum including ancient peoples bones and viking relics. fascinating stuff. honestly, it puts the trinkets and kimonos of japan in the shade by a long way. these displays highlighted a huge civilization that spread across england, america, northern europe. brilliant stuff to be able to see a replicated viking villages and graves. give me that over a calligraphy scroll anyday! the second day in stockholm included another museum, this time one of a sunken galleon that sunk 2 minutes after its maiden voyage started. Take that, titanic. 2 minutes! down to the bottom of the ocean for 350 years. it was then lovingly raised and restored somewhat by experts thus displaying this huge ship to the public...again highlighting how well off this country was back in the day.

For lunch (yup, we were up and away early today) we went to a world famous smorgasbord in some posh forest restaurant. a bit fo a disappointment cos they had one table of food. i was expecting a full-on assault of my eyes and taste-buds. The food was very nice, including more reindeer (hehe) but nothing to make me go "Ooooh", which is what i was expecting. But still, despite the cold, another impressive country that I have flown thrown. (figuratively, not literally). Now its on to yet another mammoth boat to sail across the baltic sea for 30 hours in Latvia. A country i know nothing about.

written by  adamski752 on September 9, 2008 from Stockholm, Sweden
from the travel blog: Adam's Leisurely Return Home
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Riga was an eye opener. (as everywhere has been so far, really). we stumbled out of the boat, got ripped off by a taxi driver (another recurring theme) and found our hostel. the hostel was in the regular aged part of town which was fairly regular. unlike sweden or finland, the buildings here werent so smart...but on finding the old town, it was a different case all together. intricate little houses/buildings, towering churches with spires, domes and the whole churchy thing. i didnt realize that it would be such a pretty place to be. got a stunning view of what could have been the whole country (small place, latvia) from the top of an open spire...-1 degree celcius for every metre the spire was tall...total minus 180 degrees celcius. this meant i made a swift departure inside and back down into the warm vestry.

for the rest of latvian sightseeing we glided around the old town looking at 16th centruy things and generally being pleased we had made a stop here. one point of note was the occupation museum highlighting how the latvians had been annexed 3 times in the last century. firstly by stalin, secondly by hitler and to add insult to injury, stalin did it agin after WWII. it now made sense that some of the people on the boat were a tad gruff. i would be too. it made me feel a bit proud that Latvia and lithuania were the 1st 2 countries to announce their independence from the USSR as soon as the opportunity arose. they had been shat on for approximately 70 years, so it was high time they had a ray of sunshine...

time for dinner so we dropped into a warm underground native food place, the name of which i cant even begin to remember. we tucked into traditional latvian dishes and also had a bit of lard...not even joking. the best part of the meal for me though was the drinking. i enjoyed a few cocktails before deciding to try the local drink, Latvian Balzams. a heady concoction of erm...stuff. it is supposed to cure what ails ya but i think it makes you go a bit funny. on the way home, tony stopped me from being hit by a tram. technically, i owe him my life. haha. it was a good drink that made everything turn a shade of orange and things moved quickly around you while you can only move slowly. i felt a little disoriented but in an absolutely good way. i recommend a swift guzzle of the balzams any day of the week. and if i hadnt been traveling for another 2 weeks afterwards, i would have got my self a bottle to enjoy in the comfort of my own home...next time i guess.

The next afternoon, it was out of the hostel, grab some pastries and onto a bus to travel about 34cm to Lithuania...it isnt far away.

written by  adamski752 on September 11, 2008 from Riga, Latvia
from the travel blog: Adam's Leisurely Return Home
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I do wish i could write abit more about Lithuania but it was very mcuh the same as next door Latvia. a very nice old town with churches and the like. the people seemed friendlier but other than that, it was Latvia again. they did not have any Lithuanian balzam on the menu, only jaegermeister. not the same, im sure. i figure if i was traveling in the other direction, i would be saying the same thing about Riga

the hostel room we stayed in was grand. a large bedroom and a downtairs basement bedroom with heated flooring. very nice considering the cold and rain.

my one overwhelming thought of Lithuania was that despite being very nice, it didn't stand out. it was just good. but if good is as bad as it gets, then i'm still winning.

After only 16 hours in Lithuania we had to get to the airport and we were not ripped off by the taxi driver so i gave him a big tip. he probably thought i was an idiot who didnt know tipping etiquette. i was just glad it didnt cost us €400 to drive for 6 minutes.

we hopped onto our teeny little propeller plane for the dart over to Poland. The take off was thrilling...i love these little planes much more than the nasty, thundering 747s. i feel like a wright brother...maybe

written by  adamski752 on September 12, 2008 from Vilnius, Lithuania
from the travel blog: Adam's Leisurely Return Home
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