Finland, Baltic States, and now in Poland

We took the ferry to Helsinki, Finland, at 7:30 a.m.  The architecture is Art Nouveau and Jurgen style in the neighborhoods.  We went to the seaport fortress and enjoyed the vibrant city. 

We landed back into Estonia at 11:30 p.m. (still light out) expecting to sleep. 

We arrived to a van which looked as we left it until we unlocked and opened the door.  Then we noticed some changes in the van and immediately recognized that we had been vandalized.  The night was long in meeting the police, making phone calls (a hotel let us use their computer and phone).  We were informed by the police that this happens "all the time" near the ferry terminal.  When you park and buy a ticket, you leave it on the dash to it states when you will return.  Electronics, clothing, cosmetics, cell, computer, sunglasses, were gone.  Jim was upset that his Mickey Mouse hat was stolen!  We left the city at 4:30 a.m. and drove until 6:30 a.m. to sleep for a couple hours.

July 6 we were in OTEPAA, ESTONIA.  After our night last night, we decided to move to a small village which was near the largest lake in this area.  July 7&8.  CESIS, LATVIA.  Stayed at a campground next to a river in the forest.  July 9 in PALANGA, LITHUANIA.  We stayed on the west coast of Lituania.  With summers so short it seems as though the population of Lithuania heads to the small shoreline that exists along the Baltic Sea.  We saw two cities where we saw a massive influx of people who were strolling the streets, the beaches, and the bars!

Our impression as we left the Baltic States is that it was interesting but probably will not return.  The origin of the Baltic States are of Russian origin, meaning concrete blocks.

There are storks in this area during the summer and move to Africa during the winter.  We also saw bridge and grooms walking over bridges.  We asked someone about this and they said after you get married you are to go over 7 bridges for good luck.

July 10&11, GOLDAP, POLAND.  We stopped at the Russian border again just to say hi!  We drove around the piece of Russia that borders the Baltic (Kaliningrad) and drove into northern Poland.  There are beautiful lakes, hills and fields in this area.

July 12 GIZYCKO, POLAND.  We drove into the Great Masurian Lakes area which has over 2000 lakes surrounded by hilly landscape. 

We went to Wolfs Lair (Wilczy Szaniec) where Hitler headquartered from 1941 to 1944.  There were multiple bunkers made up of concrete up to 8 meters thick. 

Stayed in the city of Gizycko, the larges lakeside center in the region.  This area is known for its chain of lakes.  The weather was perfect with people sun bathing along the shore of the lake and a multitude of sailboats on the lake.

MAY BE OUT FOR A BIT

We went to Helsinki, Finland today.  Left our van in a parking lot in Tallin.  Came back and found our van broken into and computer and other electronics stolen.  Right now using a computer at a hotel.  We may be out of touch for awhile.  Good thing we have the blog, as it is the only pictures we have left! 

June 26-27:  OSWIECIM, POLAND.  We camped at the Center for Dialogue and Prayer near AUSCHWITZ, and met with Sister Mary prior to our visit to the Museum/Camp.  Her main interest has been education and the study of Judaism.  She lived in Israel for five years teaching and studying.  We also met a reporter from the Dallas Morning News who is in the process of writing an article and we had interesting conversations with him.

We toured AUSCHWITZ and BIRKENAU.  http://pl.auschwitz.org.pl/h/   There were actually three concentration/death camps in this area.  Over one million people were put to death at these camps with the vast majority being Jews from throughout Europe.  In addition, Polish resistance, Russian soldiers, and Roma (gypsy) were killed or imprisoned here.  Birkenau itself held over 90,000 people in various compounds had 300 prison barracks, and four gas chambers.  The two days spent were powerful and sobering, therefore only one photo.

June 28:  Near LOWICZ, POLAND.  We stopped in Czestochowa and saw the Jasna Gora Monastery and the Black Madonna.  For six centuries the Poles have seen this icon as a miracle worker for the devoted. 

We were amazed as we were driving with the amount of construction and workers involved in the development of the road system in Poland.

June 29-30:  WARSAW, POLAND.  The Old Town area had been bombed out during WWII and was beautifully rebuilt.  The new President was being inaugurated while we were there and a huge music festival was to take place at various outdoor locations through the city.  We walked across the river to the Praga area, which had not been bombed.  With a city of 1.7 million people the transit system was great with buses, trams, and an underground.

