Long Time, No See!

Hi, Everyone. As you can see, it's been ages since I last wrote in my blog. In fact, I wrote just as the coronavirus was beginning, and I was on my way home from my trip through Eastern Europe. I'm so glad I took that wonderful trip because while we were locked down and unable to travel, I could think back and remember the wonderful sights I'd seen in Budapest, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Helsinki and St. Petersburg. Really, travel to me is my lifeblood. Without it, I feel I'm not living life to the full.

On my way home from my trip, I had a long distance flight from St. Petersburg to Hong Kong, and then took a busy train into the city, and was therefore exposed to a lot of people for a long period of time. Although we didn't realise it at that stage, coronavirus had already begun, and I think I was mildly infected on my trip back to Australia because when I got home, I developed a very strange cold, with no runny nose, but a very nasty feeling deep down in the bottom of my lungs. It felt different from any feeling I had experienced with a cold before. I also felt incredibly tired. However, luckily, because I am a strong person, after three days, that nasty feeling in my lungs went away, as my immune system fought off the virus, whatever it was. 

Now that we know what the symptoms of coronavirus are, and especially the original strain which went right down inside people's lungs (either the Wuhan or Alpha strain), I think that that's what I caught! Luckily, it looks as though I only caught a small viral load, and that's why I coped quite well. Anyway, while everyone else around me has suffered from coronavirus at some stage over the past three years, I have remained healthy. I think that possible early infection made me resistant to any further variants that came along.

Since I last wrote, my youngest son, Jack, encouraged me to start a new hobby. He said, "Mum, why don't you start a podcast." I asked him how I should do that, and he told me that there was an easy-to-use app called "Anchor" that could help make podcasts easily. Then I said to him, "What on Earth should I talk about?" and he said that I would be sure to think of something.

Well, it's been a year since I installed the Anchor app, and I've just finished making my fortieth podcast. Every time I finish a podcast talk, I think that it will be the very last because there couldn't possibly be anything else for me to talk about. Sometimes an idea will come into my head, but I don't know if or when I'll do another podcast. Just in case you are interested, whichever podcast app you have on your phone or computer, you will find me at "This, That and the Other" Kathi Wyldeck. The podcast includes fiction stories that I've made up, recounts of my own real-life experiences, science topics I'm interested in, and a few of my opinions about the world. You might enjoy some of my talks.

I am in the process of making a book of podcast transcripts so that I have a record of the topics I've spoken about, and also for anyone who may be interested in reading what I've said. Some of my scientific podcast topics are very detailed, so being able to read and think about these subjects in more detail would help the ideas sink in bit more thoroughly. The book will be available at Lulu.com and on Amazon when I've finished writing it.

Before the coronavirus began, I created a blog book too, as I didn't want to lose everything I'd put into making this series of blogs over about a fifteen-year period. Just in case some catastrophe happens to the Internet in the future, at least I will have saved my efforts as "Kathi's Blog Book", and soon also as "This, That and the Other" for my podcast book. Well that's it for now. All the best and see you next time.

Kathi's Solo Trip to the Baltics, 2019

Just a note before I start: Unfortunately, Blogpost doesn't allow me to line up the photo captions properly with the photos, so I have placed the captions above the photos,  with the order arranged from left to right, and top to bottom. I hope you enjoy my travel story. XXX

1) Getting There:

   In September, I went on a solo trip through the Baltics. I visited Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Russia. I had visited Finland and Russia before, but the little countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were not only new to me, but also places where most people never venture. Most of the trip was done as a package tour, with travellers getting on and off the bus at various places as it passed through the different countries. The parts of the trip that I did on my own were at the start and finish, organising the cheapest flights possible to get me to and from Australia.

