louiseinlimbo

Estonia, that is, where I've just spent a couple of weeks - with its old capital, Tallinn.  I was quickly pushed out of Tallinn, as a British band were playing a concert there and all of the accommodation was booked up - I found one hostel with a vacancy, but was not prepared to pay 100 Euros for a bunk bed in an 18-person mixed dorm - so my travels around the country started with a bus and ferry ride to the largest of Estonia's 2,200+ islands, Saaremaa. The main 'sights' on this island are its lighthouses, and I took a trip to visit the most southerly one, Sõrve.  Also its tallest, at 52m and (I counted!) 246 steps, with some nice views.  I looked around the peninsula for birds and other wildlife, and saw a grass snake (my second in the Baltics!), and heard a distant cuckoo, but most of the wildlife seemed to consist of snails and ants - I've seen more ants in Estonia than in the whole of the rest of my life, I think.  Thankfully, they don't seem to be aggressi...

Otherwise in Latvia … well, the capital is really nice.  A pretty, old, centre, some interesting museums (my first full day there was ‘International Museum Day’, when museums are free to visit, so I rushed around as many as I could that day!), a few nice churches and cathedrals, and the largest central market in Europe, housed inside and around former German zeppelin hangars.  Included amongst the museums is the Human Anatomy Museum, which houses some 700 skulls as well as skeletons and preserved slices, segments and skinned bits from all over and through the human body (including those from children).  I couldn’t resist taking this picture … also have the female equivalent but I won’t share that one here. The House of the Black Heads is apparently not a ‘museum’ (so they didn’t give free entry), but is one of the best-known places to visit in Riga.  Historically, its primary function was to promote entrepreneurship, as a gathering place for merchants and sailors....