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Hello,

So the plan was for me to keep traveling around Sweden, meet my friend Mike in Istanbul and go north up to Prague, and then to meet my mom in Norway for a couple of weeks. then I was going to go to Amsterdam to stay with my friend Grace before heading back home.

Apparently though, when I fell in Russia a couple of weeks ago, I fractured some bones in my face. I've been having headaches and went to see a doctor when I was in Stockholm and had a CTscan done. Sooo, I flew back the next day and am now in Arizona to see some doctors here about sinuses/fractures. Not quite a good end to the trip, but I think I'll be able to get back later on.

Thanks for reading this though, and you should definitely go see Russian, and Stockholm, and other places too, but those especially =)

~Kelsita

End of my Trip

After Tallinn, John and I took a ferry up to Helsinki across the Baltic to spend a few days in the Finnish capital. We pretty much walked around and saw the city. The center of the city itself is very managable and easy to get around. They have a nice park that leads down to a marketplace next to the water. There is also Stockmans, the Finnish department store which is the largest in the region and if I recall correctly it was 7 stories tall and took up a couple of giant buildings. I tried to shop there, but was a little overwhelmed myself, so that can tell you how big it is, haha. =)

Our last day in Helsinki, we took a boat out to the island fortess of Suomenlinna, which was run by three countries at different points - Sweden, Russia, and Finland. It was a nice day trip and just something interesting to spend the day walking around on.

Me on Suomenlinna Island

Friday morning, John and I both had flights to catch - he was heading home and I was goign to Stockholm, (for those of you who spend anytime at all with me will know that I LOVE Stockholm). I arrived early morning in Stockholm and found that my hotel was under contrustion so it was not as nice as I thought, but oh well, still a good area. I spend the next couple of days just wandering around - I've been there twice before so there isn't much sightseeing left for me to do, and I didn't take very many pictures, but it is still my favorite place to go. It is located right where the Baltic meets Lake Malaren, and the city is on a bunch of various islands, and then further outside there is the Stockholm archipelago with lots of summer homes and resorts that people take ferries/boats out to each summer. It's also an incredibly clean city, and very big - much bigger than Helsinki - so there are a lot of cool neighborhoods to walk around and explore.

This is a picture of the most upscale street in Stockholm (i.e. where I will be living in a few years =) )

This is a picture taken from Gamla Stan (old town island) towards Sodermalm (the south island, where all the cool young people/working class people live)

Riga and Tallinn

Ok, So I really enjoyed being in Riga. People I had talked to said that they didn't really enjoy it that much, but it seemed to have a really cool atmosphere and lots of stuff to do. The Old Town was a good mixture of old but modern (including shopping! haha)

The center part of Old Town in Riga

A large and veyr pretty park just outside of Old Town Riga

We left Riga on Sunday and took a bus up to Tallinn. the bus was pretty crazy - it had free coffee, really comfy seats, and then free wifi internet on top of all of that! We got to Tallinn and checked into the hostel, which is really quiet but nice and in a good location. Tallinn is very Scandinavian, and very large. You could definitely spend many days just wandering around all of the alleyways here. There are also lots of cool little shops and cafe's. One is absolutely amazing! It is like a little hobbit hole - low ceilings, random crooks in the wall, and its from the 1800s. We also went to eat at this medeival resteraunt in town, where they serve things like wild boar and bear. I had lamb, which was amazing!

from a lookoutthe really cozy cafe

Tomorrow we are taking a ferry to Helsinki, where we will be until May 9ish.

go to Lithuania, its so pretty!

hello!!!


So I left Russia on Sunday...we got to the airport at 3am (!!!!) and then our flight was supposed to leave at 7am. GAlina stayed awake with me, and then told me that she didn't think the lift in our building worked at that time of the night recently...after failng to convince me to lug my bags down the stairs, we compromised that she would walk downt the stairs with my important documents while I took the lift. I didn't point out that it didn't matter if my documents were ok if I ended up stuck in the lift myself, but oh well, it turned out ok.



Our flight didnt leave until 1130, so we were stuck in a terrible Russian airport for about 8 hours. We flew to Kaliningrad (that crazy random piece of Russia that is not connected to Russia at all, and therefore much better and much more normal than Russia). One of Chase's friends' dad's picked us up at the airport and brought us to the bus station. He was really awesome and put up with having to take us from one bus station to another and then back to the first, etc.

Part of the spit looking out to the lagoon behind it

We took a four hour long bus ride up to Klaipeda, Lithuania across the spit that connects Kaliningrad to Lithuania. It is seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! It is birch forests sprouting out of sand and then leading up to the beach and then the Baltic Sea. When we got to Klaipeda (Chase studied there for a little while) his friend picked us up and brought us to her mom's house where we would be staying. That night we met his friend Fatjon, from Albania, and grabbed some dinnner.

Monday we went to the beach on the spit and layed out on the sand for a while, which is also what we did on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, though different beaches. Its been really good weather, warm but breezy and sometimes a few ominous clouds but not too bad. Tuesday night we all met at Vilma's to make hamburgers, and then Thursday we took an hour long bus ride back down the spit to this tiny resort town called Nida, where there is a giant sand dune and a beautiful beach!

This is John, Fatjon, me, and Chase

The beach at Nida

John and I finally ended up leaving for Riga this morning, and arrived this afternoon. So far I'm liking it, I'll have to update that assessment later perhaps though. For the most part it is going to be hard for me to switch back into tourist mode because Lithuania was just five days of relaxing and hanging out which was a very good break for me.

*also, when you look at my pics from my webalbum, or here, I have some scrapes on my face - I'm fine, jsut took a very bad fall the last day in Russia and couldn't stop myself with my hands in time. I experienced a Russian clinic, ha, and lots of crazy Russians staring at me, but it's all better now!






This video is from the spot just before coming to the ledge of the beach at Nida.