Kaunas

 I took a short train to Kaunas, just over an hour. Got coffee & cake with my 1st class ticket (€13). In the centre of the new town in Kaunas there are large wide streets on a grid. Liberty Boulevard runs down the middle, an impressive mile long pedestranised tree lined street through the centre of town, lined with pubs, restaurants and shops.

At the Art Museum 'Woman in Yellow' was the exhibit, seems like a famous painting, as what interesting was the amount of artists who had done their own version of it.

A decidely odder museum around the corner, enter the Devil Museum. Just the place to see a bombast of devils! Mostly carved from wood and painted, there is a suprising variety. On one floors, there are 'devils' from around the world, though taking a few liberties at times, such as the trolls from Scandinavia. It has orginated from a private collector and grew from there, devilish different.

Also nearby was the large War Museum, which houses all sort of rifles & guns, proceeding from basic bored wood rifles, up to semi-automatic machine guns. An unusual exhibit was a crashed plane, Lituanica which crashed en route to Kaunas.

 At a more contempary art galler, there was short exhibit, Black Hole, in which you entered a pitch black room and guided yourself only by a handrail. Ultimately you zig zag back to the start and emerge back into the light. Upstairs, as part of a large exhibit, dealing with senses other than sight, was a similar idea but this time artificial 'vines' dangle down, and you brush against something like crinkely tinsel. On another floor some strikingly vivid, geometric art.

Another day and down to the old town, some grand old churches around the town square. The Kaunas Castle stands as a tower fortress, nearby old building seem to be being transformed into stylish flats. Just down, through the park is the confluence of the two main rivers flowing through Kaunas, Nemunas and Neris. On Mondays, a lot of things are shut, but I visited the Botanical Gardens which, aside from the glasshouses was open, and it was a beautiful sunny day. Lots of rhododendrons, peonies and tulips. Even got into the butterfly house, which was many cocoons evenly placed dangling from a perch. Plenty of actual large butterflies fluttering around also, one escaped, but the staff quickly managed to scoop it back up and take it home. 

Valking in Vilnius

Arriving in Vilnius, fast growing city in the Baltics, seems to be in an era of building and rebuilding. Bus stopped briefly at a large shiny mall, Panorama, before heading to the main station which is closer to the old town. 

I soon headed down to the main city square and the Cathedral. Inside the cavernous area various rooms set off to the side, one holding a reliquary, others host paintings. But it's the main hulking nave with high ceiling that has tourists gawping.

Onto the the Palace of Dukes, like most museum and galleries in the Baltics you are directed to leave your jacket in the coatroom before entering. This has 4 paths through the museum. Path 1 begins back in time with archeological interests, with the underlying foundations on display, this meanders through many rooms as it's a big complex building. After about 45 minutes or so, I finish Path 1 and realise I might not have much time for other paths as they close in an hour or so. Path 2 is similary long, but leading through amazing grand reconstructed rooms with artworks, very swish! At one point the path leads up 6 floors to a viewpoint and then back down. With half an hour to go, it looked like Path 3 was closed, as quite often they don't let entry to museum with less than an hour to go, however the security guard let me through telling me to be quick (he obviously wanted to go home!). Path 3 & 4 were quite a bit shorter, covering weaponry and honours/medals. Got jacket from cloakroom and out before they closed. Baltics are on a fairly similar Latitude as Scotland (albeit 2 hours forward), so stays light late. Time for a walk up the Castle Tower hill, winding path round 3/4 of the hill to get to the ascent path. Went I puffed my way to the top, could see the funicular rail for the easy route to the top. Still not actually that high, probably about same as Calton Hill in Edinbugh, a good viewpoint across the city. Vilnius seems to be a bit of a hodgepodge of architecture from different eras. Walking between the hotel to the old town, go through new shopfronts, but also some dilapidated building with chunks of plaster missing, alongside the ever present roadworks with orange coats digging up the streets.

Another museum, The Old Arsenal. What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on that early? No, no that Arsenal, but lots of old weaponry, just popped in here, as it was on my way to the Applied Art museum, which had a sign outside advertising Chagal, Picasso & Ernst. However, it was more pottery and textiles, with most of actually made by other artists, but using them as inspiration.

Next up with the Former KGB Detention House, set in a rather grim building, it highlights life behind the Iron Curtain and the contradictions to everyday life. Various rooms go through home life, working, party meetings etc. This was well laid out with good boards in English:  

Somone once said that Brezhnev-era society could be best understood through the myth of Sisyphius: People would keep rolling the boulder uphill, despite the meaninglessness of the act of rolling, the boulder, and ever the top of the hill itself, whic no one believed existed anyway. In truth, boulder-rollers in the late Soviet period cuold at least ironically paraphrase the words uetter by Josef Stalin in the 1935: "Life has become better! And happier, too!"

