The Last Day of Helsinki.
From Tallinn to Helsinki, I took a ferry to get to here. It cost about 25 euro including bicycle fee and wonderful breakfast!!! In the first 30 minutes, I kept eating even if I felt like thrown up. The dishes were law fish, meat, and bread as usual!!! Unfortunately, there were no rice. But it was very good for starving stomach. In Japan, the meal which we can choose and eat as much as you want calls viking in stead of smorgasbord, even if it is not a real viking meal. And interestingly the name of the ferry which I took was Viking. It was large ferry and a lot of cars as well as passengers.
To get to the ferry port in Tallinn, I passed the old town in the morning. It was very beautiful and quiet, different from evening or daytime in there. Quite a few people walking and normanlly tourist in Tallinn is sleeping in the early morning. Atmosphere in the old town arouse me that I am in the museum in the middle ages!! That was my first time to visit old town around 7 am. I really recommend visiting early morning in the old town for those people who want to put yourself in it!
Helsinki was a nice city, it is not too big and busy, economic level is quite similar to Japan or a little bit higher that that. The first impression in Finland looks like Bucurest in Romania form that archtecture. You can easily understand the reason if you know about the history in here. I haven't know much about the history in Finland. But what I have found everything in these three days was that Finland have a lot of influence on Russia and Germany in recent history as well as Sweden. In the middle ages, Finland was a colony of Sweden. That is one of the reason why Swedish was one of an official language in Finland. We can see two signs on the road, Finnish and Swedish, when you go around somewhere in the city.
And another something new as that a lot of Black people living in here. I haven't met those people through this trip by here. Mainly, those Black people are from African countries to be able to get a better living standard. It was semilar to Chinese and Kolean people living in Japan. But amount of those people are quite a lot compared to Japan. I guess there is a difference between Finland and Japan of the immigration policy. The number of people who immigrate to Japan from China and Korea as well as other south east Asian country are not a lot because of strict immigration policy of Japanese government. I haven't noticed the reason but those closed policy is one of a feature in Japan.
Anyway, from now on I will leave Helsinki to Turku, the old capital in Finland
Yuji@ Helsinki, Finland
15.7.09
13.7.09
Baltic capitals
Today is the last day of my Baltic travel. Tomorrow morning, I will leave for Helsinki by ferry.And at the same time, this is the last day of my traveling at so called, Eastern part of Europe. I feel like being that this is one of a truning point of my great journey!
It was quite long journey for this two and half months. The day when I have started my this journey at Istanbul was on 22nd of April and to get to the north point of Eastern Europe is on 13th of July, the total is 83 days to get here. Actually, I can possible to get to Helsinki without ferry, but if I try to take that way, I need a tourist visa in Russia.
I heard the man who I met on the road from Norway that Russia the way from Sanktpeterburg to the border to Estonia was very poor. I thought when I heard it that I need to study about what was Russia if I want to know about how happend the poor situation in there. He is going to South Africa as a charity for the poor people in that continent for 9 months by bicycle.
This is his homepage! http://theshirt2010.net/
As a end of Baltic journey, I will write about how have I felt those three capitals.
Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania was most beautiful city of all three Baltic countries in my opinion. The old town itself was not large like Riga and Tallinn, there was no port and quite small. That was enough reason why Vilnius was so beautiful.
Riga, was the beggest city of all three capitals. Of course, it has a lot of places from middle ages but there was a lot of traffic and tourist, mainly they were from England and Germany. The size of the old town was very large and even outside of the old town, there were several beautiful archtecture like Budapest.
And here in Tallinn, is a port with beautiful city. There are a lot of torist from Finland and other European countries. For the people in western Europe, this is the nice place to visit because price of food & beer were quite cheap and an airplain ticket is also cheap to access to here. But, from my experience Tallinn is the highest prices to buy something compared to other Baltic countries for the tourist. Old town was full of torist! Even I heard some of Japanese in the old town!
There is no plan to come to eastern part of Europe, again.
Good-bye Balt,
Good-bye Eastern Europe,
Yuji
It was quite long journey for this two and half months. The day when I have started my this journey at Istanbul was on 22nd of April and to get to the north point of Eastern Europe is on 13th of July, the total is 83 days to get here. Actually, I can possible to get to Helsinki without ferry, but if I try to take that way, I need a tourist visa in Russia.
I heard the man who I met on the road from Norway that Russia the way from Sanktpeterburg to the border to Estonia was very poor. I thought when I heard it that I need to study about what was Russia if I want to know about how happend the poor situation in there. He is going to South Africa as a charity for the poor people in that continent for 9 months by bicycle.