   The trip began in tension. My domestic flight from Hobart to Melbourne was delayed by over an hour, and I had to race to reach the gate of my international flight to Budapest, just arriving as passengers were boarding the flight. Once relaxed in my seat, I was curious to notice the difference between a Boeing Jumbo and an A380, which I’d never flown on before. Everything was enormous. I had to stand up to adjust my fan nozzle and the window was so far away from the seat that I could barely see out, even though I had a window seat. I didn’t think much of the plane at first.
   However, as we were taking off, I glanced up from my magazine to see the runway, and even though it looked as though we were only travelling at 30 km/hr (20 mph), and even though the engines weren’t roaring with the normal take-off noise, the plane slowly and silently climbed into the air. I got a big shock! How could we take off so slowly and quietly? Obviously, we had been racing down the runway at enormous speed, but everything was so quiet that the whole sensation was completely deceptive.
   The flight was long, as we had to go via Doha, with a stop there for a few hours, before carrying on to Budapest, and when I arrived, I had to find my way to the B&B I’d booked myself into, in the heart of the city. I bought a ticket for the bus to town, but it was the wrong ticket to the wrong part of town. The ticket machines were all in Hungarian. A nice man helped me to buy the right ticket for the right bus, and finally I arrived at the correct bus stop for my accommodation. However, although I had paid for an international SIM card for my mobile phone before leaving Australia, it didn’t work when I needed it. The GPS wouldn’t work, so I couldn’t work out which direction to head. I had to ask some girls on the street where to go, and luckily, one of them spoke a little bit of English to help me.
   I walked along the street to my B&B, checking the building numbers until my one appeared. I had to put a code into the security system to enter the building, but it didn’t work! I looked again, and found I had the wrong building. Luckily the code worked at the next building, but when I arrived at my accommodation, there was no one there to let me in. I tried to ring the owner, but my phone didn’t work. Then I used WhatsApp, which I had luckily put the owner’s name into before leaving Australia. It worked! The owner thought I was somewhere else, and I had to wait half an hour for him to turn up.
   As it turned out, all the owner had needed to tell me was that the key was under the cushion on the left hand seat outside the flat. He didn’t need to make me wait another half an hour. I was very tired by this time, having been on the go for thirty-four hours since leaving my home in Hobart. Once inside the flat, it was very nice... a traditional, simply furnished place in typical Hungarian style. Although I would love to have walked around to see the sights of the local area a bit more, I was too exhausted, so showered and went to bed.

Photos:
1850’s Empire Architecture, My Budapest Flat, 2nd Door from End , The Gellert Baths,

 

   
   The next morning, having only one full day in Budapest, I headed for the “Hop On Hop Off The Bus” tour that I had pre-booked online. It visited all the main sights around Buda and Pest, and I was especially planning to hop off at the Gellert Baths, old, historical Turkish baths that were filled with columns, ornate ceilings and thermal water from the natural springs. Although I was in Hungary in early autumn, the weather was still very hot (30*C/86*F) in Budapest, and I was very glad to have a lovely swim and cool off during this bus tour. Budapest’s heyday was in the 1850’s, when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Beautiful buildings from this period lined the leafy streets, and impressive cathedrals and synagogues were scattered throughout the city. Having the River Danube to divide the city into two parts was also lovely, but there were also obvious scars still remaining from the Communist times. Even though it is thirty years since the fall of the Soviet era, Budapest, and the Baltic countries as well, bear the signs on many buildings of the economic destruction and miserable dilapidation of Socialism. It will probably take another few decades before all the scars of Communism have vanished.
   On the way back from the bus, in the early evening, I stopped at a lovely, family- style Hungarian restaurant for dinner. I enjoyed delicious, healthy food of roast pork, pickled vegetables, salad and tea for $7.50 (£3.50). Back home, in my little flat, it was early to bed, as I had to be up by 5.30 am to catch the bus back to the airport for my domestic flight to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

2) Lithuania:
   I had a day to myself in Vilnius, before meeting the people who would join me on my Baltics tour, so ventured into the old part of town to see the beautiful, old buildings and wander around the narrow streets. The Vilnius Marathon was taking place, and I arrived at the finish line just in time to watch the winner break through the ribbon.
   When I travel, I generally keep to a strict budget and don’t pay a lot for accommodation. On this trip, however, I had the luxury of staying in 3- and 4-star hotels, as part of the package tour. The breakfasts served each morning were delicious, and the food in the Radisson Hotel in Vilnius was the best of all, with huge assortments of meats, cheeses, seeds, nuts, fruit, breads, cereals, eggs, yoghurts and juices. Once you’d eaten breakfast, you didn’t need anything else to eat for the rest of the day.

