oneandahalfsabbatical

After taking a walk in a bog in the National Park we went to Virtsu without stopping, and there we took a ferry to the small island of Muhu, which is connected with a dam to the larger island of Saarema. Saarema is the largest island in Estonia, in the Baltic Sea, with about 40,000 inhabitants. Its capital is Kuressaare. The island was inhabited by Estonian pirates, who were also called Eastern Vikings, while at the beginning of the 13th century they were conquered by the Lív Sword Brothers. Along the way, we stopped at the Kaali meteor craters . The craters were born about 3,000 years ago, when a meteor exploded at 8-10 km above the surface, and its pieces were scattered here on the island of Saarema. The largest was 46 tonnes and 3-6 meters in diameter. The crater was filled with water, a small lake that was formed in the Iron Age was a sacrificial place. It is not a great attraction today. However we spent a lot of time here because it started to rain and we waited under a roof

On 18th and 19th of August, we wandered in the Gauja National Park, around 30 km altogether. We visited the Turaida castle and the Gutmans cave on the first day. The castle is located in the Turaida Museum Reserve, where you can see also the Turaida church, the Rose of Turaida Memorial, a sculpture park and other monuments. In the Gutmans cave, which is the highest and widest in the Baltic countries, you can see inscriptions on the walls from the 17th century. Between Sigula and Krimulda you can travel with a cablecar , from which you even can hang on a rope and slide or do a bungee-jumping. Gutmans Cave On the second day in the Gauja National Park we went to Cesis where we walked in the old town and visited an other castle. We wanted to visited this castle also beacause here there is a very dark tower without windows where you get a lantern to be able to see the stairs so you will not fall down. It seemed to be a funny adventure. We did a half-wild camping near Sigulda as

When we had that bad experience in a hostel in Riga, we were very upset and angry (just to recall: no free parking, no breakfast but has bedbugs in the room and the whole hostel was dirty). We decided to try something which is called chargeback. First I heard it from one of my colleagues, whose credit card data was possibly stolen in a shop, and later on some online gambling was paid with it. In his case, his bank's fraud department spotted the unusual transactions and alerted him. Then, after the chargeback procedure, he got the money back onto his account. In our case, our base of the chargeback was the lack of the services provided (free parking, breakfast), and the poor quality of the room (including the bedbugs, which once you have it in your backpack, you most probably need to throw all your clothes away, because if you don't do that, you bring them to your house and never get rid of them). So basically, all you need to know is that if you pay with your card the wa

Due to the long hike on the day before, we planned only a slower Riga sightseeing. We arrived from our campsite in Jurmala to the city in less than an hour and we found our accommodation also quickly. But here we did not have luck. We hastily booked the room and did not read the comments about the accommodation, so we have choosen poorly. The room, the kitchen and the bath were dirty. The receptionist was rude and what was written on the internet, almost nothing was true. They offered free parking, but it turned out that it was only possible on the street in the evening from 8pm so we paid for the afternoon parking place as much as the accommodation itself (That „funny” receptionist guy told us there is free parking a couple of blocks away, but that district is not safe so he does not recommend it). The only thing what was true is that the accommodation was very close to the downtown. There was a continental breakfast included in the price, but only contained two packages of snacks.

We let the car rest today and walked on foot to discover the national park near Jurmala. First we went to the train station and traveled to Kemeri by train to the center of the park. From the Kemeri railway station we went to the main attraction, the marshland. There is a three-and-a-half-kilometer route on top of planks and footbridges. It is not worth getting off the planks because the soil is very swampy, wherever you can sink into the ground. There is a lookout point at the end of the road, from here you can see the whole area. The former lake is surrounded by pine forest, but only low shrubs and smaller trees living here.       From here we went back to the town of Kemeri, Kemeri Park, where long ago, between the two world wars, there were sparkling social life. Even with Moscow, the city was in a railway connection, so famous was the spa center here.       After visiting the park, we went to Lake Solka to a bird watching point. Bird watching was not succ

Today we crossed the Latvia-Lithuania border. First we followed a road close to the coastline and then took the direction to Kuldiga after Liepaja, which was our first stop of the day. Latvia is almost has the same area as Lithuania, 64,500 km2, but it is inhabited by less than 1 million, with a total population of 2 million. If Lithuania was not crowded then Latvia is almost empty. Few are on the roads, you can drive well. However, it is quite surprising that on one-digit highways you can see tractors and other slow vehicles ambling. The quality of the roads is similar in both countries. The most important routes are of good quality, usually only two lanes, but often with sloping or broad lanes, but elsewhere, between smaller settlements still have dirt roads. Lots of road constructions going on which slows you down. Reaching Kuldiga, we headed for the waterfall, which is the widest in Europe: 249 meter. But it has the hight of only about 2 meters. Funny sight. We just saw a bu

