Bouncing Around the Baltics

A couple of weeks ago, we set off on a trip that was many years in the making. We first designed the trip before Covid, had to put it on the back burner, and then, when we thought we might do it after Covid, the war with Ukraine made travel in that area a bit risky. We had other travel opportunities arise and become more favored options as well as some years of limited travel time meaning that this trip had to wait about six years to come to fruition. But finally, we have taken the past two weeks to traverse the Baltic countries.

Day 1

Our trip began with a ton of driving (spoiler alert-it ends that way too…and pretty much driving was the theme throughout). We spent the entire day to cross Germany and end up for the night in Poznan, Poland. Arriving fairly late, we went straight to dinner. There happened to be a small Georgian restaurant right next to our apartment, so we decided that was our best bet. We had some Ukrainian pierogi which was filled with potato and some Georgian dumplings filled with cheese. We also had khachapuri which is a famous Georgian dish of bread filled with egg and cheese. We paired it with some Georgian beer and wine and tried the fruit filled dumplings for dessert. It was a great meal to start the trip.

After dinner, we walked to the old city square to have a look around. There were quite a few interesting buildings and several fountains featuring gods and goddesses. We grabbed some pastries for the morning and got to bed to prepare for another day of driving.

Day 2

Before heading out of Poland, we ate our pastries from the night before which consisted of little fried balls, kroller, a yeast bread with streusel topping and a berry filled pastry. I think the kroller was a top hit with most of us.

We spent a lot of time driving through rural Poland before reaching Lithuania. Our accommodation was a very cute place in the forest. After dropping our bags and taking a small sip of a local liquor that was awaiting us in the rental, we drove into the nearby town for dinner. We had kepta douna (fried rye bread sticks), saltibarsciai (cold beetroot soup), mushroom soup (the region is apparently well known for mushrooms), potato pancakes with mushroom sauce, and fried dumplings. We also tried Gira which is a non-alcoholic drink from fermented rye bread and a local beer. After dinner, we went to a grocery store where we found some dessert of sakotis raguolus (spit cake) which was okay and grybukai (mushroom cookies) which were a bit strange. Though, I will say, both things kind of grew on us.

Day 3

We tried some store bought spurgos (filled donuts) for breakfast. They were not too good.

But, we were in good spirits as we had a really highly recommended hike planned for the morning called Marcinkony’s trail in Dzukija National Park. Unfortunately, the biting flies and deer keds (kind of like flying ticks) were out of control, and we were not prepared for that, so after about an hour, we had to quit the hike. It was disappointing, but everyone was so freaked out by swarms of these two creatures that we were kind of glad to get out of there. We went to a lake area nearby where we found a circle of pagan carved statues and a sign explaining them which was interesting.

We drove to our next stop, Trakai, through some dirt roads in forests. In Trakai, we went out for lunch where we had the fried rye bread again though this one was covered in cheese. We also tried three types of kibinai (a dish originating with the ethnic group that settled in this area)-spinach and curd, mushroom, and cabbage. We also tried cepelinai which is like a stuffed, steamed potato ball. We tried Midas, which is a sweet liquor, and a local beer. We can’t leave without dessert, so we had pyragas simtalapis which is a traditional cake and kibinai filled with curd cheese.

After lunch, we walked along the lake and crossed the bridge to Trakai Castle to walk around it’s perimeter. We also walked the main street of the old town. After that, we rented a four-person paddleboat and spent an hour on the lake where we saw an old manor house and a hilltop fort.

After the paddling was done, we walked to the fort and an old post office.

We later went to dinner where we had potato pancakes, potato dumplings and mushroom dumplings. We also tried a Lithuanian beer. After dinner, we strolled along the water a bit and saw several hot air balloons and some unusual sand art.

Late that night, we got a call to let us know that our rental car was detected driving in a Baltic country, and it was not authorized for those countries because of the high rate of theft of premium foreign cars. Needless to say, this threw us into a bit of a panic, and we scrambled for many hours trying to figure out what to do to salvage our vacation but not find ourselves stranded or owing a ton of money for a vandalized or stolen vehicle. At about 1am, we had a plan and we tried to get some sleep to continue on with our plans the next day.

Day 4

We started with an early drive to our next planned destination, Vilnius. Our first stop was at the airport where we parked the “premium” car and rented another vehicle that was authorized to drive in the other Baltic countries. We said a quick prayer that the car would be fine parked in the airport garage for ten days, and we headed into the city with our new rental car.