July 1 (Friday):  near DRUSKININKAI, LITHUANIA.  We drove to southern Lithuania, along the Russian border, and stayed at a campsite on a lake.  Being July 4 weekend, the timing could not have been better than to spend part of it at a lake area.

July 2:  SIGULDA, LATVIA.  We drove a long day in the rain in order to get closer to our northern destination.  When we left this morning, we drove to the Russian border because it’s the closest we may ever be to Russia! 

In northern Lithuania, we stopped at the Hill of Crosses (Kryziu Kalnas).  It is a two-hump hillock with thousands of crosses.  Crosses were first planted here in the 1400’s.  The Soviets bulldozed them down but people kept putting up crosses to express their national and spiritual independence. 

July 3-4:  TALLINN, ESTONIA.  We stopped at the New Castle in Sigulda and they were having a live Sunday morning concert so we stayed to listen.  We then drove to the north end of Estonia to Tallinn.  Along the way, we drove through a lot of forest and along the Baltic Sea.  We camped at a marina and it was nice to see boats and water near us again.  It was light at midnight and the sun rose by 4 a.m. July 4. 

We spent the day walking around Tallinn.  It was very nice in that they blend the old and the new buildings, except in the actual Old Town.  It felt very cosmopolitan compared to recent cities we have been in.

Romania into Slovakia

June 21:  BRAN, ROMANIA.  We saw Bran Castle.  Bram Stoker fictionally wrote Count Dracula, in 1897, based on this place.  Vlad Draculea (who actually ruled in another region) gained the name Tepes, meaning the Impaler.  He ruled in the mid 1400’s and punished his enemies by inserting a wooden stake into the anus, through the body, and emerging through the mouth.  We saw more Americans today since it is coach tour stop!

June 22:  SIGHISOARA, ROMANIA.  We saw a lot of horse drawn carts as we drove through the villages and near farms.  They use them to haul hay, people, and various products.  The houses in the villages in Romania are very close together with fences around them and there is typically a barn in the back.  The farms in Romania have been individually operated as opposed to corporate size farms that we have seen in other countries.  We saw people plowing the fields with a horse or very old tractor. 

We found the area very diverse.  We saw large box stores like REAL and METRO as well as the small grocer or produce stand.  We also saw the Roma (Gypsy) population and their less than desirable living conditions (European Roma Rights http://errc.org).

June 23: near DEBRECEN, HUNGARY.  Ukraine was to be on our list of places, but we had to delete that off our list.  After talking with people, we found that since we are in a rental vehicle, we may not get into the country.  The Ukraine border can take up to 5 hours to get through and between border patrol, police stopping you for whatever reason, and requiring bribes for everything we decided best not to take a chance. 

June 24-25: HIGH TRATAS (Vysoke Tatry), Tatra National Park, SLOVAKIA.  We drove to the north central area of  Slovak Republik, Slovakia, into the Carpathian Mountains.  The High Tatras are the tallest range of these mountains and are only 25 km wide and 78 km long.  Our camp is at the base and the highest peak is 2634 meters.  The EU is spending millions of Euros to get this area further developed as a ski and outdoor sports area.   

We took the lift up the mountain and hiked around.  It was cloudy, then cleared, then cloudy again and it even snowed.  We were amazed at the number of hikers.  We took an electric train along a 20+ km route.  It had a dozen stopping points for hikers to get on, or off, and many areas with hotels and restaurants.  Other than two guys from England, we heard no other English spoken. 

Hungary and Romania

June15:  ZAGREB, CROATIA.  We spent the day in Zagreb and walked around the Upper and Lower Town.  This is a real working city.  The architecture reminded Jim of some locations from the Bourne Identity movies or WWII spy movies.  Fiddler on the Roof was filmed here.

June 16:  near PECS, HUNGARY.  Today’s drive was a vast area of rolling hills and large fields of corn and other crops.  Our camp was excellent (it had cabins, campsites, and a hostel) and we were the first Americans to ever stay there.  We walked to a mineral water swimming resort where they had several pools.  Each pool had a different temperature ranging from around 70 degrees to 90+ degrees.  We sat in the sauna, steam, and aromatherapy rooms.