Photos:
Old Vilnius, Beautiful Church Interior 
Gydaminas Cathedral and Tower, Trakai Castle 
Inside St. Peter and Paul Church, The Hill of Crosses

                       

                                          

  

               

                                       

                                                              

    Our first activity on the tour was a 3-hour walk through the Old Town, visiting some of the beautiful churches, cathedrals, squares, marketplaces and university buildings, and listening to the history of Lithuania from our fantastic and informative guide. If you look back at the beautiful Gydaminas Cathedral and Tower shown in the photo above, can you imagine what the Soviets wanted to do to it to despoil its Christian heritage? They were planning to convert it into a tractor factory, and only changed their minds when they found that their machinery wouldn’t quite fit. So they converted it, instead, to a “wonderful” art gallery of Soviet art, displaying portraits of the great Communist dictators, Stalin and Lenin, and other extremist Soviet politicians. How sad and cruel for the oppressed people of Lithuania.
   Lithuania had been a safe haven for Jews in Europe, but when the Nazis invaded during World War Two, 98% of the Lithuanian Jews were sent off to die in the death camps. Sadly, all the little Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia bore the terrible brunt of both Nazism and Communism during the 20th Century, and the people have never forgotten. Our guide, although born just after the fall of Communism, told us about her granny, the youngest of three sisters. During Stalin’s time, soldiers came to their house, dragged the father outside and shot him in front of his three little daughters, and then took the two elder girls into Siberia, where they were pushed off a train and left to die of cold in the frozen wilderness.
   In the afternoon, we hopped on the bus and drove to the original capital of Lithuania at Trakai, built on an island for safety from invasion during the early mediaeval times. In those days, the people of the Baltics were pagans, and they resisted the German Teutonic Knights, who invaded and tried to convert the people to Christianity. You can see the restored Trakai Castle in one of the photos above.
   In the evening, we enjoyed a traditional Lithuanian meal. Now remember, the Baltic people were peasants, simple farming people, mainly serfs under the control of their lords. Their traditional food was also very simple, so our meal consisted of fried potatoes, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes and potatoes with some garlic or onion, and a trace of pork. I can’t really remember anything else about the meal except for the potatoes.
   The next day, we headed north towards Latvia. We are talking about very small countries when we imagine driving from one Baltic State to another. For example, Russia is 17 million square kilometres, Australia is almost 8 million square kilometres and Great Britain is 209 thousand square kilometres. For comparison, Lithuania’s area is 65 thousand sq. km., Latvia’s is 64 thousand sq. km. and Estonia’s is 45 thousand sq. km. 
   All the Baltic countries are very flat. The tallest hill is less than 300 metres tall, and the lands are half forested and half agricultural fields. There are very few villages or towns, as most of the population was wiped out during Nazi and Soviet times. The character of the people is quiet and reserved, as though they still bear the scars of their long years of serfdom, which only finished in the early 20th Century, and of their cruel treatment by their German and Russian invaders. To me, the beautiful forests were of the “Little Red Riding Hood” variety, with dark woods of birch, oak, pine, fir and linden trees. The native animals include bears, wolves, reindeer and foxes – all the animals of the fairytales.

   If you look back at the photos, you will come across the Hill of the Crosses. When Lithuania was under Soviet control, Christianity was banned. A poor farmer had a very sick daughter whom he thought might soon die. One night, he had a vivid dream that God came to him and told him to make a crucifix, take it to a nearby hill and place it in the soil, and that his daughter would be cured. In the morning, the farmer did just that. He climbed the 10-metre hill nearby, and placed the crucifix at the summit. On his return home, he found his daughter up and about and feeling much better. The farmer told all his friends about this miracle, and they also made crosses, placed them upon the hill and gave a prayer to God, asking for the help that they needed. The tradition set in, much to the disgust of the Communist rulers, who regularly came and destroyed these acts of illegal worship. But there was no stopping the people – the more the Soviets tried to stop them, the more the people placed more crosses upon the hill. Nowadays, tourists also buy a cross to place on the hill, and there are, at present, more than one hundred thousand crosses on this little hill. I, of course, bought a cross, and my crucifix is standing proudly amongst the others, in defiance of totalitarian oppression!

