Finally, the Baltic Nations

Riga Food Market

When I lived in Stockholm, I always wanted to visit the neighbor countries such as the Scandinavian nations and Baltic nations. There were cruises between Stockholm and these nations. Even a cruise to Saint Petersburg in Russia is possible without a visa given that we return to our origin by cruise within 72 hours and we remain in Saint Petersburg for our entire stay.

However, I visited only Helsinki by cruise during those days. Somehow I missed the Baltic countries until I left Europe in 2018. This time, I had a chance to fly to Riga, Latvia, during my recent trip to Munich for the GSoC mentor summit. 

Riga is colorful and beautiful. I should have visited these Baltic nations in 2013 when I was staying in Stockholm. Somehow I missed them. But this year, I visited all 3 of them, including day trips to Estonia and Lithuania as well. This was also my first time to visit former USSR countries. Baltic countries have nicely transitioned from USSR to EU. Sometimes in the architecture and environment, I was still able to feel USSR style. I loved Riga and its Black Balsam. Now I have finally managed to visit all the Baltic nations. They are worth the visit. Make sure to keep them in your bucket list!

When you have too much time in hand in a random town

The Panevėžys Train Station

Have you have ever had a day trip to a relatively dull town and ended up having too much time in your hand? That's what happened to us when we ended up in Panevėžys, Lithuania, in a bus ride from Riga, Latvia, using Ecolines. We already had a return ticket in slightly later than 10 hours from our arrival time. We ended up having nothing much to do after going on speed walking across the town, exploring the whole town and suburbs by foot, enjoying a proper Lithuanian meal, and exploring their shopping malls. Eventually, we resorted to visiting one interesting cafe, not once - but twice (since we ran out of things to do)!

Due to a 75% discount going on with Ecolines, for journeys between Riga and Vilnius, instead of buying a return ticket to Panevėžys from Riga (would cost 20 Euro), we bought our onward journey from Riga to Vilnius and return trip from Panevėžys to Riga.  The bus has an intermediate stop in Panevėžys. But they check the names when you enter the bus. If you do not enter at the designated stop, they cancel your trip. So we cannot buy a return ticket to Vilnius from Riga (it would cost only 10 Euro). With two tickets (5 Euro from Riga to Vilnius and 11 Euro from Panevėžys to Riga), we paid 16 Euro. Still saved 4 Euro. Yet, we had a risk. In case if no one gets in or gets out at Panevėžys, our bus would take us to Vilnius. Then from Vilnius, we would have to find our way back to either Panevėžys or Riga, by purchasing a connecting return bus. Luckily, the bus indeed stopped in Panevėžys, because there was one (!) person getting down at
Panevėžys.

The way how we explored Panevėžys was interesting, and I am sure I will replicate this in the future often. Eventually, Panevezys got some cult status in my life. It is a small town with lots of lakes and parks. Nice paths to walk around. Quite boring place - yet you have many things to do in the town as well as quick trips to nearby Baltic cities such as Riga or Vilnius. I have also made it into a verb.

Panevėžys
verb.
1. Wander aimlessly, because you have too much time in hand without specific plans.
"We should totally panevėžys tomorrow when we arrive in Panama." 

Exploring a "ghost town"

Beautiful and shallow Baltic Sea in low tides

When we go to a touristic town in the wrong season, it can feel deserted. We had the pleasure to explore Pärnu in Estonia, a summer beach resort in the Baltic sea this October. It felt like a ghost town with cold empty beaches. Most shops and restaurants were closed. One even had a note, "We are closed. We will open in May 2020". We also experienced the freezingly cold Baltic sea by wetting our feet. :P It was still a pleasant experience though.

Deciding on travel destinations

Salzburg: Typical Europe

After our day trip to Zugspitze and the Baltic trip, we still had time before the GSoC Mentor Summit. We were contemplating Innsbruck and Salzburg. But given the activities in Innsbruck seem similar to Zugspitze, we decided to go with Salzburg. It was a pleasant surprise to see tourists in large amounts in autumn. A contrast to what we witnessed in the Baltic states. Austria is indeed touristic. Anyway, this Austrian town was charming in its true European form. So it surely is not a disappointment to anyone. I still haven't been to Vienna, although I have been to Austria two times by now. Maybe I will visit Austria again in the future again anyway, including Vienna and Innsbruck.

P.S: I found these live cams quite useful.

Zugspitze by public transport

Crossing the border by foot, to Austria ;)

Zugspitze is the tallest mountain summit in Germany. It shares the border with Austria. Since Austria has taller peaks, Zugspitze has more interest from the German side, dubbed as the Top of Germany. This time we visited Zugspitze from Munich, using public transport. It was quite an easy trip, thanks to this blog post. At 2,962 meters, Zugspitze is also the highest elevation I have been in my entire life. Sri Lanka's tallest peak Pidurutalagala is 2,524 m. My other summits, Vall de Nuria, Spain (2013) is at 2,252 m and peaks of Malbun, Liechtenstein (2016) slightly less than 2,000 m. I will wait to see when I will overtake my current highest elevation in the future.

We managed to catch only the 10:32 train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. We ended up spending almost an hour buying the ticket from the DB Travel Center (Reisezentrum) in the Hauptbahnhof (Hbh, the central train station). We take a number from the slot machine and wait for our number to come. That, combined with the metro lines renovation in Munich, ruined our plan to catch the 9:32 train. We bought the 69 Euro combo-ticket. 

The summit

We had 2 tickets each. One is a return ticket from Munich Hbf to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the DB train, and the other one is a return ticket from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Zugspitze including the cogwheel train and cable cars. Once we reached Garmisch-Partenkirchen, we follow the sign that marks Zugspitzebahn underground. We had to change the second ticket to a proper ticket from Zugspitzebahn. From there, we take a train to Zugspitzeplatz, the Zugspitze glacier. Of course, it was not a single train. We had to switch trains somewhere in the middle. But it was smooth and straight-forward. Nothing complicated. From there, it was a quick cable car (Gletscherbahn) ride to the summit. From the summit, you can walk to the Austrian side of the summit, have some meals in the German or Austrian side.

Even in these autumn days, Zugspitze had the ice on the glacier and the summit. I believe this must be permafrost that never melts. The glacier was so bright and watching them made me lose eyesight for a few seconds! The snow-capped mountains were reflecting the sunlight from all the angles, making it brighter than directly staring at the sun. On our way back, we take the big cable car (Seilbahn Zugspitze) to Eibsee, a middle train station on the Zugspitzebahn railway line. We see a beautiful lake there. Then, we continue to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the cogwheel train. Then, it was the same train back to Munich. 

Overall, it was a pleasant journey in early Autumn (Oct 13th). It had snow in the glacier and the summit of the mountain. But it was warm enough. A simple jacket would be sufficient. If you like to do a snow fight, you would need a pair of water-proof gloves.