Month: September 2019

Sigulda and The Gauja Valley, Latvia

I heard that Sigulda had castles, so I figured I should probably visit. Then I found a fairly unique place to stay while there, so I did visit. It took a 4.5 hour bus ride to Riga, and then over an hour on a train to get to Sigulda, but my adventure was only just beginning.

Sigulda is a town in Latvia’s Gauja National Park. This was the first national park in the country, and it encompasses the Gauja River Valley. A valley is quite the thing to see in a country that is otherwise flat as a flat tire. My lodgings for the next three nights were not in Sigulda however, they were across the valley at Krimulda, an old manor house. So I had a forty minute walk ahead of me. And it was very nice.

The Gauja Valley is heavily forested, and the first hints of autumn’s colour were just beginning to appear while I was there. The walk to Krimulda was a lovely jaunt along forested paths, with wooden stairs assisting me down one side of the valley and up the other. As I descended I could see out through the trees to the other side of the valley, and there awaited the manor house. Pale yellow with white columns. My destination.

Once you’re in front of the manor you can see the peeling paint, but it is lovely nonetheless. The interior seems to have been redone in the 60s or 70s, and not in a style that has aged well, so the thrill of staying in a manor built in the 1800s quickly fades. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant place to stay. On two of my three nights I was the only person in my six bed dorm, and on the first night I may have been the only person in the building. I did hear some footsteps, but it was probably just a ghost.

It was lovely to spend some time in nature after being in cities for two weeks. I spent a day walking the valley to the various sights and enjoying some sweet solitude. I saw Gutmanis Cave, the largest cave in the Baltics, and it wasn’t super big. It is probably bigger than it used to be though, because for hundreds of years people have carved things into the soft sandstone, supposedly removing up to half a metre of stone. A stream runs out of the cave which is said to have healing properties, but I was not in need of healing, so I continued on.

The Gauja Valley also contains Turaida castle, and the land around it is the Turaida Reserve, which preserves some buildings from the 1800s maybe? I wasn’t paying attention to that, there was a castle to look at. Quite a nice brick castle, in fact. And you can go inside, and climb towers, and experience tight, dark, medieval stairways. It was nice.

I also spent some time in the town of Sigulda itself. It’s a nice small town. The Lutheran church there was rather pleasant, and it is the rare sort of church that lets you climb its tower without an exorbitant fee. There are also the ruins of a Livonian Order castle in the town. The Livonian Order were a branch of the Teutonic Knights, and they were crusaders sent to bring the love of God to the Baltic pagans whether they wanted it or not. The castle was nice though.

I should also mention that there are lots of cats here. I met one at Turaida Castle, I saw one and met one on the walk back from there, and I met two near to Krimulda. It’s wonderful.

Click here for more photos.

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Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn is a quick two hour ferry ride from Helsinki. This makes it a very popular destination for Finnish tourists, or more commonly, a destination for Finns to come, get drunk on cheap alcohol, and return to Finland with the maximum amount of inexpensive Estonian booze they can carry. But there is more to Tallinn than the beer, I just can’t remember any of it… I kid, I kid, although I did drink some beer in Tallinn, only it wasn’t the especially cheap kind.

Tallinn has a large and beautiful old town, which is packed full of tourists. It’s nice, and I like medieval buildings of course, but one wonders how many one can see before they all blur together. However I did go all in on the medieval-ness of everything when I went to the medieval themed restaurant III Draakon. Honestly, it was really good. This wasn’t a gimmicky, over-the-top medieval restaurant, it was hearty, simple food, served in a real medieval building, lit by candlelight, with staff dressed in authentic medieval garb. Yum. Luckily there’s more to Tallinn than just the old town. I didn’t make it too far from the old town, but I could see skyscrapers in the distance (something which Helsinki lacks, either to its credit or detriment depending on your view). What I did see outside of the old town was quite something.