Vilnius was a nice city and we walked around for several hours seeing an art institute, the president’s residence, a wall to commemorate literary heroes, a city gate with a chapel inside, a large wall mural, a woodworkers shop and a portal to see live images from populous areas in other countries (this was pretty cool).

We also saw several churches which were all nice and had different styles. Our favorite was probably the Orthodox church which was a very dark green inside and had three dead bodies enshrined in the center.

We stopped for a quick breakfast at a cafe where we had a much better spurgos (filled donut) and a cardamon bun.

We went to a city market where they had a lot of large fruit (both in size and in the quantity you got) as well as some really pretty flower arrangements. We stopped at a cheese stand in the market to buy varskes surelis which was like a chocolate covered cheesecake.

We went to a restaurant for lunch before leaving the city. There we had spiced fried cheese, cheese and meat filled cepelinai, potato pancakes with truffle sauce, and a pork dish.

After leaving Vilnius, we drove to Aukstaitija National Forest which has a lot of lakes. We checked into our apartment and went for a quick walk down the road to the nature center and an old church.

A nearby town was having a city birthday celebration, so we went to check it out. There were a lot of tents with food and other products. We bought a pastry for breakfast, but nothing else was too exciting, so we went to dinner.

At dinner we had another version of the fried rye bread with cheese, potato pancakes and kugelis (a baked, potato casserole dish) with garlic sauce and mushroom sauce. For dessert, we tried tinginys cake-one vanilla, one chocolate. These are like a harder cake with chopped pieces of spit cake inside-very nice.

To walk it all off, once we were back to our apartment, we walked to a cemetery and through part of the forest.

Day 5

Today, we tried our bread that we bought at the town celebration the night before. It was filled with kiwi preserves and strawberry preserves, but no one was a huge fan.

We did two hikes in the first part of the day. The first was about three hours through the forest, along the lake and through some grassy fields. We saw two young foxes with a parent. We went to a water mill as well.

The second hike wound through the forest and swampy areas as well as some waterways. We really liked this hike. We saw a pike fish, a snake in some grasses, and a little green frog. After our hiking, we had lunch at the lake and tried a few nice Lithuanian beers-white, lager and dark.

In the evening, some of us walked to an ancient burial site which was set up like a museum display and a nice garden with lots of bees and beetles.

We found some dinner and decided to rehike our second trail of the morning before going back to our apartment to watch the World Cup final.

Day 6

Today, we left Lithuania and moved into Latvia for our destination-Sigulda and Gauja National Park. Our drive in was eventful as we spotted a deer, a fox, some common crane, which are quite interesting despite the name, and a lot of storks right at the side of the road.

Once we arrived in Sigulda, we stopped in the small town to have a lunch of potato pancakes and two kinds of karbonade (kind of like schnitzel). We tried the Latvian version of fried rye bread with cheese and their version of the fermented rye drink called Kvass. We also got a popular Latvian beer and Black Balsam Riga which is vodka.

After our lunch, we hiked (in the rain) to Gutman’s Cave and the Turaida Loop Trail. The cave wasn’t much of a cave, but the hike was nice, and we saw a lot of giant snails, tiny frogs, and two running deer. We made our way to Turaida Castle where we looked at the ruins, some artifacts, and a sculpture garden. That trail was nice, but there were a lot of steps and a lot of uphill climbing.

After hiking, we went to dinner where we tried the grey peas, a pasta dish with mushrooms, another with Latvian green cheese, and an ancient recipe dish of blood sausage with barley. We paired it all with some sparkling Latvian wine. We found that a nearby place had a traditional dessert of rupjmaizes kartojums (sort of a rye bread trifle) which was good. As an added bonus, we ordered some sea buckthorn tea with honey which was quite nice and apparently has a ton of health benefits. It seemed to be a popular tea in the Baltics.

Day 7

Today, we woke up with enough time to go get breakfast in a cafe. We had some eggs, a cinnamon roll pastry, a berry pastry and a kind of cheese curd pastry.

To work it off, we spent the next four and a half hours hiking the Cecili Trail. It was a super nice forest trail with some challenging uphill/downhill spots and tricky water crossings. It was just the right amount of difficulty. We heard a lot of sounds that might have been beavers and otters but only saw some frogs, insects, and a lizard.

