Back from the Baltics

It was a wonderful vacation, that's for sure. Our run-in with Yo Yo Ma (left) was just the beginning to the adventures we had. For example, I faked having family roots in Vilnius in order to get into the archives of a special medieval building; it was worth the little white lie. But the best story happened this morning: at 4 am, as we were crossing the Russian border on the overnight bus and going through immigration, our bag is scanned. You don't mess around with Russian security--as Alyson mentioned, they scan and frisk relentlessly, not to mention requiring every foreigner to be registered with the local government within three days of arriving in the country. Anyway, everything seems normal, until the security officer summons me over to question me about what has found in our bag. On his x-ray screen is a six-pointed star that clearly looks like a weapon. Tired and worried, I don't even bother with Russian--I just tell him "it's for cookies!" and gesture wildly. He looked amused and let us go on our way. And so ends the story of how Alyson's Magen David cookie cutter almost landed us in Siberian prison.

Tallinn was a fitting culmination of our Baltics trip. First, we spent three days in a beautiful but tiny city that really only requires about 24 hours to explore completely. The result of that imbalance was that we had plenty of time to nap, watch American television in our hotel, and wander the streets aimlessly as we sipped on our hot wine drinks. We also got a little bit off the beaten path, seeing the Estonian National Art Museum (called KUMU) and one of Peter the Great's palaces outside Tallinn (called Kadriorg). Like Riga, Tallinn is this fantastic mix of old and new, and the juxtaposition of high-end shops next to medieval dwellings never ceases to amaze you. You'll walk out of a trendy Indian restaurant, and right next door there is a plaque talking about how a building next door was built in 1302, and here is a long list of the history of this modest little house. We enjoyed bumming around the Christmas village that was set up, although our search to find that special souvenir to remember our year abroad continues to come up with nothing.


Without further ado, here are some of our multimedia capturings from our trip:

A Restaurant in Riga - As you can see, medieval is big in this part of the world. Check out this restaurant we went to in Latvia.

Downtown Vilnius - A little difficult to hear, but you can enjoy the sites of the Lithuanian capital.

Scenic Vilnius - From the castle overlooking the city, here is the landscape and medieval city.

Overlooking Tallinn - Alyson narrates our first morning in Estonia.

And, if you're dying for more, here are lots of pictures. Once again, I've taken the time to only select the best, and to caption them. Please let me know if you like the captions...they take quite a bit of time, but I want you to know what you're seeing!