I first went to the Museum of Occupation. This tells the story of Estonia’s difficult past as a country occupied first by the Soviets, then by the Nazis, and then by the Soviets again up until the break up of the USSR. Needless to say, this was not an enjoyable time. During Nazi occupation, Estonia became the only (unless I’m mistaken) country to be deemed Jew-free. Although the Nazis then brought more Jews into Estonia to be held in concentration camps, which is slightly ironic and very sad. When the Soviets returned at the end of WWII things continued to be bad, with huge amounts of people being arrested and deported to Siberia or simply executed. The exhibit ended by looking to the future and moving forward, rather than dwelling in the past, which was nice.

The National Library caught my eye because it is a massive, imposing building. Inside it is equally impressive. I just looked it up, and it seems that it was built right at the end of the 80s, so it is, as it appears, a piece of Soviet architecture. It was also designed by the same guy who designed the next thing I want to talk about.

Linnahall was built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics because Tallinn is so close to Moscow (12 hour drive). I don’t know what they were thinking. What it is is an amphitheatre and hockey arena, neither of which are currently open, sadly, but with an exterior that is a massive, brutalist, concrete thing. I guess most of the interior must be below ground, because you can walk around on the exterior in this strange, abandoned plaza and up sets of stairs like you’re ascending some sort of Communist pyramid. It was very cool.

I set out on a bit of a walk to get to one place in Tallinn that I really wanted to visit, and I’ll tell you about that in a moment, but first let me tell you what I stumbled upon on my way. It was a prison. A prison is what I stumbled upon. Upon an old, disused prison I stumbled. This was very cool because the prison was hosting an exhibit about its use during the Nazi and Soviet times as a horrible place for political prisoners and the like. This was an immensely powerful exhibition. I read the stories of what was done there, and who was kept there while standing in the cells and hallways of the prison itself. This was not a pleasant place at all. By the time I made it through I was drained and ready for something less wretched.

Luckily! I was on my way to a brewery when I upon the prison stumbled. So I continued unto there. A couple years ago I had a beer from Estonia in Victoria, BC, and it was possibly the best beer I had ever experienced. A gose that was crisp and subtle and refreshing. This beer was from the Põhjala brewery, which is conveniently located in Tallinn. And it was very good. They brew beer which is easily on par or better than any craft beer I’ve had in Canada.

Tallinn, and Estonia in general, didn’t get much of my time. I would like to see more, but there are so many places I want to visit that I decided to move on. Where am I now? you ask. Well, let’s just say its probably haunted and leave it at thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Here are photos! CLICK CLICK CLICK

Helsinki, Finland

Here I am, back in Helsinki after over six years. I have the most stereotypical tourist image of the city at the top of this post because I barely took any photos while I was here, since I didn’t really feel like a tourist. The moment I arrived on the train from Turku I made my way to the Tuomiokirkko (cathedral), just to get it out of the way, and I figured I may as well take the photo while I was there.

Helsinki feels the same as when I lived here six years ago. I have changed a lot in that time, and Helsinki has too, but the way the city feels to me, and how I feel while I’m here, is still the same. When I arrived I felt as if I had never left. It was not an emotional reunion like I thought it might be, I just got off the train, exited the station, and set out through streets that felt as if I had just seen them days before. It feels good.

The city is peaceful for how large it is, there is so much green space, and it’s very easy to get around by walking, biking, bus, tram, metro, and train. I just feel at home here, even after all this time. But that also means that I’ve got to move on, because I’m in Europe to travel, and Helsinki’s familiarity might shake me out of my groove.

Anyhow, below are a couple of pictures from my time here, with captions!

First up we have the tasty Finnish pastry korvapuusti (which means ‘slapped ears’ approximately), it’s essentially a cinnamon bun, but not too sticky and not too sweet like those in North America.

My most interesting culinary experience to date. These are fried crickets, with some sort of sauce, and I think there are crickets in the crackers too. This isn’t a Finnish delicacy or anything, but it may have to become a worldwide delicacy in the coming years. Honestly, they were delicious. I surprised myself by not even hesitating to pop the first one in my mouth and I just chowed down from there. They taste just like any other crunchy, seasoned snack. I also sampled an unseasoned one and it was also good.

And finally. I stayed at an AirBnB, and this is what welcomed me when I arrived. All the kittens were being adopted that day, but I got a few minutes to enjoy these glorious little critters. Yay!