Next day, it was onto the Museum of Illusions, which has some nice optical illusions and holograms. Seen quite a few of them before, but a couple of new ones, such as a Tie Fighter etched into a record. Also a clever display with feathers being moved in slow motion, some magic with strobe lights I think. Ther was a touch illusion that was supposed to make wire feel like velvet, didn't seem to work with me, maybe I need new hands!

On the way to the House of Histories, I briefly stopped into the Lithuanian independence museum, about the people that helped reclaim independence, not much for the causal tourist here, skippable!

Couple of exhibits, one about Lithunian emmigrating abroad, also the flow of people (and money!) back into the country in the post-Soviet era. The other exhibits was somewhat bizarre about conspiracy theories with Moon Landings, 5G, Coronavirus & JFK all making appearances.

Another day, visited the Radvila Palace Art which one wing classical Western Art and the main wing has Modern Art. Pick of the bunch was a weird video installation with a big cinema screen in the dark. You could lie on a lounger and watch the short movie which, as far as I could tell, was about a mermaid swimming near a nuclear plant. Like a lot of these big government museum, there has hardly anybody else there! Maybe it's still low season, or a coach full of tourists pulls up to swamp the place.

Finally before my pass rans out goto the new MO Modern Art museum, another exhibition about conspiracy theories, what is going on here? On the plus side, I didn't bump into Vilnius born Hannibal Lecter. Listened to some live music as walked past Lucille Blues Bar, the guitarist/singer was certainly into it, in this tiny bar.

Return to Riga

 All roads lead to....Riga. Well they do when I want to go from Tartu to Vilnius in Lithuania, it's certainly the most straightforward way. As the bus gets towards Riga, sirens are heard, we stop and on the opposite side of the road a large convoy of low lift lorries carrying tanks and supplies are heading to the border.

 I head to the excellent Lido which has branches dotted throughout Latvia, it's a grab a plate and point sort of place, then the cashier just adds it all up and charges you. A lot of locals and tourists eat here, you won't go hungry and it's cheap, unless you keep heaping food on your plate!

Zuzeum aims to fill void due to lack of national mordern art museum. Bit hit and miss for me, think there is usually another exhibit also but changing over.

Also headed to the very large Riga central market, which houses all sort knick knacks and fresh food, the fish hall smelling of smoked fish. I had Solyanka soup in an edible bowl, it was more moulded dough than bread, bit plasticy!

For something different I headed back across the Daugava, and in the middle of an industrial area found the large old building that now houses Drifta Halle. I went for a spin on an electric drift trike, take a while to get used to it. Let's just say I don't think I'll be appearing in The Fast & The Furious anytime soon.

Tartu 2024

 Tartu is the European Capital of Culture in 2024. I'd like to say I carefully planned my route and had my finger on the pulse, but it was more a case of browsing though Google Maps and working out a way to loop back from Tallinn.

Tartu University was founded back in 1632, so it's been around a while. Heading up the hill (Toomemägi) from the town square leads to the University of Tartu Museum, now situated in the prominently located Cathedral building. Stretched out over 7 floors, plenty to see. A large pendulum dangles down the spiral staircase, gently oscillating over a map of the world. Favourite room was the Morgenstern Library, as soon as you enter the musty waft of old books hit you square in the face, smells like history!

Combined ticket also grants access to the Observatory Tower on the same hill, with plenty of old telescopes. Highlights how more design was used in the past, rather than just being purely functional, they were ornate with carved wood and brash polishings. Also included was the small Univeristy Art Museum, but that was mostly just plaster-cast replication of sculptures, although it did have a temporary exhibit with some weird VR experiences.

Next day visited the garguantan Estonian National Museum on the outskirts of town. This giant wedge building blends into an old military runway (Raadi), looks unreal. Inside a variety of permanent exhibitions, one focusing on language, another on national history, stretching back in time as you move through it. During life behind the iron counter it showed some ingenuity, such as a homemade lawnmower. Another section was about environment: "In 1982 a large quantity of aircraft fuel was leaked into Lake Raadi. To elminate the pollution, the lake was lit on fire." Hmm, well I guess that's one solution. 

Refueled and rested at the cafe with the daily special, pork with cheese sauce, roasted potatoes and salad, tasty!

Some temporary exhibits with Surrealist painting was weird as you would expect. Another focused on nightlife, then yet another on Bling, which kinda seem like an Estonian Burning Man festival. One clever bit of tech is that all the info boards besides the exhibits used e-ink screens and a tap of your ticket turned it from Estonian to English (or whatever lanaguage is encoded in your ticket), very neat!

Just outside the museum in an upside down house, which is popular with the selfie crew.

Back in town, chaos and pandemonium awaits at AHHAA Science Centre, where nearly everything is interactive. Full of hyperactive dafties, and that's just the adults. There are chairs with pulleys and ropes attached to a pillar, which you can try and pull yourself up. One without a pulley which is impossible! On one side a mini water park with plastic balls flying along tracks and waterspouts. Favourite was a sort of pendulum which the more you pull down, the more it pulls you up. So you hold onto a metal bar and get pulled a few feet back up into the air. 

Headed to a different area for dinner at Aparaat which was a small complex of restaurants/bars, wasn't that busy, but food was more than decent. Finally I found some live music in a big barn with the 'Rockin Lady & Her Rivertown Boys' playing a bit of rockabilly complete with a guy twanging a big double bass.

Runinn around Tallinn

 Sun is out and blue skies when I arrived in Tallinn. Get a Bolt taxi to the hotel which is well located near the Viru Gates. First day just try and orient myself in town. Head up to the top of the hill with the Parliament building which looks rather plain next to the beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. However the parliament incorporates thei historic Toompea castle, although can only be viewed for the outside, as a working building (you can tell be the amount of swish black BMW/Lexus parked around!)

The Bishop's Garden is one of many viewpoints overlooking the walled old town.

Later that night I went to a touristy restraurant where the servers are all decked out in medival costumes. I opted moose cutlets with honey beer. Moose tasted like strong beef with just a dash of gristle. Occasionally they have mock sword betweens each other, but not on the night I was there unfortunately!

 I opted to get a TallinnCard which is an App that for a flat fee gives you access to all the museums and sights in Tallinn. You just show a QR code at the entrance and they scan it instead of paying. Allows you to pop into places where you might be swithering about paying the entrance fee, and there are loads of sights, almost 100 places included. Too much for a few days, so just tried for the highlights

It's the 1st May, a national holiday, Spring Day rather than May Day. Headed to the leaft suburbs of Tallinn to visit the Kadriorg Park Quarter. The grand building here is the Kadriorg Art Museum formerly a summer residents for Russian rulers, nowadays it houses Western & Russian art. The temporary exhibit was around Spanish artists and had many paintings from a place I had visited before the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Malaga.

A small building elsewhere in the park was the Mikkel collection, a private collector who had assembled a mix of paintings from all over, including ceramics from Asia. This was the kind of museum where the TallinnCard is useful, as can pop in and have a quick nosy round as entrance ticket in included.

Back to the big museums, KUMU houses a history of Estonain art in a flash new building. Over about 5 floors, this spacious structure charts arts from the past up to present day, although they were changing the temporary exhibit when I was there. Need a rest, I poped in to the museum cafe for a spot of Duck Borsch, with side of rye bread, minced garlic and sour cream. Unsurpsingly a heavy Russian influence in the cuisine here, that night I tried Plemeni pork & beef (dumplings) with horseradish sauce and mushroom broth.

Next day I jumped on the bus (can use TallinnCard for public transport also) to get out to the Estonian Open Air museum. This seemed to have lifted and shifted farmhouses of various styles into a rural museum. Not quite sure I got the full value out of this, as the people in the houses didn't speak much English, think they told stories to the locals about 'the old days'. Still, it was nice to get out ofr a country walk.

After that it was onto the Zoo, this also had a good sizable preservation area embedded inside it, consiting of natural forest and spring wildflowers. Lots of horned beasts to look at in the exhibits, also a sticky, humid rainforest section to walk through. One of these places where you look in a glass tank and can't see see anything, then suddenly notice a six foot python in the corner.

Time was running out on the TallinnCard, so bussed back into town. A quick look round the Guild hall, a few exhibits rather than grand hall. Onto the Natural history musuem, animals less active here than the zoo! Next up Health Museum, with some good interactive pieces, can you find the spleen? Finally I wanted to see Fotografiska, a high end photography studio (you can tell it's fancy when the pictures are in black and white).

Finally after all that it was time for some food, stuck my head in to a beer house to peruse the menu, seem overpriced so I headed for Viru Lokall, handily near my hotel. On the menu they had very reasonable priced traditional Estonian food: Herring, boiled potatoes & eggs, which was a lot tastier than it sounds!

 

Pottering around in Parnu

Parnu is an old seaside resort town with a quiter pace of life than Riga. Soon walked through a residential district to my room. There is a hanfdul of main streets with restaurants and shops in the centre, I popped in to a a stylish cafe for a relaxed lunch, a tasty smoke chicken panini. Although at first trying the door it was locked and was walking away when somebody rushed out: "Sorry, wasn't meant to be locked!"