This is his homepage! http://theshirt2010.net/
As a end of Baltic journey, I will write about how have I felt those three capitals.
Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania was most beautiful city of all three Baltic countries in my opinion. The old town itself was not large like Riga and Tallinn, there was no port and quite small. That was enough reason why Vilnius was so beautiful.
Riga, was the beggest city of all three capitals. Of course, it has a lot of places from middle ages but there was a lot of traffic and tourist, mainly they were from England and Germany. The size of the old town was very large and even outside of the old town, there were several beautiful archtecture like Budapest.
And here in Tallinn, is a port with beautiful city. There are a lot of torist from Finland and other European countries. For the people in western Europe, this is the nice place to visit because price of food & beer were quite cheap and an airplain ticket is also cheap to access to here. But, from my experience Tallinn is the highest prices to buy something compared to other Baltic countries for the tourist. Old town was full of torist! Even I heard some of Japanese in the old town!
There is no plan to come to eastern part of Europe, again.
Good-bye Balt,
Good-bye Eastern Europe,
Yuji
10.7.09
My Language Skills
This is the second time to write the same thing which I have worte already before. It might be happens that everything would dissapper when I am tiping.
I have started to learn French and Germany as well as English. English is the only language that I can communicate with each other those person who can speak it. As I told you before, when I try to apply for United Nations officer, I need to use at least 2 languages on business. My English is still not the level that can use in that situation. I will be over it in no time.
Anyway, I choose French as a second language for applying at UN even though I learned Chinese when I was the 2nd and 3rd year of my school, but I am not interested in China, even if that is the country which will rise in this century as my grabdfather told me before. And lot of scholars say the same things to China as well as Brazia, Russia, and India, so called BRICS, the last S means, south africa or.... I heard it somewhere. The reason why I choose French is that because it is used for UN as one of official language, the rest of them are Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic probably. Unfortunately, Germany is not the language which is used at UN as a official language. Futhermore, my second reason is that a lot of countries in Africa, in particlar north and west part, they use in French as their daily life or for tourist. Once, those countries were a colony of French and the legacy of that age is still remainig in that continent, and that is the one of the reason why African continent still developing nowadays even if those independent year was 1960s.
That is why, I started to study French after two times failure when I was freshman. French is a part of Latin language, that is similar to Spanish and Italy, different from English. Compared to French, Germany is a language that is easy to study! English is a part of Germanic language. Those pronounciation and grammer structure are quite the same in English. For this 2 months I haven't spend enough time to study because of my busy schedule. But finally, I noticed the comfortable distance per day to be able to study and travel is 80km. The distance so far, to here per day is between 100km and 120km. Time is limited and but I need to travel and study those languages before going back. In this few days, I started to learn French for my future. That is still hard to learn by myself, but I brought a book with CD from Japan, that CD is quite helpful to study! However, the best way to study French is to go to France, right? If I spend in whole July in scandinavian countries, I won't have enough time to stay at France as well as Germany. I need to choose the way if I go up to Northcup or directly to Stockholm by ferrty.
I learned how time and money is important to live through this journey!
Lastly, I will show my language skills at the moment following importance order:
English-only tool for communication!
French-the key language for my future
Germany-time will solve
Swahili-the second mother tongue
Japanese-mother tongue
Yuji @ AINAZI, Latvia
PS. This is the last day in Latvia and the first day of Estnia
I have started to learn French and Germany as well as English. English is the only language that I can communicate with each other those person who can speak it. As I told you before, when I try to apply for United Nations officer, I need to use at least 2 languages on business. My English is still not the level that can use in that situation. I will be over it in no time.
Anyway, I choose French as a second language for applying at UN even though I learned Chinese when I was the 2nd and 3rd year of my school, but I am not interested in China, even if that is the country which will rise in this century as my grabdfather told me before. And lot of scholars say the same things to China as well as Brazia, Russia, and India, so called BRICS, the last S means, south africa or.... I heard it somewhere. The reason why I choose French is that because it is used for UN as one of official language, the rest of them are Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic probably. Unfortunately, Germany is not the language which is used at UN as a official language. Futhermore, my second reason is that a lot of countries in Africa, in particlar north and west part, they use in French as their daily life or for tourist. Once, those countries were a colony of French and the legacy of that age is still remainig in that continent, and that is the one of the reason why African continent still developing nowadays even if those independent year was 1960s.
That is why, I started to study French after two times failure when I was freshman. French is a part of Latin language, that is similar to Spanish and Italy, different from English. Compared to French, Germany is a language that is easy to study! English is a part of Germanic language. Those pronounciation and grammer structure are quite the same in English. For this 2 months I haven't spend enough time to study because of my busy schedule. But finally, I noticed the comfortable distance per day to be able to study and travel is 80km. The distance so far, to here per day is between 100km and 120km. Time is limited and but I need to travel and study those languages before going back. In this few days, I started to learn French for my future. That is still hard to learn by myself, but I brought a book with CD from Japan, that CD is quite helpful to study! However, the best way to study French is to go to France, right? If I spend in whole July in scandinavian countries, I won't have enough time to stay at France as well as Germany. I need to choose the way if I go up to Northcup or directly to Stockholm by ferrty.
I learned how time and money is important to live through this journey!
Lastly, I will show my language skills at the moment following importance order:
English-only tool for communication!
French-the key language for my future
Germany-time will solve
Swahili-the second mother tongue
Japanese-mother tongue
Yuji @ AINAZI, Latvia
PS. This is the last day in Latvia and the first day of Estnia
7.7.09
Ratvia
Tried to buy a beer at a shop after 10pm, but it was too late ! Finally I decided to get inside a bar! It was prohibited to sell a alcohol after 10pm. in this country. If so, I want to say that "Don't put it on a shelf !" Am I lack of moral sense ?
Around 30 hours have passed since I have got to Riga, the capital of Latvia. Riga is one of a beautiful city in Europe. This old town is listed on World Heritage Site I read somewhere. People in Japan are apt to going to those places which registered that Heritage. But in my opinion, the beautiful place which I lost for words are the place that not a lot of people visited before. If I can see that kind of place, I guess it is the shore in Norway. Has it been listed on that Heritage game?
Anyway, today I visited the Occupation Museum at the old town in Riga. The museum describes about how was the history in Latvia during the War in the 20th century. The independent year in Latvia is 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Before that in this country was a part of USSR and Germany. What I could learn from this museum was that how Stalin and Hitler had the power of these region not only Lativia and other Bultic countries but also Eastern part of Europe such as Poland, Belarus, Ukraine.
To be honest, I am not good at the history of those area. Every time when I came to those museum I can easily understand what was the history in each countries if I have enough studied before as well as English.
What I learned it from here was that, firstly, this is one of the country that has miserable history like in Poland because of undesirable war different from Japan. When I visited at a museum in Warszawa, I was told some history about Poland by Rafal, the person we incidentally met and decided to go to Gdansk. According to his information, Poland had foced to fight against Russia and Germany because they attacked unexpectedly. As the citizens in Warszawa they didn't have enough weapon and strategy, they cannot to win and keep themselves safe. After all, they occupied from them. Compared to Poland as well as Latvia, Japan was a country which tried to fight to the United State and other Asian countries like China, and Indochina region as we saw in pearl harbor. That was one of the differences between Poland-Baltic countries and Japan which I figured out during this journey even if we are the same country from the view point of defeated nation.
The entrance of the museum, there was 6 maps about the eastern Europe, Baltic, Nordic country and Russia putting those pictures in chrnological order. Those pictures were really helpful those person who haven't known much about the history like me! The first picture was in 1914, which has started the Warld War I, at that time Latvia was a part of Russia. And the second picture was from1921 to 1938, the age between the two wars. During that time there was a Russian revolusion establishing the USSR in 1917. And Latvia was independent briefly as the other part of European countries. However, during 1939 and 1940 USSR, Germany and Prussia started to invade each other to came across, those country which are Poland and Baltic countries became the battleground. As a result of that invasion in 1939, Latvia was a part of Russia in 1942, the border between USSR and the Nazis were something like (I am not sure) from Klaipeda in Lithuania nowadays to the border between Poland to Ukraine. And after that from 1945 to 1991, there were also a part of USSR and a lot of people who lived in Latvia were forced to move in some area in USSR, that is the one of the reason why about 40% people in Latvia is Russian. Anyway, they finally won to get independence in 1991. That was the brief history of here. But, during the WWII, Germany soldiers also made an influence on this area. The reality of the history was more complicated I think.
I still need a time to know about those history!
By the way, the old town in Riga as well as Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania were very beautiful such as Budapest in Hungary ! I really recommend to those person who want to see some old architectures as well as propaganda battle ! Small country and small town but it has a lot of places worth visiting and important places to learn those histories!
Now the time has come I will eat out but for a beer it was too late !
Yuji @ Riga, LV
5.7.09
Memorable Photos
Not every time that I can update of my photos which I have already taken. Fortunately, the computer which I am using is quite easy to update my photos. This time I will show you some of the pictures which are unforgettable one with comment.
