the baltics.

helsinki


my travel break became significantly more exciting when i met up with my boyfriend timmy for another week of northern european adventures. my mom was extremely generous and gave him her frequent flyer miles so that he could come visit and what a treat it was. we are both so lucky that our travel dreams became actually became a reality! i flew from stockholm to helsinki and met him at the airport. we hit the ground running and took a bus to the student-y district just north of downtown helsinki, kallio, to meet up with the couple that was hosting us over the weekend. our hosts arho and paula were really kind and it was a great introduction to couchsurfing, the network of couches for travelers. we spent a fair amount of the weekend just hanging out with them, talking about life as a young adult in finland and the united states. we also saw a queen cover band playing at a bar, walked around the downtown area looking at the city’s impressive churches and other neoclassical official buildings, and tried to keep warm over coffee. for the most part the city was quiet and nondescript, as if everyone was just minding their own business and living life without having to succumb to tourists. it seemed very genuine. our biggest excursion while in helsinki was when we took a ferry to the sea fortress called suomenlinna (or sveaborg, in swedish) and the water was covered by chunks of ice, which made me a little nervous. the island is now home to a small community of families who live in the old military barracks; there appeared to be a fair amount of industry there as well. i’m sure it’s swamped with visitors in the summer but on that cold april morning we had the island’s bastions and ramparts to ourselves. we got a lovely view of the baltic sea and ate our lunch in peace. i really liked helsinki, although it ended up being kind of a blur, and i would like to return to finland someday. perhaps next time i will get a chance to explore the country’s northern reaches in lapland?

tallinn


we boarded a giant cruise boat in helsinki and rode four hours to the port of tallinn, estonia. the city is famous for its extraordinarily well-preserved old town with its medieval stone wall and gates— and with good reason. it is amazing to see that slice of history! tallinn was more touristy than i thought it would be, and we kept running into the same group of spanish tourists. we spent our two days there meandering around the old town’s winding cobblestone streets, taking in the juxtaposition of cute pastel-colored administrative buildings (their parliament is painted light pink) with run-down concrete homes. i enjoyed walking around toompea, the section of tallinn atop a hill, trying to see the surrounding area through heavy fog. we spent a while in tallinn’s top-notch museums: the photo museum, the occupation museum, the city history museum, the workshops of the craft association. we stayed in a nice but strange hostel that didn’t have a real kitchen. we eventually found ourselves in the modern part of the city, where the majority of the city’s residents live, and saw that it was not all so clean and well-preserved. we stumbled upon a local market where farmers were selling their crops alongside imported goods, cheap tennis shoes, babushka scarves, and lots of other knick-knacks. i am certain that among the sizeable crowd, timmy and i were the only people under 50. it was odd to consider what these tiny old estonian women (the shoppers were mostly women, but there were a few men there too) had been through in their lifetime. estonia was occupied by the third reich in world war two and then the soviet union until 1991. clearly these periods of occupation have impacted the national identity and morale in immeasurable ways, and it was seeing these market-goers that made me realize how influential the nation’s turbulent political changes must have been to these families.

rīga

our euroline bus took us four hours through the estonian countryside to reach latvia, where a landscape of dense forest and soft hills made up for our bus driver’s obsession with passing other drivers on a narrow, bumpy road. rīga, especially compared to tallinn, had a decidedly cosmopolitan feel. there were so many (young) people out and about, packing the sidewalks full. it was obvious that people were trying hard to look good, in contrast to tallinn where everyone had clearly gone through too much to care about what they looked like. the stereotypical eastern european aesthetic was very much at play among rīga’s citizens, with countless women teetering along in high heels, acid-washed jeans and big, fluffy hair. oddly enough these crowded streets and parks emptied at night, transforming the city into a mostly barren collection of art nouveau offices, churches and apartment blocks. i personally felt uneasy venturing out at night considering the drastic language barrier (i knew i was no longer in denmark, where literally everyone under the age of about 30 speaks near-fluent english) and rīga’s tourist-extortion schemes i had read about online. we definitely lucked out in finding a great hostel in central rīga. we stayed in a loft apartment in a very clean, safe and colorful building; while eating our free breakfast (!) in the common room, we met two other americans, who we ended up hanging out with for a few hours. one of them was taking two years to travel the entire world and had already made it to every country in south america as well as antarctica, asia and across russia. we dined on traditional latvian pancakes for dinner two nights in a row; the ridiculously low prices there made it possible for us to go out instead of cooking at the hostel. i was particularly impressed with the massive occupation museum in rīga, but we also made it to the architecture museum, the history and navigation museum, and their insane central market where you can literally find anything you would ever want. we accidentally walked into a room full of freshly butchered pigs’ heads and promptly turned around as my stomach was hit with a queasy wave…sadly our time in rīga ended on sort of a bad note as we experienced one pretty hellish day. we packed up early, checked out and walked through a heavy rain with all of our luggage in order to wait for a bus that would take us to the airport. the ride was about 45 minutes and was not at all pleasant considering the bus was way beyond its capacity and i stood clinging to my purse. i could barely see my other bags even though they were right next to me simply because of how crowded it was. the fun continued as we waited in a few outrageously long lines in the very poorly-designed rīga airport. our ryanair flight to liverpool was definitely the most terrifying flight i have ever experienced; i’m not sure if it seemed so scary because of my already frayed nerves or if the pilot was feeling very playful that day, but it could best be described as “a free for all” that at one point left us suspended nearly sideways above liverpool. we then had an hour-long bus ride and another 30 minutes of walking through the rain with heavy luggage before finding our couchsurfing host’s house in suburban manchester…. more manchester stories next time!

sweden.

