Wroclaw

From Lithuania I took the overnight bus to Warsaw (always a favorite thing to do - I would actually rather spend an entire day on buses and go straight to the hostel to sleep). Arriving in Warsaw at six in the morning after a Euro game was an interesting experience. Still drunk revelers, police everywhere. I tried to find an open restaurant to wait until my next transportation transfer, but nothing was open so I went ahead to the other bus station, found a McDonald's there and wasted a few hours eating breakfast and using the free wi-fi.

I was only in Wroclaw (vrots-waff) for a few days, but it was probably my favorite city of the trip. It's a lovely, small city, easy to get around, beautiful architecture, cheap, and filled with small statues of gnomes. I also found a restaurant with amazing bean/mushroom enchiladas that I returned to a few times. Wroclaw had been the site of some of the round-robin Euro matches, so the main square had been set up for watching the games, so I took advantage of the proximity to the hostel and watched a few of the games there.

Strange art - headless bird-men hovering over nests in the trees.

Old town/cathedrals.

Euro Fanzone at night.

One (of many) small gnome statues.

Main square with a little creative photography (cutting out all of the soccer stuff).

Lithuania

Lithuania was the final stop on what I found to be the typical tourist trail of the Baltic States. I spent most of my time in the capital, Vilnius. I found that it was quite a bit larger than the other capitals, and the old town was different as well - it was a lot more than just tourist sites, but filled with locals. Granted this wasn't always a good thing, as I was almost hit by a car and was kind of hit (nicked) by a bicycle. There was just less patience for wandering tourists and less English overall, but it was great to see a different side of the city.

My favorite day was my last in the city. I wandered for hours (which is what I did most days, but I didn't get nearly as lost), had two restaurant meals (to use up my last Litas), climbed a tower for a panoramic view of the city, and visited the KGB/Genocide museum (one of the most interesting and sobering places I've been so far).

Castle (which I later climbed). 

Stebuklas tile on the main square, the endpoint of a human chain that went across the Baltics showing unity in wanting their independence. 

Constitution of a "republic" of artists. 

View of the city.

I made one day trip to Trakai castle, which is supposed to be one of the gems of the country. The castle has been very well restored and has a very interesting museum.

 The castle is situated around a bunch of lakes, and for a minute I thought I was back home.

Latvia

In many ways, Latvia is very similar to Estonia. Riga has a beautiful old town, which is quite different from Tallinn. It's larger, and not quite as immediately intense, but more subtle and spread out. The new town was also a pleasant surprise. A lot of parks, and some great architecture. There's also a huge market that fills five old WW1 zeppelin hangars as well as the entire surrounding area.

I took one side trip within the country to Sigulda, where there are a number of castles and caves (and a bobsled track). Most of the castles have been restored within the last few decades (and not completely accurately), but it was a nice trip. We crossed the valley on the only cable car in the Baltics, and walked a LOT, but it was a beautiful day.

I also got a sneak peek into Lithuania when I crossed the border to see the Hill of Crosses. Normally the trip is a bit complicated (two buses followed by a 2 km walk), but we met a nice Australian couple who let us go with them in their taxi. The hill itself is filled with countless crosses- well not just the hill, but the surrounding area as well. It's quite odd to see it out in the middle of nowhere, but it was beautiful. We even got to see a part of a pilgrimage to the site.

 

Estonia

Estonia (and the Baltic states in general) have always been a big question mark on my mental map of the world, so I had no idea what to expect. In fact, I was very pleasantly surprised.

The old town of Tallinn is as a fellow traveler described "intensely beautiful." Every step you take you want to take another picture because everything is so incredible. It can be a bit like a touristy, Disney-fied experience though, filled with parties and tourist traps. I was also able to also get outside of the old town to Kadriog park and to the "other side of the tracks" to see the Russian part of town.

