Country #53 - Belarus

The Airport

This morning I woke up at 6:00am, headed to the business center at Vilnius Grand Hotel to print out my upcoming plane tickets, and then took a (super expensive) taxi to the Vilnius, Lithuania airport. The Uber to the hotel was only fourteen euro but there were none available on the way back so I had to pay more than twice as much (thirty euro) for a taxi. I arrived at the airport only to stand in a five-person line for over twenty minutes. I don’t know what the deal was but the first person in line was having all sorts of trouble taking up nineteen of those minutes. After checking in I headed to my gate. Unfortunately, I had to go through passport control. This isn’t a huge deal I am just sad to leave the Schengen Zone.

The strangest thing happened on the plane. I had a business class seat? I still have no idea how. I checked-in online ahead of time and picked my seat on the third row, nothing special. When I got on the plane, though, it was in business. My guess is that since it is only a thirty-minute flight that they treat every seat on the plane all as all the same. Good incentive to always remember to check-in online when it’s an option!

After the incredibly short flight, I landed in Minsk, Belarus. If you’re wondering why I flew instead of, say, taking a train or bus, it’s because U.S. citizens (and many others) can only enter Minsk visa-free if flying to and from Minsk Airport. The immigration lady did not speak English so she had to use the floating translator (lady walking around helping English speakers) to clarify that I wasn’t just transiting because I had to check my bag through (I don’t normally check my bag but I had to when flying Belavia but it was free so I had no problems with it). I also wanted my passport stamp but I was going to stick with the legitimate reason.

After getting my bag I walked around the airport for a short bit, took a few pictures, found witnesses to sign (this was a little difficult but I found two English speakers from Vilnius on my flight), and made a new friend. Olga was a very kind woman who asked if I needed help when I was walking around aimlessly looking for my check-in counter. The departures sign was very confusing, but she had figured it out and helped me as well. Olga was born in Russia but has lived in the UK for the last over twenty years. So her accent was super interesting but you could definitely hear both! We realized that, contrary to what the departures sign led you to believe, check-in gates would only open two hours in advance. This left us with over thirty minutes of waiting. I was flying to Kiev, Ukraine, and she was flying to Moscow, but our flights left within ten minutes of each other. We spent that thirty minutes talking and I really enjoyed getting to know her!

After saying goodbye and checking in I went through security where I then had Burger King for lunch. Lame, I know, but it was legitimately the only restaurant in my terminal. The exciting part was being able to try the unique foods that ours at home don’t serve. In particular, I had the cheese medallions that were basically fried cheese and I also tried the cheese sauce and the garlic sauce for my boring fries and chicken fingers.

I then headed to my boarding gate to sit for an hour before heading to Kiev, Ukraine. It was a very short visit to Minsk, Belarus. I definitely thought of the Friends reference while I was here if you were curious on why you might have heard of Minsk on a tv show (when Phoebe’s scientist boyfriend David moves to Minsk FYI). I wish that I would have had more time to spend in Minsk, but it was so incredibly cold that right now that it would have been too freezing to see anything anyways. I was treated kindly by everyone I met, though, and definitely had a good few hours in Minsk!

53 countries down, 143 to go.

Country #52 - Lithuania

The Cold and The Rain

I slept so poorly last night - I don’t know if it was due to jet lag or what, but I fell asleep accidentally at 9:00pm, woke up at 1:00am, and never went back to sleep. So it’s definitely going to be an exhausting day today no matter what! I left Tallinn, Estonia early (around 6:30am) and took an Uber from Go Hotel Shnelli to the airport. My driver was nice and we had a good conversation for so early in the morning. I arrived at the airport and was to my gate within a matter of minutes. I am going to miss the Schengen Zone when I am no longer in Europe! The airport was really cute and is considered a very comfy airport - in fact, it was recently ranked the third best in Europe and I believe it. I grabbed a croissant for breakfast and enjoyed the non-stressful airport environment that is sadly so hard to find.

I had an uneventful flight to Vilnius, Lithuania where I then took an Uber to my hotel, Vilnius Grand Resort. The Uber was a little on the expensive side and I had to wait a bit for it to arrive. The price was only high, though, because Vilnius Grand Resort is outside of the heart of Vilnius. It truly is grand from the moment you arrive; in fact, it takes up an entire exit outside of the city! The imposing entrance leads to a welcoming front desk where I was given details about the hotel, a map and directions for Vilnius, and had all of my questions answered as well.