June 17: SZEGED, HUNGARY.  We stopped in PECS.  It is a “must see” city besides Budapest, which we have been to before.  We drove to Szeged and camped right next to the river adjacent to the old town.  The camp site had thermal pools.  The night came alive at about 11 p.m. with rave music which lasted until 4 a.m.  Too bad we were not there and only listened to the great music from our little camper!

June 18:  SZEGED, HUNGARY.  We enjoyed the thermal pools and then walked around the city.  In the evening, we walked around a park and found a great little bar that had live music with an eight piece band.  They were really into the Rolling Stones!

June 19:  near SIBIU, ROMANIA.  We drove in to the Transylvanian Alps.  In entering Romania, there were no freeways and all major highways were two lane.  We will no longer have freeways in Romania, Ukraine, and most of Poland.  The side roads appeared to be dirt/stone from what we have seen so far. Our camp was in the hills by a small village and is owned by a German woman.  We enjoyed a fabulous meal of Transylvanian style pork and polenta with an egg on the polenta.

June 20:  near SIBIU, ROMANIA.  We noticed a large number of stray dogs and last night we heard them howling real close to us.  We took the bus into Sibiu and walked the ancient walled city.  For a city dating to the 1200's and before, we found there was a diversity in religion. There was a Romanian Orthodox Cathedral, traditional Catholic, a Synagogue, as well as a Lutheran Church built around 1400.

CROATIA

June 11: DUBROVNIK.  We walked around the Old Town, within the walled city streets, most of the day.  This area was founded 1300 years ago. 

June 12: KNIN, CROATIA.  We drove to the border of Montenegro and got in a discussion with the border patrol.  Other countries, like Austria, charge a Vignette fee for using their roads and we’ve purchased a 7 day pass.  Montenegro wanted us to pay a yearly tax and Jim said no, since we were only going to be there one day.  So we turned back north and drove go Knin.  On Sunday most places are closed so we felt it was a good day for a drive.

We stopped in Bosnia (that little strip of land along the coast of Croatia that belongs to Bosnia) and had a fabulous lunch of roasted lamb that had been on a spit all morning.  We had noticed these through out our trip, but it was our first stop to enjoy the local flavor (they either fire roast a pig or lamb).

We did our first night of free camping, and our stop was an area between a soccer field and a tennis court in the city.  Free camping is like anchoring out on the boat.  You find your own space and stop for the night.  A soccer game was going on so we took that in and talked with a police woman to be sure we could spend the night.

June 13:  SLUNJ.  Most of the day was spent at the PLITVICKA JEZERA NATIONAL PARK, or National Park Plitvice Lakes.  It became a national park in 1949 and it “represents a phenomenon of karst hydrography”.  The lakes are known for their cascades, small to large waterfalls, and 1267 different species of plants. 

June 14, Tues:  ZAGREB.  Zagreb is the capitol of Croatia.  Today we took a day off and sent it leisurely at the campsite.  The picture for today is one of a Toilet/WC.  Several of the commercial WCs are set up in this fashion and require agility and balance!

CROATIA June 8-10

 June 8: We camped near ZADAR.  We drove down the scenic coastline.  It was rugged and rocky terrain with islands out in the distance.

June 9: SPLIT.  Split is where the Roman emperor Diocletian chose to put his vacation palace.  It is on the most indented part of the Adriatic Coast. 

Side note:  Mike, my brother, and his family wanted to jump in our suitcase and come along on the trip.  Well they did, and here is a picture to prove it (look between the Romans!).

June 10:  DUBROVNIK.  Along part of the drive to Dubrovnik, we saw vast valley areas with fruit groves and vendors along the roadside selling fruit, olive oil, and honey.  We also drove along the coastline and saw a multitude of islands.  In fact, there are over 1000 islands along the coast.
Today we went through about five miles of the country of BOSNIA to get to the southern part of Croatia.  A small section of land that borders the sea belongs to BOSNIA.
For our boater friends, we are putting a picture of a bad day at boating.  This boat hit the rocks and was sinking.  It was near a beach where we were swimming.

To end this, we would like to share what our friends, John and Karen Siscoe, have on their last update:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain