for my spring/passover break i decided to travel to a bunch of countries i hadn’t been to before – namely the baltics (lithuania, latvia and estonia), finland and azerbaijan! I first flew to kyiv, ukraine for a short stop before continuing on to vilnius, lithuania. the three baltic countries of lithuania, latvia and estonia have really made impressive strides. twenty-some years ago they were soviet backwaters; today each of them is a thriving, very westernized, capitalist democracy and member of the european union. and they are still inexpensive!
in vilnius, lithuania i mostly studied, but also wandered around the old city, and across the river into an area known as uzupus, which describes itself as an independent country. this independence movement has satirical component to it – their mascot is a clown playing a trumpet, and they stamp passports with a uzupis stamp on april fools day. but apparently some people take it seriously as well, and they even have their own constitution. lots of big malls in vilnius. i was also going to meet up with a medical student friend oresta in lithuania but she had an exam that day so unfortunately it didn’t work out.
then i took the bus north. it made a quick stop in riga, latvia to pick up a bunch of drunk study abroad british college students.
the end of the road, tallinn, estonia was really great. it has one of the more impressive ancient walled old cities in europe. saint olaf’s church in the old city was the tallest building in the world for over 100 years during the middle ages. these days estonia is literally the world’s most internet connected country. it is also the home of skype and pioneered things like letting people pay their bills online. estonia is also a showpiece for libertarians – after the soviet era they implemented a flat tax as recommended by milton friedman. during the recent recession they were one of few countries to slash government spending rather than increase it, and they are the least indebted country in europe. there are also some interesting relics of the soviet past in tallinn. the hotel viru still stands downtown – it was the first skyscraper in tallinn, built in the 70s by the soviet government as the only place where visiting tourists were allowed to stay. every single room was bugged! another soviet edifice is the linnahall – a gargantuan, crumbling cement platform on the harbor about the size of two city blocks, which was built for the 1980 moscow olympics – the sailing events were held in tallinn. beneath it is a large auditorium which is locked up and never used. it and its graffiti juxtapose poignantly with the surrounding gleaming glass buildings. all three of the baltic countries have their own unique ethnicity and language, but each also has substantial numbers of ethnic russians in their eastern areas. 25% of estonia, for example, is russian. apparently they’re all a little on edge about russian aggression, vis a vis events in ukraine. from tallinn i hopped on a two hour ferry ride across the gulf of finland to helsinki!