I was already loving the hotel but my room was the icing on top of the cake: it was beautiful and with an amazing view over the entire property! The room was grand as the name implies - it was very large with a giant bathroom, and had a balcony overlooking the entire resort. I wish the weather had been nicer to enjoy the outside areas of the resort, but maybe next time! I cannot thank Vilnius Grand Resort enough for sponsoring this night of my trip! The entire property was beautiful and the only downside to the entire stay was the distance from the city - but they even helped with that with the free shuttle!

I took the shuttle around 12:30 to the heart of Vilnius. I walked to eat lunch at Boom Burgers Lithuania which had an awesome lunch special of a burger and fries for six euro and it was a really good burger too! And there was aioli sauce so I was definitely pleased. After lunch, I started my day walking around town, which I quickly realized how cold it would be. It was freezing (real feel was about 33 degrees Fahrenheit) and a drizzle lasted throughout the day. I seem to have this thing where I am really good at visiting traditionally cold countries when it is very cold and I seem to be keeping that up on this trip (it’s definitely not intentional but it always seems to work out that way).

My first stop was the Vilnius Cathedral. It was rather plain inside but the outside had columns that made for a unique look for a traditional cathedral. From there I walked next door to the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania which was supposed to be open but was unfortunately closed. My next stop was Gediminas Castle Tower which was quite the hike but definitely worth it. They are working on the funicular so the only option was to climb the hill. The path is cobblestones and I definitely took my time walking both up and down in the rain. At the top is the tower that you can go in. There is a tiny museum and you can climb up to the top (this climb actually wasn’t that bad). For only two euros for a student ticket, it was a bargain and a warm break from the freezing rain. From the top of the tower, you have an excellent view out over the entire city.

My next stop was Bernardine Church. I intended to go to St. Anne's Church as well but it was closed. However, it’s a unique church architecturally so I was glad to be able to at least see it from the outside. Bernardine Church was very pretty and well worth the stop. To be fair, though, at this point I would have loved anything that was not outdoors. From Bernardine I walked to Literatai Street which was really cool. It’s just a small street but it has been turned into a permanent outdoor art exhibit. Art pieces related to literature line the street and it was really interesting and something quite different. I recommend it for sure, and it definitely doesn’t take much time as it is just walking along a street. Next, I walked to the Užupis area. I was (and still am) pretty confused by it. Supposedly it is a region that is independent but isn’t really. Everything that I read described it as a uniquely happy and cheerful area but perhaps the rain was getting them down as well? If nothing else the streets were beautiful similar to Vilnius as a whole.

I then spent a little time just walking around Senamiestis (Old Town) on my way to Gates of Dawn. Gates of Dawn is really quite unique. I don’t know how to describe it other than it is a gate (the only original one in the city that is still standing) but with huge religious importance. It looks sort of like a chapel above the street, and a former Pope prayed in it. After a quick stop, I then walked back to the shuttle stop which was a long way from where I was. Like, over thirty minutes. In the freezing wind and rain. Once I made it to the stop I was a few minutes early and found a place to grab some hot chocolate and sit for a minute.

On the ride back I think I even fell asleep I was so exhausted. I worked on planning for a little while and then fell asleep relatively early. But still not early enough considering my 6:00am wake-up time. I have really enjoyed all of my time in the Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania) and I cannot recommend them enough. Each one is very unique, very welcoming, part of the EU (honestly I didn’t know this), and they feel like charming European countries without the scores of tourists. I had a great time in each despite the cold weather and would love to visit again in the future!

52 countries down, 144 to go.

To learn more about Vilnius Grand Resort click here.

Country #51 - Estonia

The Old Town

I woke up relatively early today especially after how long it took me to fall asleep last night. I was able to eat a good, big breakfast at Go Hotel Shnelli before setting out for the day in Tallinn, Estonia. I started the day by walking straight uphill to the Toompea area of Tallinn. Toompea is elevated over the rest of the Old Town and is home to some beautiful churches and views. I went to St. Mary’s Cathedral first. It was unique because the inside was covered with different coats of arms. The climb to the top was closed due to the rain, but that was okay with me because it helped me to decide which church to climb up (you can also climb up St. Olaf’s church which is what I did).

I then made my way to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which is more of a traditional Russian style church, and afterwards, I made my way to the two viewing platforms on Toompea, Patkuli and Kohtuotsa. By the time I got to Kohtuotsa I was pretty freezing as the viewpoint attracted a lot of wind.

I then my way down into the heart of the Old Town. The entire Old Town, including Toompea, is stunning and it is amazing that it survived WWII so well. I walked first to Town Hall Square which includes, obviously, Town Hall. The Town Hall is a castle-like structure and the rest of the buildings on the square are unique and colorful. From there I made my way to St. Olaf’s Church where I had a workout climbing to the top of the tower. It was really steep and once on top it was now really windy and pouring rain. However, the climb was totally worth it for the views out of Tallinn!

