August 21, 2024
here I am, the day before the new school year starts, trying to get out another travel blog from last spring....i know i sent out one about the olympics, but i am feeling guilty about never getting this one done before that one...oh well...and the hope is that this one really will get finished and sent this week before school actually ramps up....
i am teaching 7th grade science (only😜) this year and am taking on the 7th grade team lead, at the American School of Paris....i must reiterate again how mellow this job seems....as my employers & the union stress that you should only be working 35 hours a week....and they really mean it...unless you are being paid for more time (like the lead position)...it is wild how much the french really focus on working to live, instead of the other way around....there are actually days that i don't take home my laptop for work...and i try really hard never to be on email after 4:30 or on the weekends....it is a wild position to be in and sooooooooo very different from other schools i have worked at...so i am enjoying my life outside of work...which is a pleasure....and i feel lucky to be able to have this gig at this time of my life...plus, living in Paris is fabulous....but enough about school....
last year during my second week of spring break, i went to visit the baltic states of estonia, latvia and lithuania, with my good friend wendy.....it was such an eye opening experience for me, as i unknowingly thought these countries were going to be similar to each other, but really they have their own flavor and take on life that was so cool to learn about....we were in tallin, estonia for three days, then riga, latvia for a night, because we did a 12 hour meandering bus tour of latvia to lithuania, and then three days in vilnius, lithuania....i do think we could have had a few more days in some places, but overall, it gave us a good taste of these places and who knows, maybe we will get back there some day🤷 on with the pictures....and as always, feel free to shoot questions my way if you have them....
our trip started in Tallinn, Estonia....a place known for internet access (it is a constitutional right for all Estonians) and apps....it has also become somewhat of a foodie destination....and our first night, in the rain ( a common theme for this trip), we went to a vegan place, that possibly served me one of the best meals of my life....it was delicious....and i will say, most of meals on this trip were quite tasty, albeit, some more tasty than others....this was one of the best EVER!!!!!!
on our walk back to our hotel, we walked past the russian embassy....everywhere we went on this trip we saw flags for ukraine...ukraine is just next to these countries and they feel just how close russia is to them and wonder if what is happening in ukraine could make them next...it was ever-present...which is not how it feels many other places around europe....
we stayed just on the edge of the old town of tallinn and there were lots of beautiful stone buildings with archways and turret type towers....and cobbled-stoned streets....
on our walking tour of the old town, we came across this musician with the statues, there were four of them, and they were part of the square and the building that surrounded it...i thought we were going to be told they were super old, but the guide was like "nah - they were built in the past 5 years"...ha!!!! it still made for a great shot though😛
as you can see, a ukranian flag is next to the estonian one....this is freedom square and at the top of the hill we climbed, you can see much of tallinn's newer sections of town...the tower in the front is a symbol of estonia's independence from the USSR...i will say that estonia experienced quite a number of independence times, but they always seemed to fall back under another entity's rule....
there are quite a few estonian-russians in estonia....they make up over 40% of the population...russian used to be taught in schools, but no longer, unless you attend a russian school in estonia....now its estonian and engish...most people under the age of 30 that we met, spoke english....estonia also does not consider itself a religious country...in fact, most estonians are atheist...but there is a huge russian orthodox church in the middle of old town....with a very famous seagull that hangs out there known as steve, who you can see in the picture....he even has his own instagram account😲
this is wendy and i at one of the overlooks of tallinn....as you can see, it is a traditional styled old town, with the orange tile roofs, turrets, and church towers....it was a fun place to visit and experience...
plus, tallinn has some great street art....i loved that you could get the name of the town with your overlook shot....so insta.....
another part of town with great street art is Kalamaja...it is a known for its hipster residents, food scene and colorful clapboard houses....much of the outside spaces, like the one above, were closed due to it still being chilly and rainy....
this is a last shot of the town hall center square in old town....i loved these styled buildings and we got lucky because the sun actually came out on our walk back to our hotel....so quaint....
we had a great view of old town from our hotel and got this lovely shot of the sunset...it didn't get dark until later at night, as it was april....even though it was still chilly...
we went outside of town one day to explore more of tallinn...we headed up towards the beach, even though it was chilly and rainy, and came across these ruins of the Pirita Convent....you could walk all over them....the church had no roof or things inside, but the explanations posted around this site were complete and explained why this was here and how it had been used...
we also went to the famous TV tower, where Estonians had fought back against the USSR in 1991...they were actually having an exhibit of Gustav Eiffel...to help bring an olympic feel to the area....
this tower had been built for the Moscow Olympics in 1980, it played an important role in Estonia's independence from the USSR, in that this was where Estonians came to make their last stand and win their independence....there was a lot of information on that...it was an interesting visit.....
from Estonia, we took a bus to Latvia....arriving for a one night stay...luckily we had the weather on our side for the exploration of old town....we did not get a chance to go inside the buildings above, but got to hear the bells ring in the late afternoon....riga has worked quite hard to preserve its old buildings and as you can see, they are stunning....this is called the House of the Blackheads and was set up for unmarried German merchants....this is a replica of the original building, as the original one was burnt down in the 1940's...riga is recognized by UNESCO as a city known for its amazing architecture....
there is a canal that goes around the old town of Riga and spring was just starting to pop, so it was lovely to walk around in this area....
this is the freedom monument of riga...we watched a group of hare krishna's sing their way past this...i have not see hare krishnas in quite a long time, so i thought it was cool....Latvia, like Estonia, gained its independence many different times, with the last time being in 1991 with the dissolving of the USSR....
we wandered into this church, because there was a concert that was being advertised for supporting ukraine...i loved the stained glass windows, as they were not like any others i had seen before....
after one day/night in riga, we jumped a tour bus for the countryside of latvia and lithuania to get to vilnius....our first stop was about an hour outside of riga....it was memorial to the salaspils camp that had been used by the nazis as a political prisoner camp....it was not the same as a concentration camp, although people did die here....it was used as a re-education through labor camp....this memorial was so well constructed...
there were these large concrete statues in the fields to commemorate the different groups of people who had been imprisoned here and unlike many other memorials i have been to, instead of an eternal flame, they had an eternal heartbeat playing....the latvians did a wonderful job with this memorial....
we also made a stop at a chateau on the way to vilnius, called rundale palace, and it was designed after french and english chateaus and gardens...it seemed to just spring up in the middle of nowehere...it was wild....and had an amazing garden....
we also made it to the hill of crosses in lithuania....i had never heard of this place before researching this trip....lithuania is 94% christian and this hill has been visited by pilgrims from all over, as well as high ranking christian people, including pope john paul 2 and pope francis...
rulers of the area in the past have tried to destroy this landmark, but were not successful...it started in 1831 and was rebuilt again in 1918...when lithuania was once again declaring its independence....it had been destroyed other times, but was always restored again by locals and pilgrims.....
there are said to be over 100,000 crosses on this hill of differing sizes, many with rosary beads wrapped around them....it was wild to see this...people have come from all over the world to leave crosses on this hill....so they have a multitude of languages and cultures represented by these crosses....
we stopped at one other spot before getting to vilnius, the old town of kaunas...but we did not see much there due to arriving so late....i loved the street art i saw though...
this is cathedral square in vilnius, which is the main square in old town and the center of this city....you see the cathedral in the picture...we did not go in, but it was huge...and we had a lovely day to do a walking tour for the old town of this city....
this is the town hall of vilinius, where cultural and political events are hosted...we actually saw the mayor of town walking into the town hall....without guards or police or anything...this was one of the only buildings that did not have the lithuanian and ukranian flags on it...because it only had the flag for vilnius...
there is an independent republic located in vlinius called uzupis...they have "broken away" from vilnius and consider themselves to be their own republic....it is an artist's enclave...you can get your passport stamped from here and the street art is incredible....
this is the constitution of the republic of uzupis...it has been translated into over 26 different languages, because everyone is welcome in this republic....some of the terms of this constitution include: "everyone has the right to be unique....everyone has the right to make mistakes....everyone has the right to celebrate or not celebrate their birthday"...it was awesome to read through this....and a cool place to wander around...
art was everywhere in the republic and shared in so many different ways....i loved the feeling this piece gave of tibet and laos....
back in the old town we found this wall that was a dedication to amazing lithuanians both past and present...it was so cool...pictures and parts of written pieces and artwork...it was a cool way to visually be introduced to the important people of this city....
this was the gate of dawn...one of the entrances to vilnius...it housed a chapel called the our lady of mercy and was small and stunning inside....vilnius alone has over 25 catholic churches...it is a very religious country....
above is wendy...my awesome travel partner...having one of our favorite snacks on the trip....garlic cheese bread...it is their version of garlic bread...but you dip the toasted rye bread into the melted cheese...yummy!!!!!
and here is me with the same snack, but at a different location...with of course a lithuanian beer...this place used black rye bread for dipping....tasty!!!! we had a great week in the baltics...and even though the weather did not really cooperate with us, we saw a lot of the old town and got the flavor of each capital city, plus some cool stops on the way between the cities....i enjoyed seeing this part of the world and experiencing the different flavors of foods here and the history that i didn't know before visiting!!! what a trip😎
with this update, i have now covered most of the different travel experiences i had over the 2023-24 school year..it was a terrific travel year for me.....i have some good adventures planned for the upcoming year as well...i am hoping that i will be a bit more on it when writing the blog...whether about paris and france visits or other trips i take outside of this country....thanks for reading to the end and if you have any questions, feel free to shoot them my way...i hope you enjoyed our exploration of the baltics and here's to my future adventures this year.....
have a fab day 😎
dani
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