The Disney/touristic element 

 Russian market

At Kadriog, now an art museum

After that I took the train to Tartu, a university town to the south. When I arrived it was beautiful - full of parks and statues - so I decided to just enjoy walking around before watching the first Spanish Euro game. The next day, when I went out to take pictures, ended up being rainy for the entire day. A shame, because the city really is pretty.

The first day 

Statue of kissing students in front of Town Hall 

Finland

Finland was an interesting introduction to northern Europe. Much of the time that I was there was chilly and raining, but I was able to get out and see a few things in between.

In Helsinki, I stayed a ways outside of the city center (that's what you get when you're on a budget) so there was a lot of walking. My strongest memory will probably be the sleeping situation itself. I was in a dorm with 26 beds, and I was the lucky one to get bed "L" which put me in the aisle next to the door and a window. I hadn't even thought before about how far north I was, and didn't even consider that it would be light for twenty hours a day. Needless to say, it was a rough few nights of sleep.

However, the city itself was quite nice. The harbor and churches were beautiful, and there were a lot of parks.

 Sibelius monument

Suomenlinna fortress

I made two side-trips to clnearby cities: Turku and Porvoo. Turku is known as a medieval city, complete with castle. My experience wasn't the greatest, having to pay an exorbitant amount for the (albeit nice) train ride and getting horribly lost looking for the castle.

Porvoo was a nice trip. The town is much smaller and has a nice old town to wander around in.

On the road again...

Tomorrow I leave on a new adventure - two and a half months in northern Europe! My original plan was to be flexible and go without a plan, but after checking out hostel options at my starting point I realized it might be a good idea to plan ahead a bit more.

Here's the itinerary for the trip :

FINLAND

June 2-7 – Helsinki

ESTONIA

June 7-10 – Tallinn

June 10-12 – Parnu

LATVIA

June 12-17 – Riga

LITHUANIA

June 17-22 – Vilnius

POLAND

June 22-25 – Wroclaw

CZECH REPUBLIC

June 25-29 – Prague

June 29-July 1 – Cesky Krumlov

SLOVAKIA

July 1-5 – Bratislava

POLAND

July 5-10 – Krakow

July 10-13 – Warsaw

NORWAY

July 13-15 – Stavanger

July 15-18 – Bergen

July 18-20 – Laerdal

July 20-22 – Oslo

SWEDEN

July 22-25 – Stockholm

DENMARK

July 25-30 – Copenhagen

GERMANY

July 30-August ? - Berlin

Munich

FRANCE

August ?-17 - Paris

It's definitely going to be a lot of stops and not as much time as I would like to spend in each place, but it should be a different experience!

Northern Argentina

From Villazon, we walked across the border to La Quiaca, Argentina. As there is very little to do in La Quiaca, we went straight to the bus terminal to find the first available bus to the city of Salta.

Salta is another nice city, but the highlights are in the surrounding areas. First we went to the north, through the mountains to the Salinas Grandes, in search of some dry salt flats. Then back to the city through the pretty town of Purmamarca, which involves a very steep descent into the valley from above the clouds.

Llamas next to the highway

Salinas Grandes - When rectangles of salt are extracted you can see the pools of water underneath

Salinas Grandes

The road to Purmamarca

Purmamarca market

The next day we went south through the Quebrada de Cafayate to the city of Cafayate. The highlight of this trip is really the journey. There are so many beautiful mountains of all different colors and compositions, and a ton of interesting rock formations.

The Devil´s Throat

El Sapo - The Frog

The flourescent green bush

The Llama building in Cafayate

(For those who look without seeing, the Earth is earth, nothing more)

After Salta it was off to Cordoba, where I voluteered back in 2009. At this point my travel companion and I decided to split up, to take some time off and to each be able to follow the routes we want to. I spent my first day doing a version of "This Was Your Life," in which I visited all of the places I went to in my time here. The second day was Easter Friday, so almost everything was closed. I ended up going to the giant annual artesan fair, which is huge and has artists from all of South America.

Pedestrian shopping street

Parque Sarmiento

Tonight I´m back on a bus, and I should arrive in Mendoza in the morning!