After arriving back on the ground (completely out of breath) and visiting the actual St. Olaf’s Church I made my way to Viru Square and Gate via St. Catherine’s passage. St. Catherine’s passage is a cute, but tiny, street that runs through a few of the Old Town streets. My walk led me past a really cool design store where I somehow only managed to make one purchase (Scandinavian branded design stores are a weakness). New luggage tag in tow (yes I know I’m lame but it is a really cool tag) I walked past the Viru Gate and into Viru Square. I had planned on taking the tram to the Kumu Art Museum but there were no ticket machines in sight. Instead, I called an Uber because they are so cheap here. Like ten minutes is under $5 it’s so nice. Also weirdly enough my driver was American which was pretty bizarre.

I arrived at Kumu and was immediately impressed with the modern building’s design. The first floor of Kumu featured the Estonian national collection, the second floor features works since WWI, and the final floor was an exhibit on travel which I, of course, found cool. It took me about two hours to do the entire museum but I really enjoyed my time there and definitely recommend it. By the time that I left it was raining even harder and the sun had started to go down. I took a quick walk through Kadroig Park right outside and then called an Uber to take me to

Balti Jaama Turg, a new market that my hotel had recommended. By the time I got there, though, nothing was open so I walked around the Telliskivi area my driver had recommended to a cute area where the restaurants were formed completely of boxcars and other train cars. It was really unique and I ended up finding a crepe and waffles place called Margot. I had a Cadbury Creme Egg hot chocolate, a yummy pizza crepe, and a half order of a caramel butterscotch waffle served with ice cream that was so good.

After dinner, I called my mom on the short walk back to Go Hotel Shnelli. I am so tired after a full day on little sleep and I’m going to try and get to sleep early before an early morning so I can make the most out of my day in Vilnius, Lithuania!

51 countries down, 145 to go.

To learn more about Go Hotel Shnelli click here.

Country #50 - Latvia

The Flights

Today was another crazy travel day as I set off back across the pond to visit Eastern Europe! Eastern Europe has been at the top of my bucket list for a long time so I am really looking forward to the countries on this trip, including Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, and flying out of Norway (I’ve been before this trip but I’m doing Bergen this time so it’s a new city for me). I also want to do Eastern Europe before it gets much colder so that I can enjoy it.

Today I flew out of Dallas on a family pass. I didn’t get business class but I did get a row to myself which was very nice. I slept about four hours and watched the new Spider Man on the plane. As far as nonstop London flights go (and I’ve flown them a bit thanks to studying abroad and prior visits) this was the first time I have flown out of Dallas, so it was probably one of my longest flights ever so far at nine hours.

After landing in London I had plenty of time to transfer to my next airport but not enough time to safely venture out and see anything. It’s not like I haven’t been to London before, so this was purely a transit visit. I landed at Heathrow where I then sat for a while and figured out my plan for the day. I decided to transfer straight to Stansted (worst airport ever, I’m sure I’ve said that before) instead of waiting around at Heathrow or going into London and risking any sort of problem.

I took the tube to Liverpool Street where I made it on the next Stansted Express train right as the doors were closing. I dislike how expensive the Stansted Express is but it gets the job done and if you don’t have time to book early it usually the same price (if not cheaper) the day of than the National Express bus coaches, and it is definitely quicker than those.

I arrived at Stansted a little over three hours before my flight. Stansted is the worst, just to remind you for a hundredth time. Their entire system encourages you to be there early, but, surprise, if you are over three hours early you can’t check your bags yet (this wasn’t a problem for me because I had no bags). I would likely never be more than three hours early (I’m usually only two for international flights) except for in transit. So it just puts passengers in an annoying hold because there is literally nowhere to sit in the Stansted main entrance.

After going through what I swear is the longest duty-free section that is impossible to skip I decided to eat at an actual restaurant since it had been a while since my last meal and I was going to be traveling the rest of the day. I decided on the Windmill because it looked cool. It’s a pub (under the Wetherspoon brand) but it felt like a restaurant other than the weird ordering system where you either had to order on an app (which I did) or go to the bar (kinda hard to leave your bags at your table as a single traveler). I got a burger that was funnily enough called the American Burger. I then had another two hours so I went and sat in the main waiting area.