After the hike, we found a super inexpensive place for lunch where we tried girki (buckwheat) and some maizes zupa (rye bread pudding) for dessert.

We decided that we would do dinner in our apartment, so we went to a market hall to get some local cheese called janu siers and some local breads (burkanmaize and klijumaize) and to a grocery store for a few other items. We fried up biezpiena placenisi or syrniki (cottage cheese pancakes) and ate them with strawberry jam along with our cheese and bread. We also had a little raspberry filled pastry for dessert which was nice.

Day 8

We spent the morning driving into Estonia-specifically, Tallinn. Once we arrived, we made our way to the old town and looked around a bit.

We could not find many traditional Estonian restaurants at all, so we decided to try a Russian restaurant. We ordered wild boar stew, two kinds of dumplings and a cabbage soup. One of the dumplings and the soup came in a kind of bread bowl that was interesting. We did manage to have a few Estonian drinks-Saku beer, a honey beer, and Vana Tallinn which was a liquor.

After our lunch, we explored the old town more which was decidedly medieval in nature. We saw a Baptist church, St. Mary’s church, a Russian Orthodox church, old city walls, several towers, the town hall and a government building.

Because we were having so much trouble finding traditional food, we went to a grocery store and bought a few things-rosolje (beet, potato, and herring salad)-no thanks, kartulisalat (potato salad with peas and egg), mannavaht (fluffy whipped cranberry dessert), kama (a milled flour mixture whipped with a fruit topping), kohupiimakreem (similar to yogurt), and leviasupp (rye bread pudding). We also bought some Ale Coq beer, Pohjala beer and Kohuke which was another version of the chocolate covered cream cheese.

Day 9

Today was a very early day because we were catching a ferry to Helsinki, Finland. The ferry was a two hour ride, but it was more like a cruise ship, so it was very comfortable.

On arriving, we took a taxi to the design district of the city and stopped in a cafe (I’m going to preface it now-this day was a lot of eating) for some korvapuusti (cinnamon bun), mustikkapiirakka (bilberry pie-it’s different than blueberry, look it up) and a salted caramel bun. They were all really good, but the bilberry pie was the favorite.

We walked to the Esplanadi (a park area) to look at the various statues and to have a salted black licorice ice cream which was surprisingly good. From there, we walked to the train station and the national theater.

Next, we went to the outdoor market where we ate again. This time we got munkke (a fried donut), karelian pie and karjalanpiirakka (a bread filled with potato and vegetables).

We looked around at all the stalls-produce, souvenirs, other foods and bought some cloudberries which are only found in the northern regions. They were a bit tart. We decided to have our lunch in the market (I know you can’t believe we were eating again). We tried paistetut muikut or muikku (fried fish), lohikeitto (salmon soup) and reindeer meatballs.

After lunch, we went to Uspenski Cathedral for a quick peek inside. There were also a lot of great views from outside.

And, because more than ten minutes had passed, we went to the indoor market for Leipajuusto (squeaky cheese) with cloudberry jam and a lingonberry pie.

We walked to Senate Square and sat for a while enjoying the sun and drinking a Lonkero-Finnish long drink of gin and grapefruit juice.

After our relaxation time, we stopped in the public library and continued to Kallilo district which is supposed to be quite Bohemian. That wasn’t really the vibe we got, so we didn’t stay there too long.

Instead, we went to (you guessed it) eat more. We had a dinner of Russian style blinis (pancakes) with cabbage and egg filling, potato, onion, and mushroom filling, and a meat filling.

We walked back toward the market square taking in some cute side streets as we headed toward the water where we spent a few minutes looking at all the islands.

We stopped in the market square for a bit to listen to a concert that was happening and then walked the streets (about 45 minutes) back to the port where we boarded the ship and tried some Estonian cheese and Salmiakki Koskenkorva which is a salty licorice flavored vodka. It was a long day, but we got 30,000 steps in, tried a lot of nice foods, and had a good time.

Day 10

We took today easy since we got in so late from Helsinki the night before. We made our way to Soomaa National Park further south in Estonia. After checking out our apartment which was a house from 1890, we went to the Beaver Study Trail which was a calm walk through a bog forest. There was nothing too exciting about the trail, but there were trees that had been felled by beavers and the gnawed stumps.