Next stop, Tallinn, Estonia.

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Turku, Finland

I had one last full day in Stockholm following Waves of Darkness. From 10:30 when the ferry arrived until 20:00 when I departed for Finland. I spent this time relaxing, writing my blog posts, and wandering around an area of the city I hadn’t explored previously.

I chose the least expensive ferry option for my trip to Turku. Rather than Tallink Silja which I took to Riga, I went with Viking Line. I guess the vikings probably didn’t sail in the lap of luxury themselves. My bunk was deep in the bowels of the ship, beneath even where they keep the cars. It was so cheap that I didn’t even have an electrical outlet in my room. But that was totally fine because all I wanted to do on the ferry was get as much sleep as possible before we arrived in Turku bright and early at 07:30. My neighbour in this out of the way part of the ship was a cool young guy from South Africa, so I did get the chance to socialize and go for a drink at the on board bar before bed.

This ferry ride made for the third night in a row of sleeping on the ocean and I definitely recommend it. The rocking of the sea and the thrum of the engines really lulls one into a pleasant sleep. So I arrived in Turku well rested to meet an old friend who I hadn’t seen in six whole years.

Erik was an exchange student in Finland at the same time as me in 2012/2013, and we became very good friends during that time. He put in the effort to learn Finnish while he was here, and it paid off since he was able to come back for university, so he’s been living in Turku for over four years now. It was lovely to see him and reminisce about the old days. Plus, I had a local guide to the city and a place to stay.

Turku is a very pleasant little city. I had visited it a couple of times during exchange, but my memory of it was pretty darn foggy. The whole city seems to be under construction at the moment, but I really liked what they were doing with the place. They’re revitalizing old buildings, rather than tearing them down, and the new buildings they’re putting up have been designed to fit nicely with the old. Turku has quite a few old wooden houses, which are absolutely idyllic and very pretty (Erik is lucky enough to have his apartment in one such building). So the new apartments that they are putting up near these old houses have been built with wooden siding, and painted in the same colours as the old buildings. Even more interesting is that they have turned the long abandoned prison/mental hospital into swanky apartments, although I feel as if they may need to give them away in order to get anyone to live in such an obviously haunted location.

I visited Turku castle, which was well worth the entrance fee, cause it’s absolutely packed with stuff. Not only do you get to walk through the entire castle, some of which is medieval and some of which has renaissance and more modern interiors, but you also get museum exhibits on everything from women in the 16th century to Finnish military medals and coins. I was honestly not prepared to spend such a long time in there, but I wanted to see it all.

Though that was nice, I’m not really interested in doing much ‘tourism’ while in Finland. Having lived here for a time, I just want to rediscover and re-experience some of my favourite things from my time here, so simply wandering the city and eating Finnish foods (there is a picture and description at the bottom), and of course sauna is all I need.

But that’s enough rambling. What I really came to Finland for was Helsinki, paras kaupunki maailmassa! Which is where I currently am, but you’ll have to wait until I’ve spent some time here before you get your blog post you greedy little thing you.

Here are some photos of the place.

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Waves of Darkness on the Baltic Sea

Not to disparage Sweden too much, because it’s very nice here, but I wouldn’t have come here on this trip, which is meant to be budget, if not for this music festival. It took place on the ferry/cruise from Stockholm, Sweden to Riga, Latvia. One night of music on the way there, one on the way back.

The festival was of bands playing in the neofolk, martial-industrial, and darkwave genres. So dark, gloomy, beautiful music. I mainly came for the band Rome, who are an neofolk band from Luxembourg. They were performing their 2009 album Flowers From Exile, which happens to be among my favourite albums of all time. Click here to listen to a bit, don’t worry, it’s quite pleasant. To hear this live while the Baltic Sea moved the boat beneath my feet was quite an experience. In fact, I think the entire festival was improved by the rocking of the boat on the waves.

The other bands were also very enjoyable, but I know them less well, and they’re unlikely to be of interest to you unless you enjoy this style of music, so I will end this post here. Make sure to read the previous post about the time I spent in Riga mid-festival.