This is the first photo of this jourey. I took this one at the Istanbul international airport on 22nd of April. I have already spend more than 2 months. Flowing of the time is very faster than I thought. Even so, I was white and seems to be young boy!!
I crossed a lot of rivers through traveling. One of the impressive river was Donau, one of the longest river in Europe. The first meeting to this river was the border from Slovakia to Romania(the picture from there). I remembered it well because there was still the checkpoint on the border. And from there to the Budapest in Hungary, I crossed the river 2 times or more. Even in Budapest, the size of the river was still wide ! I will see it in Wine in the future
One of the best drink in this journey is wine in Hungary! This is the photo which I took a wine festival in Szeged. I stayed in Szeged for 2 days, even though the festival had continued for whole week. I tasted some wines from different shops for 10 times for 2 days. And actually, I took part in another wine festival in Budapest as well. This is the season for wine and I prefer sweet wine than the dry one. Anyway, after I enjoyed drinking wine in there I started to buy some wine from the shop for nights.
High Tatora, one of the beautiful mountains located in Slovakia. I crossed over those mountains when I try to get inside in Poland. As I written in blog, those days was really hard. In addition to the up and down hill, the weather was really bad. But anyway, I could passible to see those beautiful views. Even if it was only a little moment, that was the time which I was longing for!! Nice view!!
The last picture is a fish in a market at Panevezys in Lithuania. Sorry to the person who is eating a meal ! The fish called crucian, Herabuna in Japanese, which I always tryed to catch it when I enjoyed fishing in Japan. But, I have never eaten yet. I was amazed that it was for selling in a market !! I saw some of a fisherman in a lake, normally they tried to catch a fish even though they didn't have a licence. Those people who want to fishing they need pay for it before fishing even if it located in a natural lake, different from Japan. We only pay for fishing when we try to catch a fish in an artificial place for fishing! But how is the taste of it ? Should I have to eat it ?
I have already taken around 1000 pictures. Some of them were good but not every one.Let me know, if there any pictures that you want to see!!
Well, I will update another pictures for near future!! See you then,
Yuji @ Talsi, LV
This is the first photo of this jourey. I took this one at the Istanbul international airport on 22nd of April. I have already spend more than 2 months. Flowing of the time is very faster than I thought. Even so, I was white and seems to be young boy!!
I crossed a lot of rivers through traveling. One of the impressive river was Donau, one of the longest river in Europe. The first meeting to this river was the border from Slovakia to Romania(the picture from there). I remembered it well because there was still the checkpoint on the border. And from there to the Budapest in Hungary, I crossed the river 2 times or more. Even in Budapest, the size of the river was still wide ! I will see it in Wine in the future
One of the best drink in this journey is wine in Hungary! This is the photo which I took a wine festival in Szeged. I stayed in Szeged for 2 days, even though the festival had continued for whole week. I tasted some wines from different shops for 10 times for 2 days. And actually, I took part in another wine festival in Budapest as well. This is the season for wine and I prefer sweet wine than the dry one. Anyway, after I enjoyed drinking wine in there I started to buy some wine from the shop for nights.High Tatora, one of the beautiful mountains located in Slovakia. I crossed over those mountains when I try to get inside in Poland. As I written in blog, those days was really hard. In addition to the up and down hill, the weather was really bad. But anyway, I could passible to see those beautiful views. Even if it was only a little moment, that was the time which I was longing for!! Nice view!!
The last picture is a fish in a market at Panevezys in Lithuania. Sorry to the person who is eating a meal ! The fish called crucian, Herabuna in Japanese, which I always tryed to catch it when I enjoyed fishing in Japan. But, I have never eaten yet. I was amazed that it was for selling in a market !! I saw some of a fisherman in a lake, normally they tried to catch a fish even though they didn't have a licence. Those people who want to fishing they need pay for it before fishing even if it located in a natural lake, different from Japan. We only pay for fishing when we try to catch a fish in an artificial place for fishing! But how is the taste of it ? Should I have to eat it ?
I have already taken around 1000 pictures. Some of them were good but not every one.Let me know, if there any pictures that you want to see!!
Well, I will update another pictures for near future!! See you then,
Yuji @ Talsi, LV
4.7.09
Unpaved Road
Who expect that some national road in Latvia has been still unpaved?There are about 30km off-road between Ventsplis and Kolka, at the northest point in Latvia. Wach out for every cyclist!! It is not listed on your map and on my map as well!!!
I really wanted to go to the point and to see from the coast to the Baltic sea and the Gulf. That was the only road connecting from Ventsplis to Kolka. I had no option except for that harder road.