So here is my main beef with Stansted. The signs will tell you, without fail, that your flight is boarding the second that it gets assigned a gate. And they also wait forever to tell you the gate so once you know you almost always feel like you need to hurry when in reality boarding hasn’t actually started but you never know when on the off chance it will. My flight today was at 4:45pm. The gate was supposed to be posted at 4pm, was actually posted around 3:50, and then the second it was posted it said that it was now boarding. After a ten minute walk to the gate, I found no boarding for another twenty minutes at least. So basically, they make you run all over for no reason and it is a problem that could easily be corrected. The exact same thing happens when they post final calls. I have run to flights in Stansted because the signs have said final call only to find that half the time boarding hasn’t even started yet.

After finally boarding I had a seat in the back of the plane. The flight was fine other than the fact that I have never in my life seen so many people stand up on a flight. Like literally there would be at least five people in lines for the bathrooms all flight long and others were congregating in groups which is against rules. Other than the annoyance of having the constantly moving passengers run into me on the aisle seat It was a good three-hour fight that I stuck to Netflix on.

When arriving in Riga, Latvia, immigration was a breeze. I then found the mini-bus (basically a bus shuttle) #222 from the airport to the center of town. Regular bus #22 is also an option. The bus dropped off right by the central train station which, luckily for me, was right across the street from my hotel, Opera Hotel & Spa! After navigating the underground crosswalks (because there are too many trams for there to be crosswalks on the street) I came up right in front of Opera Hotel & Spa. Thank you so much to Opera Hotel & Spa for sponsoring this night of my trip! Check in was simple and my room is very nice! It is clean and updated and has an absolutely perfect location for exploring Riga.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Riga tomorrow, and also to having a good night’s sleep after not getting much on the plane last night. I'm also really excited for Latvia as it is my 50th country! I'm so excited to have made it to this milestone and officially be over 1/4th of the way to my goal. It's been an incredible ride so far and I can't wait to keep going!

The East

Today was my first full day in Eastern Europe of the trip! After a late night getting in I set my alarm for 8:30, but then snoozed it until 9:30, and then somehow fell back asleep until 11am. Not ideal, but I still had enough time to see a good overview of Riga! After checking out of Opera Hotel & Spa I sat in the lobby for a bit to finish planning my day since I fell asleep before doing so last night.

I started the day with lunch at an Italian Restaurant. Lame, I know, but at every Latvian restaurant I looked up I would have just ended up getting a burger so I had some tasty lasagne instead. The walk to lunch introduced me to the Old City which is incredible. After lunch, and throughout the rest of my day, I spent a lot of time just walking around Old City. The buildings are very unique and I highly recommend spending as much time as possible walking through them.

My first stop after lunch was St. Peter's Church. St. Peter’s Church was first mentioned in official records as early as the 1200s, while the building itself is old but not nearly that old. My favorite part of the church was the observation. The student ticket was seven euro. You take an elevator to the very top for an awesome view out over all of Riga. The church itself had a really nice art exhibition on display and, while plain for a European church, it was still beautiful inside. I’m glad that the sun was out while I was on the observation deck because by the time I left St. Peter’s it had started raining.

The rain thankfully only lasted about five minutes. My next stop was the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia which was unfortunately closed. I’m looking forward to learning more about the history of the Eastern European countries, but it looks like I will have to wait until another city. The museum sits on Town Hall Square, which was, unfortunately, being renovated. The scaffolding showed how cool the square is when it is not under construction and I’m sad to have missed it!

After two very quick stops, I made my way to Riga Cathedral. When I walked in I heard what sounded like a live choir and orchestra performing. After buying my three euro ticket I found that I was lucky enough to be visiting the church during their practice! The chorus was huge and it was such a cool, but completely unexpected, moment to be able to sit and listen in such a beautiful place. After taking my time listening and then walking around the church cloister I then made my way to the Three Brothers, which are the three oldest houses in Riga. Their exteriors are very unique, especially for buildings dating from as early as the 1500s.

My walk from the Three Brothers to my next stop, Latvian National Museum of Art, was a little longer. However, I was able to walk through Bastejkalna parks, a lovely park that flows through the center of Riga. During my walk, I found some sort of kayak competition being held on the small body of water that flows through the park. I arrived at the Latvian National Museum of Art about an hour before closing time. I did the permanent exhibitions starting with the top floor, which was a super unique, all white space. The other floors were art by specifically Latvian artists. The museum wasn’t too large (though the building was grand) so I was able to do it all in about forty-five minutes.