3) Latvia:
   In the old days, the western and richest part of Latvia was called Courland, and it had a Grand Duke who lived with his family on a grand estate called the Rundale Palace. On our way through to Riga, the capital of the country, we stopped to check it out. Originally built in the Mannerist style, but later converted into the extravagant Roccoco, with ornately decorated ceilings, vast dining halls and ballrooms, and a French-style garden, it was quite a sight to see. The difference between the lives of these wealthy lords and their poor, suffering serfs would make anyone realise that this extreme was wrong. No wonder Communism seemed like the answer. What a pity human nature means that whenever people are given the ultimate power to rule over others, they become callous monsters, whether they be aristocratic lords or totalitarian dictators.

Photos:
Rundale Palace, Baltics Trip, Rundale Palace Interior
Rundale Palace Gardens, The Duchess and Children, Wall Decoration in the Ballroom

  

                   

  

            
   We reached Riga in the early evening. Compared with Vilnius, I didn’t like it much at first. The city is twice the size of Vilnius, and didn’t seem as pretty. However, when we did our walking tour the next morning, I came to realise that Riga is also a beautiful and interesting city, with pretty narrow streets, lovely public squares, and some amazing architectural styles, including decorative, historical and neoclassical art nouveau. Having taught myself the history of architecture as a teenager, it has given me so much pleasure, when travelling, to observe the different architectural styles.

Photos:
Assorted Architectural Styles in Riga

                                    

                          

   

   On our walk around the Old Town, the guide told us a funny, true story about a man who wanted to join a particular, prestigious guild. The guild snubbed him and wouldn’t let him join, but it had underestimated his success and wealth, and when he built a church opposite the guildhall with a cat on the steeple, he deliberately placed the cat’s anus pointing directly towards the guildhall. Horrified, they asked him about the position of the cat, and he said that this was their punishment for not letting him join. He said he would change the position of the cat’s tail if they would let him become a member, which they quickly did, and the photo below shows the cat’s tail at its present and final angle, no longer pointing at the guildhall.

Photos:
 Riga Scene, The Cat on the Steeple

  

                                                                                                        

   Baltic people live in tiny flats. It is expensive to buy a home and the average family flat occupies only 2.5 squares (25 sq. m or 250 sq. ft). Most families can afford one secondhand car, and have one family holiday per year. Average earnings are 700 to 1,000 Euros per month (~$1,380 or £700). Tax is 20%. Baltic economies are improving slowly, after the decades of Communist economic vandalism. The Baltic people are very artistic and value their artists, poets and writers greatly. There is a National Poets’ Day, and a National Literature Day, and there are statues of their great writers and artists scattered throughout their cities. Even the first Christmas tree was created in Riga in 1510.
   On our next excursion, we went to the Latvian Ethnographic Park, where a whole village had been created to demonstrate the 18th Century lives of the serfs, with homes, saunas, mills, churches, community buildings and grain stores. The furniture inside the homes, the cooking utensils, agricultural tools, livestock pens, gardens, and even their coffins, were shown just as they had been. It was a fascinating tour.

Photos:
The Long House, Village Pond 
Serfs’ Houses, House Interior

 

                      

                          

                                                          
   Not all serfs were poor. They could become quite well-off through hard work. However, Winter was a terrible time for many serfs, who may become unemployed between the food-growing seasons, and who could get sick and die during the long, freezing (- 40*C/-40*F) months that they had to endure. It was common at the end of Summer for serfs to make their own coffins and store them in the attic, just in case they died during Winter.
   It was the mother’s duty to teach her children the history of their country, and also to help the children learn some of the two million Latvian folk songs. As in Lithuania, the German Teutonic Knights, and later, the German noblemen, had a huge control over the Baltic countries, and the Baltic people became ashamed of their native tongues and lack of education compared with their German overlords. Lithuanian and Latvian are the most closely related of the Indo- European languages to their Sanskrit roots, and their grammars are very complex, with seven cases to our mere three.
   Latvia finally gained its independence from Russia when a human chain of people, stretching hand-in-hand, from one end of the country to the other, sang their folksongs in defiance of Soviet rule.