What is hard to pass on the off-road by bike is that firstly, to keep my balance. My bike has about 30kg for the stuff and I am around 60kg. In addition to those weight bicycle itself has 15kg or more. The total amount when I riding of my bicycle is over 100kg. It is not easy to keep it and sometimes my tire has fall into the sand and I had to get out from the bike then I need push it up! The second obsession is cars. As I told you before, there is not a lot of cars in Latvia compared to eastern Europe.Cars in here are passing by me every 10 minutes or more. However, when it passed me, it will make a storm of sand and my way will be full of those smoke regardless of the direction!! Drivers in Latvia has less attention to the cyclist and I was in the small storm every 10 minutes.
That's why my avarage speed fell down to 10 or less, which is half speed to the asphalt.
By the way, that area was really wild, I guess it is one of a conservation area in Latovia. I saw some deers and foxes in a forest. They were afraid of me and got it away soon after we came across. That was really nature!! Futhermore, there was no shopes around there. When you try to take that road, you should have enough water to pass. I was really thirsty and close to drink a beer which I bought at Ventspils.
The destination of yesterday was Kolka, but I finally couldn't get there. Instead of it, I made my tent at Mazirbe, 20km southwest from Kolka, near the Baltic sea. I got some water from the tent site at there.(I slept on the coast not in the tent site) I tasted beer inside the tent as usual.
Even the last 20km from Mazirbe to Kolka, there was another unpaved road appered in this morning! Half road has harden by asphalt and there was under construction area. It won't be long before those roads are constructed by asphalt at all.
That was one of the hardest road of this journey!! I had no flat tire at there! I was lucky!
2.7.09
July has come!
In these days, I have been really tired and it is hard to ride on a bike even if the weather is fine for past few days.
Anyway, I finally crossed a border to Latvia, that is the 8th country of this journey.
Compared to Lithuania, the first impression of this country is poor than that. I am always try to careful when I cross the border in each countries because I can get a lot of informations from the first day of each countries. Anyway, my first impression in Latvia was poor than Lithuania. Of course, it is not a big differences between Lithuania and Latvia and Latvia is one of a developed country in the world even if it is not true in the European continent.
The reason why I thought that were:
1.the road condition as well as aggressive driver
2.rial prices of things
Firstly, the road has been not a good condition compared to other eastern European countries. Normally, national roads of each countries are paved well like in Tokyo. But here, some private road have not been paved to asphalt. Some national roads are easy to pass on the bicycle because of bad asphalt, a little bit rough compared to Lithuania.
Secondly, these Baltic countries have still used their own currencies. Compared to Lithuania, the price of foods are cheaper than Lithuania. When I try to buy a bottle of water the price was half Euro in Latovia, but in Lithuania that was 0.7 Euro or something like that such as in Poland. As I told you before, in Baltic countries has a lot of bad influence on the Crisis, it is hard to understand in their daily life but people in here they told me that impact.
Anyway, the life in Latvia has started and it will continued for 1 week!!!
From now on I will go up to the peninsula to the top and then I will go to the capital with riding on my bike and taking some rest!
Yuji @ Pavilosta in Latvia
PS. I will jump in to the sea in no time, the summer has come in here!!
Anyway, I finally crossed a border to Latvia, that is the 8th country of this journey.
Compared to Lithuania, the first impression of this country is poor than that. I am always try to careful when I cross the border in each countries because I can get a lot of informations from the first day of each countries. Anyway, my first impression in Latvia was poor than Lithuania. Of course, it is not a big differences between Lithuania and Latvia and Latvia is one of a developed country in the world even if it is not true in the European continent.
The reason why I thought that were:
1.the road condition as well as aggressive driver
2.rial prices of things
Firstly, the road has been not a good condition compared to other eastern European countries. Normally, national roads of each countries are paved well like in Tokyo. But here, some private road have not been paved to asphalt. Some national roads are easy to pass on the bicycle because of bad asphalt, a little bit rough compared to Lithuania.
Secondly, these Baltic countries have still used their own currencies. Compared to Lithuania, the price of foods are cheaper than Lithuania. When I try to buy a bottle of water the price was half Euro in Latovia, but in Lithuania that was 0.7 Euro or something like that such as in Poland. As I told you before, in Baltic countries has a lot of bad influence on the Crisis, it is hard to understand in their daily life but people in here they told me that impact.
Anyway, the life in Latvia has started and it will continued for 1 week!!!
From now on I will go up to the peninsula to the top and then I will go to the capital with riding on my bike and taking some rest!
Yuji @ Pavilosta in Latvia
PS. I will jump in to the sea in no time, the summer has come in here!!
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