Riding north to Russia with their newly acquired visas, Mike and Jo take a few days to explore the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.25 to 31 may 08

After spinning our wheels (or wheel in the case of the Elephant) for a couple of weeks waiting for our Russian visas, we hustled north out of Budapest with a tank full of pent up energy. We took a deep breath and rode straight across Slovakia and Poland. By the time we reached Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, we had got the worst of our need for movement under control and we slowed to take our time through the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

These three tiny countries are huddled together at the eastern end of the Baltic Sea and share a great deal of common circumstance and history. Together they have an area of less than 175,000 square km. To put this in Australian perspective, Tasmania, with an area 68,400 square km, is larger than any of these countries. The populations are equally diminutive. Estonia can muster only 1,300,000 souls, the others just over 2 million each.

We spent a few days in each of the three capitals: Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn.

Vilnius has the feel of a well ordered provincial city and with 500,000 residents it is relatively easy to get around. It does, however, have a lot of churches of almost every type. Apart from Russian Orthodox, there are Calvinist and other Reformist piles together with Roman churches from a dozen different religious orders honoring a spread of saints to meet every taste

This is the Church of St Catherine.

Since the churches were the main feature of the city, we ended up visiting about a dozen of the notable ones. By the end of the day I was remembering a group of Irish pilgrims we had seen in the Bascilica in Esztergom (Hungary). They were so overcome by the experience that they spontaneously burst into a hymn. I didn't know any hymns, so when the church visiting become too much I started to hum the only suitable song for which I know all of the words. It is an old number by Janis Joplin:

“O lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz,
my friends all drive Porches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
O Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz.”

...and so on. After three verses we went to look for coffee.

The three muses adorn the front of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre.

Vilnius is built at the confluence of the rivers Neris and Vilnia. The course of the Vilnia has been moved over the years as the city has grown. It now includes a number of islands including one that is the artistic quarter of Uþupis which has cultivated a Bohemian look.

A gallery and coffee shop in the artistic quarter of Vilnius.

The sign speaks for itself in any language. The area has declared itself a “republic” of artists. It has its own constitution, president and anthem.

As is often the case, a friendly local gave us a good overview of life in modern Lithuania. Neli, like so many young folk we have met in the Baltic States, was well educated and linguistically talented. Ian Walker will be pleased to hear that she spoke American with a soft Southern accent picked up while studying in North Carolina.

Neli and Jo in Vilnius.

Lacking a critical mass of land, population, industry or political influence, all three of the Baltic States have been occupied by one foreign power or another for most of their millennium long histories. Vilnius, pretty town that it is, was also a convenient stopping off place for everyone from German crusaders to Napoleon who was just passing through on his way to invade Russia. They have all left their mark on the city and its people.

Further on up the road, in the Latvian capital of Riga, we found out how deeply the feelings about Russian occupation run. The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia is housed in a building as sinister looking as much of its content. There is no doubt that the dead hand of Soviet rule treated these countries badly.

The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.

Riga had a very beautiful old city that was squeaky clean, neat and set aside for the tourist. It is one of those attractive places where you find yourself almost subconsciously looking in the window of estate agents for the price of apartments. That is, until you remember that average winter temperatures are about -5 degrees C!

This building is nicknamed “Stalin's Birthday cake”. It was built in the 1950s to house the bureaucracy looking after collective farms. The main outcome of collectivisation was the failure of much of the agriculture sector.

Our hotel, the Augustine, was recently renovated but showed the style of a lot of the traditional buildings built from the plentiful local timber.

The house cat was called Pûce (owl).

Our final stop in the Baltic States was Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The city has only 300,000 residents so hardly rates as a “big smoke”. Rather, it has the feel of a nice, comfortable, provincial city. Its historic centre is beautifully presented and well appreciated by the thousands of tourists that arrive each Spring.

View over the old city of Tallinn.

The day we walked the old city we noticed a lot of security and several road blocks. A motorcycle cop told us the Prime Minister of France was visiting. A few minutes later, while we were looking at this Cathedral...

...the official party and a huge gaggle of extras...

... snaked into the square and around the Cathedral.

We headed off to look at other things and get a pre-Russia haircut. We did, however, take a fancy to two of the defensive towers on the old city wall. This one...

...is called “Tall Hermann's Tower”, while this one...

...is “Fat Margaret's Tower”. There is no prize for guessing why!

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 provided the first real opportunity for independence for the Baltic states. By 2004 all three countries had sought the solidarity of NATO and EU. membership.

One impact of such a long period of occupation has been the interesting solutions these states have arrived at to decide who is a citizen. The Russians had an active policy of settlement, including the settlement of retired military personnel, that resulted in a good percentage of the population being ethnically “different” to the nationalists that sought independence. This led to some somewhat convoluted rules on eligibility for citizenship.

While we were in Riga we noted a letter to the editor complaining that the writer had been in Latvia for more than 10 years and was still banned from some clubs in the city which were restricted to Latvians. I guess they will figure it out in the long run, or maybe not. In the meantime, the “Occupation Museums” in each country keep the memory of the dark days and the prejudice alive.

Our visit to the Baltic States was relaxing and enjoyable (put these places on your must visit list) but our Russian visas allow entry any time after 25 May so the clock was running. On Saturday 31 we spent our last Estonian currency on six litres of 98 octane and two cups of coffee a few km short of the frontier before sidling up to the infamous Russian border bureaucracy.

Our crossing took more than two hours and was neither as difficult as it could have been nor as easy as we would have liked. At 1600hr we rode out of the frontier checkpoint and headed up the goat track that passes for a highway towards St Petersburg. We were both as elated as we had been nine months ago when we started our journey. After all, this is what we came for. Russia, the big Gorilla. 12,000 km across. You can't say you've ridden around the world until you ride across Russia and now we were ready to try.