After the museum, I headed to Alberta Iela (Albert Street), which is known for its Art Nouveau buildings. The buildings were cool but definitely did not take a lot of time to see. I walked down the street and then made my way back to the center of town. My longest walk of the day, at about fifteen minutes, took me from Alberta Iela to The Freedom Monument. The Freedom Monument stands at the start of the Old City and is a monument to the soldiers who died in the Latvian War of Independence. I then went to Riga Black Magic. It’s a super cool cafe where I had some cake and amazing hot chocolate. Latvia is the coldest country I have been to since Argentina so the hot chocolate was much needed and so good! It was the kind where you stir chocolate into warm milk which I really like. Black Magic had a really cool decor and I definitely recommend it.

After recharging on basically just chocolate I made my way back to Opera Hotel & Spa to gather my bags and head to the bus stop. The stop for the 22 or 222 bus to the airport was right down from Opera Hotel & Spa about a five-minute walk, and the bus arrived about ten minutes later. On the bus I met a British man who asked how long the bus took. We then went on to chat for a minute during which time he told me that when he hears of Alabama it makes him think of slavery or “worse things” which was not ideal to hear. Otherwise, he was really nice and wished me well on my trip, but that part of our conversation was definitely a bit awkward.

Security at the airport was simple with no lines and afterwards, I headed to my gate and found a good spot to sit. I was three and a half hours early for no reason other than that by this time it was dark in Riga and I decided to go ahead and be early. There was a Vanderbilt football game on and somehow I was able to have good enough wifi to watch over half of it. It was a horrible loss to Georgia but it gave me something to do to pass the time. Once I finally boarded the flight itself only took about thirty minutes.

When I arrived in Tallinn, Estonia, there was no immigration as I was passing from one Schengen Area country to another. The Schengen Area includes twenty-six European countries that have eliminated border control for fellow Schengen Area countries. I thought about taking an Uber because it would have been about five euros cheaper than a taxi but at 12am the wait time was too long and it was raining. I took a taxi instead and the ride took about ten minutes. I had a really easy check in at my hotel, Go Hotel Shnelli, who I cannot thank enough for sponsoring two nights of my trip! My room is very comfortable and the best part is the view of the Old Town from the room.

After arriving in my room I watched a little more football before showering and going to sleep pretty late. My goal is to get up early enough to have a full day exploring Tallinn, as after day one in Eastern Europe I am really looking forward to it!

50 countries down, 146 to go.

To learn more about Opera Hotel & Spa click here.

To learn more about Go Hotel Shnelli click here.

Country #42 - United Kingdom Day 2

The Palace

I slept for a few hours on the flight from Saudi Arabia to London, UK and then had a pretty long immigration line to wait in at Heathrow. From there I made my way to the Tube which I took to London Victoria station. I then stored my bags for the day at the Victoria Coach station which ended up being super convenient. By this point, I was so tired but I also really didn’t want to waste a day in London. Who knew how perfect my day would end up being!

After leaving my bags I decided to just walk around the area and head towards Buckingham Palace and then perhaps just walk around the parks. However, as I was walking that way I realized the one major thing in London that I had never done was, in fact, to visit Buckingham Palace! The Palace is only open to tourists pretty much in the summer months and as a result, I was unable to visit during my study abroad in the spring months.

I decided to walk by the ticket office and it just so happened that I was in luck! There were tickets available for that exact time - it was meant to be. I bought my ticket without hesitation and headed inside. You have to go through security of course and once inside you have to turn off your camera and put away your phone. So I don’t have any pictures from inside, but it was as spectacular as you might imagine.

It was really cool to see such important and historic rooms and to learn so much about them. Audio guides can be pretty hit or miss but this was definitely a good one! It was also actually nice that cameras weren’t allowed because you could just take time, enjoy things, and not have to worry about taking pictures or having people taking pictures all around you. I spent a few hours inside and learned so much. It’ll also be cool next time I watch The Crown to be like oh yeah, I’ve seen that room!

After finishing the palace you exit to the Buckingham Palace Gardens in the back. I was able to take pictures here and then stopped for some Buckingham Palace Ice Cream as well! I then walked back towards Victoria Coach station with a few stops along the way. The first was at Marks & Spencer to stock up on my favorite London candy, Percy Pigs Phizzy Pig Tails. I don’t know why but I love them. I then grabbed Shake Shack to go and made my way to get my bag at the coach station before catching my Gatwick Express train to Gatwick Airport from London Victoria station.

It was a really great day in London and I am so glad that in the limited time that I had it worked out so perfect for me to be able to see the one thing left at the top of my touristy things in London list! I was exhausted by this point but had a great trip and am looking forward to heading home for about two weeks before I head out again, next time to Eastern Europe!

49 countries down, 147 to go.

Read about my first day in the United Kingdom here.