Part of the reason I went to the Baltic States was a book I read some years ago, "Firewall" by Andy McNabb. I don't remember much about the book actually, other than the main character took a ferry ride from Helsinki across the Baltic Sea over to Estonia. I never forgot that ferry ride or that the character visited Estonia. It took me quite a few years, but I finally got to the Baltic States. And I did arrive in the Baltics by ferry, though there was nothing notable about the ride. The ferry service is pretty regular between the two countries; the boat I took was a cruise ship. They didn't give me a suite for the 1.5 hour trip.
Upon arrival in Tallinn, I followed the crowd that was headed toward the old town. Tallinn's "old town" is a huge tourist attraction, and for good reason. It's very scenic and very old. Old city walls and towers, tiny cobblestone streets that go every which direction, churches and cathedrals...it's all very medieval like a portal to different world. I visited the capital cities of all three Baltic countries, and they all have beautiful old towns, well preserved and well cared for.
The economy in Estonia is strong: the low taxes and regulation may have something to do with that. Tallinn felt very safe - at all hours of the day. I ended up staying out most of the night and never felt the least bit unsafe. I was out all night because I joined a pub crawl with other tourists. I found out about the pub crawl by attending a free walking tour earlier in the day. Good work by that business...rope them in with the free tour and then charge them for more interesting offerings like pub crawl and bike tours. And what a concept: charge tourists $20 to take them on a pub crawl. Give them a few "free" drinks and lead them from place to place. I have to say it was a blast and the reverie continued very late. Lots of partiers from all over the world having a great time in Tallinn.
After getting to bed at 0630, I was not able to make my 0900 bus to Riga, so I ended up taking a bus to Parnu, a nice coastal town, and spending the night there. I took a dip in the Baltic in the morning and hopped on a bus to Riga. Riga is a much bigger town than Tallinn. I'm sure there's lots to do there, but unfortunately I only spent one night so I didn't see much other than the old town city center and a number of bars in the evening. The bars were a much rougher crown than what I saw in Tallinn. Tallinn seemed very harmless; Riga is a place one can undoubtedly get into trouble with a few bad decisions. I ended up drinking most of the night with a Canadian I had met in Tallinn and then reconnected with in Riga, and a group a young Latvians. The Latvians did not speak English nearly as well as the Estonians I met, but they could still communicate. When I met a Latvian who was an ethnic Russian and began questioning him about Latvian-Russian relations (which are not good...the Latvians are happy with their independence and do not appear to like the large Russian minority) him asked me in all seriousness if I was a spy. The other young fellows were amiable enough, but they had an underlying edge to them. A Brazilian I met later in my trip in Vilnius detailed how he got invited into a bar by two young ladies in Riga, bought them each two martinis and then got a bill from the bar for $300. He apparently escaped by only paying $100. The bars in Riga either did not have a toilet or were seriously "under-toileted". However, free enterprise reigns: for about $.15 you can enter an automatic pay toilet and do your thing there. Well worth it.
After Riga, I hopped another bus to Vilnius. The buses in the Baltics, incidentally, are comfortable and reliable, and the fastest way to get where you are going generally speaking. They even have wifi. The roads between the capitals were good and no stops for customs controls, so traveling by bus around the Baltics is easy enough.
As for Vilnius, it was same-same but different. A large ethnic Russian minority still makes it's home there as in the other Baltic states. And as in the other Baltic states, Lithuania is very happy to have its independence from the Russians. I managed to squeeze in the KGB museum before getting on the 11am train to Warsaw. The KGB museum is well worth seeing: housed in an old KGB field office, it comes complete with padded cells, execution chambers, and plenty of memorabilia. The Lithuanians fought their own insurgency against the Soviets in the years after WWII. Have to give the Russians credit - they were ruthless and knew how to turn a society inside out and against itself. The Lithuanians efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and they suffered under the Soviet yoke until the Soviet Union's dissolution.
The train from Vilnius to Warsaw is a nice way to travel between the two cities, but it is not fast. In all, I believe the trip took about 8 hours. All passengers have to change trains at the border Lithuania-Poland border, as the trains in the Baltics use the wider gauge that's not used in Western Europe.
In all, the Baltic States were great. They are relatively inexpensive, especially in comparison to Western Europe, fun, easy to travel through, and with much to see. It's hard for me to believe I only spent 4 days in total there. 4 days was a little fast; 6 days, with two days in each country would have been great.
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