4) Estonia:
   If you thought Lithuanian and Latvian languages were difficult, having seven cases, then imagine Estonian, with twelve of them! German has four cases, Latin has six, and I’ve taught myself some Turkish, which has seven cases, but twelve cases is unimaginable for an English speaker. Estonian and Finnish are closely related languages, with many double vowels in their words, especially “UU”. And just look at the two pairs of double consonants in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital.
   We crossed the border to Estonia, first of all visiting the lovely seaside town of Parnu, a very popular Summer holiday resort for the Estonians with its 3 km (2mi.) of sandy beaches, warm, shallow waters, volleyball nets, swings, basketball hoops and cafes along the shoreline. In Summer, even the government moves its quarters to Parnu, so the politicians and bureaucrats can enjoy the seaside!

   From Parnu, we drove up to Tallinn. This pretty, little capital city lies on the Baltic coast, just 90 km south of Helsinki across the Baltic Sea. The Estonians have a very close relationship with the Finns, with regular trade and travel between the two countries. Estonia sells cheap alcohol, compared with the more affluent Finland, and so many Finns come by ferry in the weekends to drink and buy alcohol to take back home. Estonia has a population of 1.3 million people, but has 2 million Finns and Swedes descend on them during the weekends to boost their economy with alcoholic tourism!
   Being flat like Lithuania and Latvia, but also particularly boggy, Estonia has good supplies of peat which are used to provide cheap electricity for the people. The European Union dictators don’t approve, and are trying to prohibit peat electricity, but the Estonians won’t be dictated to anymore, having had a gutful of the Russians. In fact, all of Eastern Europe will not stand for EU dictatorship, after their years of Communist oppression.
   Our first morning in Tallinn was another walking tour around the pretty Old Town, and what a lovely town it is. The Upper Town was where the noblemen lived, while the Lower Town was for the ordinary folk. One day, a nobleman came down to the Lower Town and ordered an omelette in an inn. When he was served, he didn’t like the food he was given, and went into the kitchen and murdered the cook! He was arrested and told that although he might be able to treat serfs like that up in the Upper Town, he couldn’t do that in the Lower Town, and he was executed in the public square quick-smart! I’m all for harsh, swift justice. We need more of it these days.

Photos:
Beautiful Tallinn, Cobbled Street
The City Centre
Orthodox Church, The Central Square
Another Tallinn Scene, Vodka and Herring, Lahemaa National Park
Palmse Manor House and Interior

 

            

              

                                                                              

                                 

                                                                

             

   If you look at the crosses on the Orthodox church in the photo above, you will notice a crescent at the bottom of each cross. The Ottoman Muslims invaded the Balkans and Baltics for many years, and of course, were despised despots. Once the Christians had finally fought them off, the Orthodox Church adopted the symbol of the Christian Cross standing above the Muslim Crescent in victory. The final two photos above show Palmse Manor House and its dining room. 

   We took an excursion to the Lahemaa National Park, which included a lovely, peaceful seaside holiday spot that used to be a fishermen’s village, the Palmse Manor House and the 16th Century Vihula Manor House and Vodka Museum.
    The Estonians make delicious vodka, which is better than Russian vodka, and in fact, is so good that the Russians import it. It is mixed with apple and cinnamon and isn’t nearly as harsh as Russian vodka. The Estonians love garlic and put it in everything, including their chocolate. They also eat a lot of herring, brown bread with garlic butter, and gherkins, all of which I found delicious. After our lovely time in Estonia, we were ready to cross the Baltic Sea to Helsinki, capital of Finland, just a short trip of ninety minutes on a very nice ferry.

