A spring break montage II

I should be writing Paul's paper about churches and kingship and stuff, but as usual I'd rather procrastinate. And I've already exhausted the new Nerdfighters videos, Postcards from Yo Mamma, Overheard in New York, and One Sentence, True Stories, so I guess it's blog time.

What were we up to last time? Lithuania? I guess then it's time for

Riga, LATVIA

According to my couchsurfer, George, who took me on a tour of Old Town, I would be assured a life of immeasurable wealth if I touched this donkey's nose. I hope it's not like that statue at Harvard where they tell the prospective freshman to touch the foot for good luck, but then all the current students secretly pee on it.

Lots of the buildings in Riga's Old Town have these interesting little roof things. They had a practical purpose, many moons ago-- the rope would be used to hoist buckets and packages and stuff up from the ground to the top floor of the buildings.

The tower of St. Peter's in Riga (center) was bombed during WWII. They rebuilt it, and now you can take an elevator to the top for panoramic views of the city.

I saw a building like this in Warsaw, too, and asked George about it. He said it's a typical Soviet skyscraper design from the 50s, and that they were built in every major Soviet city as a landmark of the Union's power and influence.

Check out all this sweet Art Nouveau! ---

Clearly, all building facades need to follow that example.

I love that Riga has a store called "Randoms." They must've thought that was a cool English word. Like the new clothing store that just opened across the street from my apartment in Paris-- it's called "Attractive!"

My couchsurfer hosts George and Lina took me to this place that does "Latvian fast food"-- which apparently means dumplings of all varieties! I couldn't read any of the signs, so I just put some of everything into my bowl. It was delicious and I got sour cream and pickles for free. The drink to the right is some sort of yogurty smoothie. Eastern Europe understands my food preferences so well.

Tallinn, ESTONIA

That might look like a lot of money on my tray, but the exchange rate from Estonian krones to euros is something like 15.6, so it's really something like $30. The food is meat pancakes!

I climbed that tower on the right (refer to vlog entry: Estonia: Prettier than Latvia, but Only By A Little Bit). The tower on the left is called Fat Margaret, and it now houses the maritime museum, which I also went to.

The sign next to this R2D2-looking thing said that it was a diving suit built in the 1920s but never used. I think I can guess why.

A giant honey-banana pancake= lunch.

Helsinki, FINLAND

Stockmann's is a giant famous department store in Finland. I saw one in Riga, too.

This is a church, believe it or not. The green dome is the ceiling.

Entrance to the church.

Inside the church, it was a cave! That's the altar, at center.

Note the little girl trying to climb the church walls next to the votive candles.

I went to the famous Kiasma modern art museum in Helsinki, and this was the only good piece of art in it.

I had heard that Finland is famous for herring, so I ordered some. Things to note in this picture: the herring, deep-fried on the left; that mustard's brand name is Sara; the Helsinki harbor in the background.

That's all, folks. Stay tuned for Sweden and Norway.