At the end of the main street lies a MiniZoo which houses mostly snakes. It was quiet and the owner gave my a tour, had a dry sense of humour talking about this snake won't kill you quickly, might take a month for the poision to work! Do you want to hold it?

They had an old iguana Frida, think she was 17 years old, and was out on the table enjoying some green leaves for lunch.

 Parnu river flows into Parnu Bay, which in the the Gulf of Riga and in turn the Baltic Sea. But I just wanted to go along the riverside, there a lengthy 10km walk, but I noticed a bike rental place of sorts. Really just seems to be somebody's house in which they have a bunch of bikes in the garage. Think they are more used to renting by the day and the owner wasn't sure want to change for just a loop round the riverside over two bridges. Settled on 5 euros which seemed like a good deal for me. So whizzed off Eastwards, got a bit lost trying to cross the first bridge, seemed to go inland quite a bit. Eventually found the correct path (everything is on the wrong side of the road!). Looped back around past a third bridge which is being newly built.

Just time to check out the green Parnu elephants sculptures before heading for hefty pork dinner at Edelweiss.

Running around Riga

A set of stairs from a computer shop leads up to a room adorned with videogames consoles everywhere, here you can play all sorts of old retro games. A couple of old arcarde games such as Operation Wolf, as a well as old consoles like SNES / PlayStation etc. A few old games I had forgotten about such as Zool & Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe. Some other games I didn't recognise such as "Alex Kidd in Miracle World". Still didn't understand Sentinel. Also played some little racing game called Grand Theft Auto!

 

While big shopping malls have the usual automatic sliding doors, most museum and shops, in contrast to Edinburgh, have closed doors, if you want in, just try the handle and push you're way in!

Visiting the Powder Room which is now a War Museum, the permanent exhibition on WWI was good as it had English captions! 140,000 Latvians got drafted into the Army. Fought on the Eastern front as part of the Russian Army, then later on the Western front as part of British / French armies. After the armistice they were then engulfed in the Russian civil war. Some battalions ended up returning from Vladivostok (near North Korea) a 4 month boat journey. Overall Latvia lost 35% of its prewar population.

 Then after WWII, there was this caption:

Strange Victory

Re-occupation of Latvia and the end of the Second World War. 1945

On the morning of 8 May 1945, crowds of people overwhelmed by euphoria and joy are gathering in London's Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, where thousands of cheery strangers celebrate and dance together. A colorful blizzard of confetti is falling on people's heads in New York's Time Square. The warmth of the spring sun flows into the open Parisian windows – Allied flags are hanging all over the city. Nazi Germany is defeated, and the world is celebrating victory. Meanwhile, the battles in Kurzeme, where Latvian soldiers were tragically forced to fight against each other on both sides of the front, were calming down. On the afternoon of May 8, Major General Otto Rauser of the German Army Group Kurland (Kurzeme) signs the capitulation, and after a four-year break, Soviet occupation rule returns to all Latvian territory.

Some are happy about the end of the war and are trying to adapt to the new circumstances of occupation. Others are hiding in the forests, hoping for the arrival of the British and the liberation of Latvia. However, freedom will not come for another 45 years, and very soon on 25 March 1949 - a new wave of deportations will wash away another 42,125 Latvian souls to Siberia. It is a cold and muddy May of 1945 – the war is over, captivity continues

On Saturday I decided to head out of the centre to the Kalciema Quarter Market, walking over the main bridge, the left hand side is coned off, and realised it is because the concrete is flaking away, not what you want to see half way across. Lots of wooden styled houses out the centre, difference style of architecture.

Didn't take long to walk around the small market, got a pumpkin & cheese pie. Didn't see anywhere selling drinks except for coffee shop. Nipped across the road to the big Lidl to grab a bottle of juice. Seems like Lidl on a Saturday afternoon is busy no matter where you are in the world! Finish off with a couple of biscuits one a gingerbread, the other some sort of cookie with cream.

Wandering around from the market back towards the centre, passing through an old neighbourhood called Agenskalns, complete with a MAGA poster (Make Agenskalns Great Again)  

I happened past the modern building of the National Library. To get into the main library, looked like you would have to register, however they did have a couple of exhibits open to the general public. I decided to take a different bridge on the way back, this one was more solid. When crossing the road everybody waits on the green man, very little just going across as there is no traffic.

Back into town and had a go at some archery that was set up next to St Peters church. I did hit the centre yellow bit, but the photographic proof didn't come out very well😒

 On Sunday, a quick fuel up on French pastry at Cadets, then next stop Parnu