5) Finland:
   70 % of Finland is covered in forests, it has 5.5 million people, bears that stand 3 metres (10 ft) tall, 7 nuclear reactors for energy, and the main industries of ship building, wood products and high technology goods.
   I went to Helsinki when I was twenty. On that trip, before we reached the capital, we stopped along the way, and I had the pleasure and excitement of experiencing my first ever sauna, a true Finnish sauna, at a temperature of 121*C (250*F). That’s well over boiling point! When I first opened the sauna door, a blast of intense heat burst into my face. I was scared, shut the door and went away to think about whether I would dare go into that oven or not. After a minute or two, I went back and opened the door a second time, to be confronted by that terrifying heat again. Once more, I shut the door and went away to think. The third time, I thought that I must do it, so I opened the sauna door and went inside, sitting on the lowest rack of the oven. It was so hot, I had to shut my eyes and hold my hand over my nostrils and mouth to try not to have my breathing passages dry out. I stayed inside that little wooden room and cooked for ten minutes, sweating as I had never sweated before. Then I went out and had a cool swim for a few minutes. We were told we should go into the sauna three times, with a cool swim in between, so off I headed, back to the sauna for my second baking. This time, feeling braver, I sat myself on the middle rack of the oven. It was even hotter. Every now and then, someone would throw some water onto the fire, and a blast of steam would appear. After another ten minutes, I went for my second swim. On my third time in the sauna, I sat on the top rack. This was incredibly hot, far hotter than the first two racks. I roasted and sweated nicely for another ten minutes before having my final swim. 
   Then we all hopped onto the bus and drove into Helsinki. I didn’t realise beforehand, but a hot sauna is so stressful on the body that it puts you into a deep state of relaxation, and although I tried to keep my eyes open to see the beauty of Helsinki, I just couldn’t. I slept through the whole tour of this lovely city. In theory, I’d been to Helsinki when I was twenty, but in practice, I really hadn’t been there at all, so I was very keen, this second time, to see what I’d missed.

Photos:
Oldest Building in Helsinki, Lutheran Cathedral 
City Street Scene

 

             

                                            

                                                                                                                            
   Not having been crippled by Communism, Helsinki is an affluent, vibrant city, with no scars of derelict buildings or a struggling economy. The Finns enjoy 70% home ownership, they earn an average of 3,000 Euros per month (over triple the average for the little Baltic States), and they pay between 20 and 50% tax. Helsinki has a population of 650,000 people, which is a nice, comfortable number.
   As for not having been taken over by the Soviets, the Finns, of course, as with all the other countries that surrounded Russia, had to fight for their independence. In the early 1900’s, the Finns outsmarted the attacking, mighty Russian Army during the Winter by using a simple but commonsense approach. While the Russians noisily roared through Finnish territory with their big army tanks, which warned the Finnish soldiers of their movements, the Finns would quietly ski through the woods in their white uniforms, and surprise the enemy in silence, as they appeared out of nowhere. Being the freezing Wintertime, when more food is needed to keep warm, the Finns had plenty to eat, but they knew that the Russians were low on supplies and were very hungry. Cleverly, the Finnish soldiers would set up a fire and cook meat that could be smelt in the air over quite a distance. Then they would hide, and wait for the hungry Russians to feast on the deserted food. The Russian soldiers were then shot while in the process of enjoying a delicious mouthful of sausage. War is a sad and very cruel thing, but it gave the Finns their independence.
   In Helsinki, apart from visiting the main city attractions, we also went on a ferry to the Suomenlinna Fortress (Castle of Finland). This fortress was built in 1748 by the Swedes to ward off Russian attack, but was taken over by Russia in 1808. When Finland became independent from Russia in 1917, the Finns took back the fortress, and it is now set up as an open-air museum.

6) Russia:
   As with Finland, I have visited Russia before. My first trip to Russia was during the Brezhnev era of the Cold War. However, this time, it was a whole new country from the one I had seen as a twenty-year-old. We headed from Finland across the Russian border, travelling via Vyborg to St. Petersburg. Back then, in the 1970’s, it was named Leningrad, and was a dull, drab, miserable place, with fifty-year-old women with jack-hammers, drilling holes in the roads, meat in the butchers’ shops that was only fit for pets, bread that was so stale that the baker supplied a skewer for you to stick into the bread to see which loaf was the least stale, and a few cars in the street that carried only the political elite and no one else. In the shops, there was one style of dress and one style of shoe, women had to queue for basic items like cabbages and potatoes, as there were always shortages of everything. People used “Pravda”, the main Russian newspaper, as toilet paper, because they knew it was full of lies and propaganda, (a bit like our modern fake news media), and on almost every street, there were giant posters and statues showing Russian workers and soldiers raging with their defiant and angry fists and guns against us evil capitalist imperialists.

