Landing in Riga 

Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) in Riga -- May 24, 2005 

Helsinki Train Station

May 16, 2005 - Still Wearing warm coats

Communist Suburb

Here we are in an planned workers neighborhood in St. Petersburg. Statue is of Kirov and the Human is our walking tour guide Nick. Learn a little more about Nick at http://waytorussia.net/OurTeam/Guides.html

Nevsky Cathedral

Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn Esonia

Figured out the phones

Only took three days, but we finally figured out how to make phone callls from Russia!

Another walking tour today, this time all about the Communist era. We took the metro to the first suburban neighborhood built specifically as a "model commune" for the workers in the 20s. Very interesting. The weather continues to be gorgeous, even warmer today, must have been in the 70s. We're definitely getting a little color on our faces!

Took the Metro again (this time navigated it by ourselves -- no small feat with our lack of Cyrillic knowledge!) Visited Peter and Paul fortress later this afternoon. In addition to the unusual Russian Orthodox church there, saw many St. Petersburgers enjoying their Sunday by strolling, sitting on the small beach there, etc. Nice views from on top of the fortress wall.

On a tip from Nick, our tour guide, took the #7 bus a ways out to the Gulf of Finland and watched the sunset. Strange scene out there, kind of like Key West at sunset but with more trash on the beach, and a bunch of guys on sportbikes (motorcycles) showing off in the parking lot. Lots of crazy action on Nevsky prospect, too. It seems to become a drag strip at night (even before it's dark) with sportbikes racing each other, popping wheelies, etc. Certainly has been a cultural education!

We've got most of tomorrow here, then take Air Baltic to Riga in the evening.

Until next time,
david, elaine & margaret

Midnight in St. Petersburg

Midnight in St. Petersburg and there is still light. crazy 11:00 feels like 6:00. It is quite different here, the first day was a bit harder than we may have expected - that whole , but we have adjusted and are doing great.

Sorry it looks like there will not be pictures until we return -- blogspot seems to have changed how they except pictures-- we will see.

Just came back from a fantastic dinner of chicken pancakes - and an excelent Georgian wine.

This was at 11:00 when it was really still light out.

After dinner we stopped at and bought some water and a few other groceries -- I guess I have never bought eggs in europe -- they come in cartons of 10! crazy.

We had a great day -- started with a walking tour. it ended up being from the same guy who was on the St. Petersburg Globetreker episode - he was great, We are going on another one with him on sunday.

Elaine is posting a more complete update right now-- she types 23 times faster than I. And a longer post disappeared when I opened the spell check.

-David

Rainy, cloudy, cold, sunny, etc.

We'll be heading out of Tallinn, Estonia on an evening ferry to St. Petersburg in a few hours. It's beautiful here. The weather's been all of the above, practically at the same time. The medieval town center is very atmospheric and great for wandering around. Those of you that have been worried about vegetarian Elaine not having anything to eat except potatoes can feel at ease. One meal highlight for me was the Italian restaurant where we had dinner last night -- Margaret's pesto was amazing! And when she's back, be sure to ask Margaret about one of the towers on the old wall named especially in her -- honor?

We hope to have more luck posting pictures to the blog later. Our apartment in St. Petersburg will have it's own computer, we think.

More soon!
-elaine

Pictures missing

Finally found a real computer and saw that the picture attachments were not coming --stay tune we'll get that fixed.

REPOST appartment in Tallinn

Just arrived at our fabulous apartment in old town Tallinn. The view
includes four towers and 1 beautiful church.

Nevski cathedral

coffee on i

TAllINN
It is late afternoon ON the town square the sun is warn It has been a cold day .
we have walked 20,000 steps so far today.

Soon we will finD a rear computer and these postirgs will have a bit more meAT . It is a BiT Slow oN the Pocket PC

Just arrived at our fabulous apartment in old town Tallinn. The view includes four towers and 1 beautiful church.

Geek at dinner

made it to helsinki

Eating salmon and potatoes soup for dinner. Sniffed out this wifi on
the handheld
Was sunny.. ßut...
Had an hour and a half delay from amsterdam
A hiku for you
Dashing thru Schipol
Security very slow
Got there by a hair

David

Packing

Somehow all of this will fit into that little bag.
Some of this will be worn and some will be
weeded out

3 LS Shirts
3 SS Shirts
3 Pants (maybe 2)
5 Underwear
4 T Shirt
1 Jacket
1 rain Jacket
2 Sweaters - it is cold there
5 Sox
1 LS T shirt
2 Pair Shoes

One week

One week from now will be on our way.

From pocket pc

Here is Granada

Cannot wait

It would be so much more fun to be writing real posts instead of these practice posts.
Like - the ferry ride was qreat. Met this guy from ...
Oh well we are leaving in a little over a week
David

Russian Visas

Check out the spelling of our names in the Cyrillic alphabet!

-Elaine

The Baltics and The Balkans are not the same place

Here is Hvar Croatia. Croatia is one of the Balkans, not Baltics.

St. Petersburg and the Baltics

On May 15th our next adventure begins. We will head to Helsinki,
Estonia, St. Petersburg, Latvia, Lithuania and Belgium for 2 weeks.
You may notice that one of these places is not like the other ones.
We had to fly out somewhere and we have this picture of Bruges up on
the third floor and I really like it (that picture is uploaded here
too) so that is where we are flying back from.

Why the Baltics? Some of our best travel experiences have been in the
places that have not been over run by American tourists -- like
Croatia and Slovenia. Vilnius has been of interest since I saw TPT's
production of Benjamin Franklin -- The old Paris scenes were shot
there and they looked cool-- so there the seed was planted.

Russia - St. Petersburg? Russia has always been something so
intriguing and foreign that if you were that close why wouldn't you
go?

-David

Welcome. In a perfect world we will be able to update this while we
are on the road and pictures might even appear. This picture is from Dubrovnic a couple years back.