Lounging around

Well, I'm stil in Krakow.  Last night was a bit funny.  I was hanging out with Robert trying to figure out what I should do between now and Wednesday when I have plans to be in France.  I was teeter tottering between Prague and Amsterdam and finally fell back on my usual method of decision -- the coin toss.  This coin had less weight than usual though -- I mean really, it was only a lithuanian one cent piece made out of aluminum (by the way, you'll hear more about that in a bit) and after deciding on Prague and then looking into my options, Robert was a bit stunned when I was ready to hop on a train that was supposed to leave three hours later.  Spontaneous?  Impulsive?  I'm not sure what the word for that is.  We continued to sit around on his porch and shoot the $#!+ for a bit and then I finally said I probably should get up and pack my things and be off.  A minute or two later I came back though and said never mind.  I decided I was a bit tired and could do with a full night sleep rather than a night on a train.  So Prague and Amsterdam will have to wait -- even if I don't make it this trip, they'll still be there for future trips.  Since I'm still here though, it would be good of me to go back and actually fill you in a bit on some of my trip thus far.  I'll go backwards and start with the best and most recent parts. 

 

Before that though, I'll make a quick commentary on the trip so far in general.  If I had to pick a favorite place I'd probably say Helsinki.  Riga would come in at a close second.  On the other hand if I had to say where I had the best experiences, I'd probably have to reverse those too -- Riga was kind of the perfect example of what I'd love this trip to be like -- with Helsinki once again not too far behind.  Of course that kind of points out that circumstances may sway my view of the places I've visted.  After all, my memories of Vilnius will always be colored by the fact that I had a stomach bug and sat around sick at the hostel for two days.  When I ventured out to try some Cepelinas, my appetite hadn't quite come back, and I spent the rest of the night waiting to see how my bowels would respond to this new attack...  So I wouldn't say my favorite places were the best for everybody, but I still think that I had good reasons for them to be right for me.

 

One thing that I haven't been able to help doing since coming here was compare the various places I've been to neighborhoods in Chicago.  Skandinavia actually struck me as most odd simply because in many ways it felt as thought I hadn't even left home -- it was kind of a cheap copy of the west.  You know how there seems to be a walgreens springing up on every corner back in the states?  Well imagine that, but with seven elevens!  Really, the whole time I couldn't help thinking, oh heavens, not another seven eleven...  Copenhagen and Stockholm both.  Outdoors sporting is pretty big there two so you find nature company and north face shops all over the place.  My clothes didn't seem at all out of the ordinary there since they really sell a lot of the same products.  Also, the people were all clean cut, nordic, blonde, beautiful, etc...  Then I got on the ferry and headed west to Helsinki.  This is where the comparison to Chicago first hit me -- Skandinavia had been a lot like lakeview or lincoln park.  Outdoorsie, sporty, clean cut, yuppy types.  Helsinki on the other hand was much more like Wicker Park or Logan Square -- punk rockers, dread locks, pink hair, studded belts, torn jeans, chains on their wallets...  I couldn't help but feel like I'd come home again =)  It was as if after spending a night out drinking at the lake view bars I'd hopped on the fullerton bus and made my way back to the safety, familiarity and comfort of the blue line!  As I continued on down the baltic, I furthered the comparison -- it was a little like heading up milwaukee.  Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and finally Poland -- I'm not saying I understand any Polish, but seeing all the polish signs in Krakow, the only difference between here and some of the neighborhoods in chicago is that you don't see everything repeated in Spanish =)

 

So that's it for my chicago/baltic analogy.  Each just seems to me to be a stretched out version of the other rotated by 180 degrees...

 

But I digress.  On to Riga!