Photos:
 Boat Ride on the Neva River, Golden Palace Domes
Gardens at Peterhof , The Venice of the North 
Table Decoration, Hermitage, Floor Decoration, Hermitage
A Hermitage Gallery with Beautiful Ceiling

          

               

                                      

    

              

                                               

                                                                                                        
   Well, this time, it was different, very different. From my previous blog post, you will notice that I had visited Moscow last Christmas, having the great pleasure of visiting my Muscovite friends, Nastya and Kirill. Snow lay everywhere, and the pine trees around the city and countryside were decked in natural white. Having seen Moscow during the Cold war, I could see the dramatic changes in that city. Now it was vibrant, energetic, and looking its absolute best. All the dereliction from the past had been restored, and Moscow looked spectacular, with Christmas decorations and lights strung up everywhere.
   I would say the same thing about St. Petersburg. From the horrible drabness and sad poverty of 1970’s Leningrad, this new St. Petersburg had come back to life. The buildings were restored to their original glory and magnificence, businesses were thriving, and modern Russians had a spring in their step. St. Petersburg is built on a series of rivers and canals, and is often called “The Venice of the North”, which makes it quite special.
   On our first day there, we visited the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Winter Palace, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and the Church of Spilt Blood. In the afternoon, we drove out to see the amazing Summer Palace, built for Catherine, the wife of Peter the Great, and in the evening, we attended a show at Nikolaevsky Palace. The architecture in both St. Petersburg and Moscow is spectacular. Mainly built in Empire style, after the Napoleonic War, it has such elegance, the equal of any other great city in Western Europe.
   The following morning, we went out to Peterhof, Peter the Great’s impressive waterside Grand Palace, with the famous Grand Cascade and Water Avenue, and wonderful French and English style gardens. At midday, back in town, I ventured into a little Russian café for lunch and ordered bread, soup, salad and tea, all for just $3.20 (£1.50). In the afternoon, a visit to the Hermitage Museum was a must-see. This museum is enormous, containing art, sculpture, furniture and other fine arts, and is part of the Winter Palace. Luckily, we managed to see most of it, moving quickly through the crowds. In the evening, we went out to dinner to a lovely restaurant called the “Pryanosti & Radosti”.

   The next morning, I was due to fly home, via Hong Kong, to see Adam, Becky, Jasper and Jude. However, I just had time for a boat ride on the Neva River and the canals, before heading to the airport. What a lovely way to see St. Petersburg. I would recommend a boat trip on the Neva to anyone who might be thinking of visiting St. Petersburg. Seeing the panorama of this great city unfold from the waterside was such a treat.
   After the boat ride, and back in my hotel, I put an app on my phone which is the equivalent of Uber for Russia, called Yandex, and called for a ride to the airport. Within a minute or two, a lovely woman-driver arrived, and we chatted all the way to the terminal, using a translation app on her dashboard. It was a friendly way to end my stay in Russia. I flew on Aeroflot to Hong Kong. Gone are the days when the death rate on this airline was high! Now, Aeroflot is as good as, or better, than most other airlines, so don’t hesitate to fly with this company.

7) Getting Home:
   Having flown home via Hong Kong last Christmastime, I won’t go into details on this post. Although I arrived in the midst of the Hong Kong protests against Chinese domination, all went peacefully for me. Adam, Becky, the boys and I went to visit the city zoological park, wandered along the waterfront, went to the playground to let Jasper play, and had a relaxing time at their flat. I also got to see where Adam works in the heart of town. The views from his office are spectacular. Hong Kong really is an incredible city, with such an energetic atmosphere and friendly people. It was wonderful to see newborn baby Jude, and to watch toddler Jasper having such fun with water play along the waterside and at the playground. However, after the very strenuous three-week trip through the Baltics, I felt quite tired and was looking forward to getting home. I had been nervous about doing such a big trip on my own, but with careful preparation, everything turned out well, and I’m so glad that I have seen the lovely little Baltic countries that so few people think of visiting.

Photos:
Hey, Jude!   Becky, Adam and Jasper
Father and Son