June 24th-25th

RIGA, Latvia

June 26th-July 9th

ZABELIE, Russia

July 10th-21st

MOSCOW, Russia

Went with Anna to St. Petersburg for three days.

Our breakfast (compare to my breakfast in Riga)

Our search for dinner.

To explain: after walking around for seven hours, we'd reach a corner, and then I'd take a picture of the street. I'd then use my digital zoom to see if there were any restaurants on that street.

Day 1 in St. Petersburg:

A walk through the city...

Peter the Great.

Serafina the Great (and Pushkin in the background)

Anna in front of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, a.k.a. "Spas na krovi")

Then we took a boat ride on the canals and the Neva river-

In the background, the Kazanskaya Church

Anna under a very low bridge. I on the Neva river.

St. Isaac's Cathedral

The first ship Peter the Great built

Protesters. The sign says that the greatest source of terrorism in the world is USA.

Day 2 in St. Petersburg.

Another walk through the city...

The home of Raskolnikov, of Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment"

Someone washing something in the canal.

Weddings, and other buildings I now can't remember or locate on my map.

Then the Opera at the Mariinsky Theatre.

Marriage of Figaro

Day 3 in St. Petersburg.

Went to the Russian museum.

On day four, Anna took the train back to Moscow, and I took the train to Helsinki. My VISA for Russia is expired, so I must leave. Damn those one month VISAS.

St. Petersburg once again enchanted me. Now I can't decide whether I enjoyed it more in the winter or in the summer. I suppose the winter- fewer tourists, the magical snowy atmosphere, and Matt falling through the ice in the canal is a timeless memory.

I decided to stay in Helsinki for as short of a time as possible. It's quite an expensive city.

I stayed in the Stadion Hostel, which is actually located in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium.

I went to the tourist information center the next day, and got a free walking guide of Helsinki. That's one good thing about expensive cities. Many things are free- matches, plastic bags in supermarkets, and city guides.

I found Helsinki to be very beautiful and clean. Huge parks, friendly people, safe environment. Not much of historical value, though. But for one day, it was fun.

I spotted a rabbit in the park.

Helsinki's famous Orthodox church, The Church of Alexander Nevsky.

A German church in the park.

A yacht club on one of the islands of Finland.

The market on the harbor.

So I went to have lunch at the market, and there was a salmon with potatoes and greens lunch. The price said seven Euros, but the sign in English said seven dollars. So I asked what was going on, and it turns out that the English prices were from the previous summer, and a new sign wasn't made yet, so if I paid in dollars, it would be cheaper (which I obviously did). And the beer I ordered with my lunch said <3.5 %!> (note the odd exclamation point).

The Senate Square.

And just as I had encountered in St. Petersburg, and later in the Baltic cities, the beautiful weather suddenly changes to this.

So I went shopping. Found these cute toys in a souvenir shop. They were expensive, so I took a photo instead.

When the weather cleared up, I went to the famous Temppeliaukio Church, also known as the "Rock Church" (more appropriate and easier to pronounce). The walls are built of rocks, and the ceiling of copper wire. Very interesting.

Found the Sibelius Monument, a structure resembling organ pipes, dedicated to Finland's famous composer Jean Sibelius.

The next morning, took a huge boat to Tallinn, Estonia. Unfortunately, the weather was horrible. Rain and fog, all throughout the trip. I stubbornly refused to go inside the boat, and stayed alone on the highest deck.

Photos of Helsinki from the boat:

When we approached Tallinn, the weather started to clear up.

I checked into the first hostel I found, and went walking around the city. Tallinn has an extraordinarily preserved Old Town, with buildings still standing from as far back as the 14th century.

There were great views of the city from St. Olav's Cathedral, and from the Castle.

I visited a few famous churches, and went to hear a concert in one of them.

Below, the Town Square, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (another one), and Fat Margaret.

Probably the oldest pharmacy in the world (14th century? I can't remember exactly). One of the owners was this strange collector of all kinds of weird things, and the pharmacy also has a cool antique store now. Most of the stuff from that guy's collection though is at the museum in Tallinn.

After walking around the city during the day, I spent the evenings out with people. One night I went out with some girls I met at the hostel (pic to be posted later).