Next day, let's go to the seaside! We choosed the camp called Karkelbeck No 409 . That was named after the Royal Amber Store no 409. The campsite's kitchen was set up in a barn, and the two toilett rooms are located on the side of the barn, almost outdoor, separated nothing but with a swing door. So the facilities are kind of limited. But because we went off season, only a couple of guests were in the camp. Until midnight, when twenty polish Land Rovers (with those roof tents, you know) just falls in. And next morning, when you just try to concentrate on the toilett after your coffee, there is nothing between you and a dozen of polish guys waiting, just one swing door. Anyway, the camping is close to the seaside, and the beach is nice. Lithuania's unmissable sight is the Curonian spit, which lies on a 98 km long and 600 to 2000-meter-wide peninsula between Klaipeda and Lesznoj (Russia). Of the 98 kms, 52 km belong to Lithuania and 46 km to Russia's K

We found a nice place to stay in Trakai , so we let the tent relax in its bag. We managed to walk 15 kilometers next day we had arrived, mostly on the bank of Lake Galve (nice pathways). The town is on a peninsula and is famous for the castle which stands on an island. You can borrow different stuff like SUP, kayak, boat, water bikes or spend an hour on a sailboat. Castle Lake Galve Boat on Lake Galve We headed to Vilnius on the other day, which is the capital of Lithuania. Only half an hour drive, except for those who wisely hit the road at the peak traffic time on a friday afternoon (no names here). Vilnius is a good place for Church fetishists - if that exists. A bunch of churches on every second corner. Other strange thing is the self-proclaimed “Republic” of Užupis. That is Vilnius' Bohemian and artistic district. Founded by artists in 1997 and has constitution, anthem and president. Gediminas Monument Bell Tower of Vilnius cathedral Gedimi

Our last day in Poland. We walked in the lakeshore forest next to the campsite, but we got short because the mosquitoes were strong enough, we had at least 5 mosquitoes per leg all the time during the walk. Instead, we packed up and went into the city, Augustow, to collect one of the geocaching box here and then we headed for the border. Along the way, we stopped for a soup on the Polish side, in a pleasant little lakeside resort, Giby, to spend the remaining zloty. We saw a toothsome, vibrant purple soup that many of the guests ordered and what we thought would be "borscs", beetroot oup, and we ordered it from a non-English-speaking host, but ultimately we got a completely different soup. As it turned out, we got hot Ukrainian or Russian borscs, while the others got the cold Polish or Lithuanian borscs what's called Chlodnik here. Fortunately, we will have time to try this one soon. We went from Giby to our next destination, Trakai, which is also a lakeside town and ac

On the second day of our trip, we spent most of the time in the car again. We wanted to get to the northern part of Poland so that we could start exploring the Baltic in the next day. After finding a geocaching box at Ulanow at the foot of a traditional Polish wooden church, we drove about 500 km to Augustow, where we hit our tent on a lakeside campsite. By finding the campsite we had some problems because the GPS marked a bridge across a river where it probably never had, so we started to lose our confidence because the GPS had misled us a couple of times. We also have traditional maps: we have a 10-year old map of Europe and a Baltic States map published in 1992. :) The tent-set went quickly, on the one hand, because we've been practicing in recent weeks, and secondly, because there were so many mosquitoes that we wanted to be in the tent quickly. So we managed to get a couple of stitches, but we've been eating our supper quietly, thanks to the four-person tent, with a smal

This morning, we finally set out for the awaited adventure. We had an ideal rainy day for traveling, after the 40-degree celsius of the previous day. We were at a comfortable pace, we drove 550 kilometers this day. We stopped several times, among other things, to look for geocaching boxes. Erika decided that we would leave "traces" along the way. We leave our signature in geocaching boxes. The first was found in Poroszló, and the next one was in Slovakia, Lipniky. We are not big seekers, but if we go somewhere and hit an interesting crate, we collect it. Now we were looking for the simpler on the go. We arrived in Poland in the afternoon, and at 6 o'clock the sun just started to shine finally. We stopped at a Hungarian restaurant right away. We left our country only a couple of hours, but the homesickness has brought us here :) We ordered sausage goulash, a local specialty, Rzeszow sour soup and Gundel pancakes. There was a lot of Hungarian food on the menu and Hu

On the way to the big road trip, we have various exercises. We have driving practice, because Erika had not driven for a while but now we definitely need two drivers, since we have to drive more than 7,000 km by car. There was a tent-building practice, in this case in our livingroom, because of the rainy weather. The most important thing, however, was the practice of camping. We will spend the nights in a tent in most of our northern circle. Living int tent is not easy and we had to figure it out, how it fits to us. We traveled to Galyatető for a couple of days in the Mátra, where we tried the new camping site of the Tourist Center, which is still not finished. The site is not separated by any fence from the woods so we learned something important right after the first night. Never leave any food at accessible places as the foxes find easily the delicious bacon in your package and scatter the rest of the foods that are uninteresting to them. However, the practice was good, we slep

This may we decided to leave our job and from August, we go to a "one and a half sabbatical year". Leaving 9to5, we plan to do different things. Mainly travelling, our first trip is to Nordkapp by car! This is the english version of our hungarian blog: masfelevszabadsag.blogspot.com Erika & Ádám