We went into the town of Tori, which was incredibly small, to look at their church and have dinner next to a horse stud farm. We had a traditional Estonian dish of chanterelle mushrooms in cream sauce with potatoes (apparently this was the right time of year for the mushrooms as it is the foraging season). We also tried some pear cider and strawberry drink from a local distillery.

Once dinner was done, we walked the Riisa Study Trail which was a boardwalk style trail through the bog. The trail was a bit boring, but there were some forest areas and open areas with small lakes that were pretty. But, don’t let the scenery deceive you. It looks like firm ground, but the ground was super soft, and you could sink right in if you stepped off-sometimes as much as six feet.

Day 11

Started our day with a quick breakfast of pirukad filled with cabbage and a short hike in a meadow area where we had to struggle against swarms of biting flies.

The trail was a bit flooded in one area, and that put an end to the hike. That meant it was time to move on to Riga, back in Latvia. On the way we stopped at the beach of the Baltic Sea.

In the city, we walked to a really huge city market-think five large buildings and an outdoor space. We also saw a monument in a large square where there was also the Black Head house and the old town hall. There were many large squares in the city as well as a ton of churches. We weren’t able to go in many of the churches, but, one that we did enter had an area with very well categorized human bones.

We walked along the river and saw a large statue for the legendary city founder and read his story. We found some medieval houses and an old city gate. There was also a building with two cat statues on it that had to do with an old feud in the city between a resident and a guild that he wanted to belong to.

At dinner, we tried a Latvian beer flight, rye garlic bread, Latvian black currant wine, gray peas and an old-style dish with buckwheat risotto. Our son actually ate a footlong schnitzel and won us a free beer for being able to eat it all! We finished the meal with two traditional Latvian desserts- ponciki which are fried beer balls and cielavina which is meringue cookies with a chocolate and berry filling.

Day 12

We left Riga with a quick stop for some pastries and headed to Kaunas in Lithuania. In Kaunas, we first stopped at the Ninth Fort which had a long history of tragic events. One of the worst parts of its history was mass executions during World War II. We were able to see museum style exhibits in the fort and some commemorative areas outside. It was a heavy experience.

Next, we made our way into the heart of Kaunas. We went to the Devil’s Museum which was the former home of a local artist who had an extensive collection of devil artwork and figures. There was some nice information about the cultural and historical significance of the devil. It was an interesting place.

We walked around the city to several churches, historic buildings, and the town hall. There were many sculptures around town, and we also went to a yard art gallery which was different.

We walked into a nice city park and saw the Kaunas Musical Theater. Then we strolled down the pedestrian shopping streets and through a few squares. There were so many restaurants everywhere. We walked down to the river and to Kaunas castle.

We had dinner of fried cheese, local beer, pork dumplings, potato pancakes with chanterelle sauce, cepelinai with cheese and a pancake from the Dzukija region that was made from buckwheat. At the end of the meal, we tried Krupnikas which is an ancient Lithuanian spiced honey liquor and was very good.

After dinner, we walked to a square with a World War I museum, the tomb of an unknown soldier, and the eternal flame. We sat in the pedestrian street to have a little dessert, and we got to see the Archangel Church all lit up.

Day 13

Our morning started with breakfast in Kaunas where we had some varskes spurgos (fried round donuts) and cottage cheese pancakes.

Then, the moment of truth, we drove back to Vilnius to make sure the original rental car was unscathed. It was. In fact, we saw no reason on the entire trip to believe that it would have been a problem at all and we probably could have driven it the whole time. But, as all was well, we returned the second car and started driving back in the original.

It was a long drive through a lot of small side roads, but we finally made it to Grudziadz, Poland. We got in late but had enough time to get a dinner of potato, mushroom, and chicken pierogies. We also had a local beer which was nice after the long day in the car. Since the pierogies for the main dish were good, we decided to get some strawberry ones for dessert.

We walked around the square of the city which housed a church, town hall, and several statues. We also walked along the granaries (a fourteenth century fortification) which the city is famous for. Overall, Grudziadz was a bit tough because most people did not speak much English, and they were a little flat, but there were some interesting things to see there.

Day 14

Our last day was a long day of driving-twelve hours. But, we made it, and everyone was very happy with the trip after the six year wait. Though, I have already promised that our next trip will not contain driving!