this week has been pretty nuts getting back into the swing of things and trying to balance my rising amount of papers and group projects with time in the awesome spring sunshine. the good news is that DIS has insurance that will cover my computer. the bad news is that i have to buy a new one once i get back to the states and they will pay me back. thus, i will be spending quite a lot of time in the school computer lab for the next month! today i finally had time to sit down and blog. i will be posting about my travels in chunks as i have time to write them. so, here is what i have to say about sweden:


to be swedish is to be beautiful. that much is clear. after a week in sweden’s two biggest cities— stockholm and gőteborg (the third biggest city is malmő, which i visited in february)— i am still completely boggled as to how it was scientifically possible for so many beautiful people to be concentrated in one country. this country has many other virtues— home of H&M, ikea, clogs, swedish fish (the candy) and swedish pancakes— and i was enamored with their fantastic architecture and design as well as their much-cheaper-than-denmark prices. it is a retail heaven. before i left i had learned that although sweden and denmark share similar cultures, languages, and history, their respective approaches to immigration and integration have taken divergent paths, especially in recent years. in particular, i was intrigued by the 2007 MIPEX report that ranked sweden as the EU country with the best practices towards integration while denmark tied for 21st place (out of 28)…denmark clearly has some work to do on that front.



gőteborg, or gothenburg as it is known to us, was a lovely place to begin my journey. the city is located about half way up sweden’s west coast and it was a very nice five-hour bus ride from Copenhagen through mostly agricultural countryside. gőteborg has a reputation for being a gritty industrial city; although volvo certainly has a large presence in town, in general i found it to be very charming and sophisticated. their tram system (made famous by singer jens lekman’s song “tram #7 to heaven”) was enormously confusing and on multiple occasions resulted in me riding the entire length of the route, until it turned around and went the direction i intended to go in the first place. my hostel was in a cute section of town called olivegatan, located about two minutes away from a giant park. i spent quite a few hours wandering around the winding paths in that park!

an international flavor spicing the streets of gothenburg was immediately apparent as i walked around the downtown shopping district as well as the more residential areas of the city, through the faces of the people, the types of shops, the food being sold, and the languages i heard spoken. at the city museum i learned that gothenburg has been home to migrants from around europe for hundreds of years and thus, the coexistence of people from many different backgrounds is not a new concept for the city. this ethnic mix was refreshing coming from copenhagen, where the heterogeneity of the population is essentially limited to ethnic danes and those with middle eastern roots. one memorable sight was a somali woman wearing a niqab— exposing only her eyes— waiting for a tram alongside a bunch of teenage punks sporting lots of mohawks, chains, piercings and tattoos. no one, including the woman or the teens, seemed to notice this unusual combination but i found it to be an odd yet interesting contrast. while sitting in the main square called brunnsparken, the concept of tolerance kept coming to mind. i saw all types of people: punks, skaters, hipsters...openly gay couples, mixed-race couples...people with special needs and of all ages. in that sense it reminded me of say, san francisco. it brought to mind richard florida's theory that an economically successful city is one that is creative; creativity, he believes, hinges upon tolerance, talent and technology. there was certainly an air of tolerance as all these people shared the same public space and went about their business peacefully. according to florida, this accepting attitude could contribute to the city’s active creative sector and recent economic regeneration.



stockholm seemed a lot like copenhagen in terms of its neoclassical architecture, viking past, difficult language, blonde population, reputation for high-end design, wealthy economy and welfare state. the city is much bigger, however, and even more beautiful because of all the water surrounding it. stockholm felt to me like sweden's new york city: the cultural (and in this case, political) capital of the country, certainly the largest and most cosmopolitan city, and a magnet for all types of people. i spent nearly a whole day at the vast moderna museet (modern art museum) and another long day at an odd open-air museum called skansen. i usually love those historical reenactment-type museums, but this one was strange because it featured buildings from all over sweden and from many different time periods as well as random animals (lemurs, monkeys, and reindeer in close proximity). nonetheless, i thoroughly enjoyed stockholm’s museums, shopping opportunities, and sunny weather!

stockholm is the hipster capital of the world. while sitting in a square trying to soak up as much sun as possible one afternoon, i entertained myself by creating a set of criteria for becoming a stockholm hipster: 1. skinny jeans and/or black tights. 2. oversized black coat or fitted leather jacket. 3. must be able to ride a bike while smoking a cigarette and/or using a cell phone. 4. must not have any body fat nor own a hairbrush. 5. footwear limited to ked, oxfords and leather boots. 6. special preference given to those with adorable children. the truth of the matter is, i am not cool enough for stockholm. it is a really appealing city but after traveling by myself for a number of days and being constantly surrounded by gorgeous people speaking a foreign language, it began to wear on me…

back in cph, down a computer

whew! i am back in copenhagen in one piece! what a whirlwind, what an amazing, memorable, enjoyable journey it was. i had a great time in all of the places i visited but was especially pleased with stockholm and manchester. of course i am thrilled that i was able to see gothenburg, helsinki, tallinn and riga (and a teeny bit of london) but i am glad to be settled in one place, doing laundry. although i managed to travel through seven countries in three weeks without a single hiccup such as a missed flight/bus/train, i arrived in copenhagen to discover that someone had broken into my host family's house last week (they were on vacation too) and stole several laptops, including mine. of course i left my computer here rather than bringing it with me to keep it safe! the police have been notified and the family has installed a new security system but i am devastated that i may have permanently lost my beloved computer-- it stored literally all of my music, photos, and everything i have written in the past three years. that and the amount of work i have to do this week are worrying me and of course i am exhausted from traveling as well. so, i will begin posting more about my travel break at a later date and who knows what i will do with the 800 pictures on my camera! fingers crossed for all of our stuff to be returned...eek!