The last night before I was to leave Tallinn, I bumped into a bunch of Estonians having a bachelor party. That was fun.

The bachelor.

His friends, some of whom, as I understood, were fucking his sisters. I wish I knew Estonian, but it was funny to hear them trying to talk to me in English, or Russian, or some combination of different languages. Ah, it doesn't matter. We got drunk.

 Tallinn was awesome. I really didn't want to leave, but I wanted to see some other cities. I hope to come back.

I went to Parnu, a beach resort in Estonia. A few people recommended that I go there, but not for longer than a day. Unfortunately, the weather was awful all weekend. The entire sky was full of clouds, not a single glimpse of blue. And unfortunately, the bus to Vilnius was booked, so I had to stay there for a whole two days.

I couldn't go swimming, because the sea is shallow for about 500 meters inward, and I didn't want to leave my bag unattended on the shore. So I walked around on the water for a little bit, and watched some volleyball. I also walked around the town. Parnu is a small, agreeable town. A few pretty churches. A busy "main street". Some nice parks. It succeeds in the image of a relaxing resort.

In the evening, I went to a small bar, with lots of locals, and live music (I got a free CD!...not much compared to the plenty of free CDs forced into your hands in New York, but apparently I was the only one given a CD there).

The next evening I took my stuff and decided to spend the remainder of my time hanging out at this bar/diner, which plays classic rock music and has good, cheap food. On my way there I took a rest on a bench, and some man on a bicycle saw my guitar and asked if I can play him a song. I agreed, and after a few songs chatted with him for a while.

He seemed nice, but there was something weird about him. I felt like he might have some perverse tendencies. So I declined his invitation to dinner and spent the evening alone.

I spent the next day in Vilnius. I was on the bus all night, trying to sleep. It was quite difficult, though, because of the border guards checking passports when we passed through Latvia, and then a stop in Riga to let passengers off in the middle of the night.

I was given mixed advice about visiting Vilnius. In the end I decided I would go, since I was nearby anyway, and I don't know the next time I'd have the chance to go there, or would have the initiative to go there, and also I didn't really want to be in Riga (for personal reasons having to do with being rejected by the drunk tour guide I met there a month ago).

I was really happy that I stopped in Vilnius. I walked around the entire city, saw the Old Town and the regular quarters of the city. Vilnius' Old Town is the biggest (in Europe I think, or in Eastern Europe). It was very clean, full of old buildings painted in pastel tones.

Below, the higher castle and the lower castle. The lower castle is undergoing restoration, which should be completed in 2009.

The higher castle provided a gorgeous view of the city.

Vilnius' Old Town is full of Churches. I spent most of the day going from church to church. Some of them were very unique and beautiful, with great colors and figures of angels and icons.

The inside of one church looked like this. I was completely shocked. The entire inside was undergoing restoration.

The one synagogue in Vilnius.

That same evening I arrived in Riga, and spent the following day walking around. First I went on top of St. Peter's Steeple for a bird's eye view of the city.

Then I went to the Museum of Occupation of Latvia, and ended up spending a long time there.

By the time I came out, it was too late to visit the Dome Cathedral, the inside of which I still haven't seen. I wanted to see the 4th largest organ in Europe. I never did get to see it.

So I walked around the city for a little bit, though I wasn't having a very good time. It's really annoying sometimes how one person can completely shape your attitude towards an entire city.

I went to the monument of freedom. I read a joke in some newspaper about how during Soviet times if you place a flower by the monument, you win a free trip to Siberia.

I was hoping to meet up there with the two Austrian girls I hung out with in Tallinn. Unfortunately they weren't there, so I went home and decided to just go to bed early.

Fortunately, suddenly the door to my room opens and in walks the Belgian girl I hung out with in Tallinn. So I went out for drinks with her and the British guy who's been traveling to Estonia from Turkey by foot.

The next day, I went to Jurmula, a beach resort town near Riga. The weather was great, and the water wasn't shallow, so I finally got to swim in the Baltic Sea.

I was so pissed off though, because I lost my bikini top somewhere. But I went swimming anyway.

In the evening, I went back to Riga, and met my Belgian friend, Lieve, again. We went out, along with Lola, a girl from Spain.