Baltic Europe Articles

What You Risk Reveals What You Value #4: Riga, Latvia – Riga, Latvia

Finding something as simple as a phone card can be difficult when you don’t speak the lingo, but the locals are friendly when Lizza gets locked out of her B&B.

What You Risk Reveals What You Value #3: Estonia – Estonia

Day one is Estonia is a success. Lizza found her way around, got a massage, met some other travelers and drank some very good Estonian beer.

Our Liepaja Adventure – Liepaja, Latvia

Patricia Perkins’ poor preparation left her open t

European Travelogue #1: Vilnius, Lithuania

The Baltic Breakaway.

From Baltic to the Black Sea #4

Belarus (My 50th country) 2 September 1999
Doobre Zhen,
(Hello in Belarussian)

Actually, there’s no point writing in Belarussian, as few people, even the Belarussians, speak this language. Belarussian nationalists claim that they are a separate race from the Russians but have been excessively Russified such that they have forgotten their mother tongue. Others, for [...]

From Baltic to the Black Sea #3

Vilnius, Lithuania 31 August 1999
Dear All,

Lonely Planet is really screwed up in terms of cybercafe locations – or maybe such places tend to open and shut down quickly. One of the two listed in Riga wasn’t there and I spent much time searching for one above a Vilnius dogdy nightclub, only to be [...]

From Baltic to the Black Sea #2

Kaunas, Lithuania 30 August 1999
Laba Diena,
(Hello in Lithuanian)

I’m now in Kaunas, the second largest city (and capital during the period between WWI & WWII) of the Republic of Lithuania.

On Sunday morning (after a late night chat with the landlady’s 2 pretty daughters), I took the 7am bus across southern Latvia into Lithuania. The [...]

From Baltic to the Black Sea #1

Riga, Latvia 28 August 1999
Dear All,

It’s Wee Cheng writing from a cybercafe in Riga, capital of the Baltic republic of Latvia, also a former Soviet republic. The Latvians speak a language close to no other peoples except the Lithuanians next door, and have not had their own country until 1919. Before that, [...]