The Breathtaking Baltics

Crossing the border from Poland to Lithuania we were hoping for one thing – better roads. You wouldn’t believe it but the change was instant. The drivers on the other hand are complete nut cases! We drove into Kaunas, on old medieval city and were beginning to see some clear Soviet influences. We found our “campsite” (I will explain the inverted commas later) and headed to the main shopping centre in the hope of finding a hardware store. Well, we didn’t find a hardware store, but we found one of the largest aquariums in a shopping centre in the world! You could seriously mistake yourself for being in a hotel lobby in Dubai! It was so grand…huge stone carvings in the interior, sharks in the aquarium and a food court that made me feel like I was in ‘The Village’ in Westfield London.
We left Kaunas and made a pilgrimage to the Hill of Crosses in Siauliai. It really is just that. A hill of crosses. It has quite the religious significance to those who believe and is interesting to note that the Soviets tried to bulldoze it down, but at night the local Lithuanian farmers would rebuild it so I guess it demonstrates a lot of faith whichever way you look at it. Onwards to Riga where we set up camp. Now I can explain the whole “camping” thing. Lithuania and Latvia are beautiful countries don’t get me wrong, but I think they have a distorted view of camping (please note this is based on only two campsites and therefore is probably not actually true). In my mind, an old CARPARK by a motorway, main road or busy port does not constitute camping. Adding a shower block and kitchen facilities does not take away from the fact that it is still a bloody CARPARK! Nevertheless, we managed to find a small patch of grass (tents don’t stay put so well on concrete) and enjoyed hot, clean showers.
Riga was magnificent and a shame that we only had the evening there. Fortunately it was a Saturday evening so the city was in full swing. Live music coming out of almost every restaurant, people enjoying the last of the long days, the majestic pastel buildings and plenty of stag and hen parties spilling out on to the cobbled streets. What a great city.
Driving into Estonia we stopped in a small village called Triemani for a picnic lunch. The town is called so as in the 1700s?? plague and war wiped out all of the town bar three men. These men left to find women and upon their return set up three farms and the village re-grew from there. Apparently some of the descendants of these men still live in town.
Learning from our mistakes, we sourced out a campground that had plenty of grass. What we found was a brand new campsite just outside of Tallinn that had only been open this season. It was so perfect that we stayed two nights. On the second night it was the staff end of season party and we were invited! We appreciated the free sauna and fire heated hot tub and the beers. The swim in the pond can only be politely described as ‘refreshing’.
Our last day in Estonia and we drove to Toila. Toila was only chosen as it is fairly close to the Russian border and had a camp ground. What we didn’t know is that Toila has a beautiful beach and becomes quite the resort town in the height of summer. There is also a huge park with old palace gardens, an outdoor theatre, mystical gardens, caves and a German war cemetery – weird combination I know. After a quick walk we decided it was best to explore on wheels. Hayden fetched his skateboard (yes, he bought it with him) and I hired a bike at the mega price of £3/hour.
Feeling a bit hot and sweaty after some exercise (we hadn’t done any in quite some time) we became those crazy tourists that swam in the ocean. Surprisingly, the Baltic Sea is not actually as cold as it sounds!