Hello all! There are suddenly so many (more) exchange blogs to read, which is great so I can see how everyone's doing all over the world.
I'm blogging now because I'm taking time off from the boring readings that I have to do. Yes, even though it's pretty slack here, we still have readings/assignments...which we of course have to attempt to complete when we're back in Stockholm and before we jet off again (which is 28 Sept -to Germany to meet up with the rest of the Singaporeans! Yay).
Anyhow, to add on to Shu's post, Riga is really lovely. Those in Europe, please do visit Riga if you have the chance to (btw, Ryanair flies there and at a pretty cheap rate too if you catch their promotions).
It's understandable to give Vilnius a miss now, (though I believe that place will be a fantastic place to visit a few years down the road) mainly cos it's still in the transition/restructuring process. After visiting the KGB museum in Lithuania and the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia in Riga, I seem to get the idea that Lithuania was more badly affected by the Soviet occupation than Latvia...ok I don't really know since the the musuems only gave us a relatively summarized version of what both countries went through. Anyhow, that was the feeling I got.
But Vilnius was still a good choice (for me) because it opened my eyes to the (slightly) more backward places in Europe (of course perhaps Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia etc will be even more so, but which I'm not gonna touch!) It's nothing like the places I've been to before. However, the place is very safe (for those who think its #$%@$ dangerous) though the people don't really speak English and it was tough getting directions sometimes.
But yes, Riga is more touristy, the Old Town is amazingly beautiful and the prices of food/alcohol/cigarettes there is freaking cheap too (though I felt so poor because I only had 9-10LVL to spend. For everyone's info, 1LVL=S$3. And I all my money was in coins. I really felt so poor. But in the end, I still had leftover cash because really, food there is THAT cheap, and there's no need to pay for transport coz we cld get everywhere on foot. But anyway the bus to the airport was only S$0.60 lor.) I really liked the place, and the only thing I was quite unhappy about was the size of the place. Riga Old (and new) Town is very small; I wish there was more of the place so I could walk and see more!
Ok, enough words. I'll return with more pictures (+captions) in my next post.
Oh, and I have something to say regarding one of Shu's pictures. BUT I need to obtain her permission before I can blog about it. haha!
Back to work!
I'm blogging now because I'm taking time off from the boring readings that I have to do. Yes, even though it's pretty slack here, we still have readings/assignments...which we of course have to attempt to complete when we're back in Stockholm and before we jet off again (which is 28 Sept -to Germany to meet up with the rest of the Singaporeans! Yay).
Anyhow, to add on to Shu's post, Riga is really lovely. Those in Europe, please do visit Riga if you have the chance to (btw, Ryanair flies there and at a pretty cheap rate too if you catch their promotions).
It's understandable to give Vilnius a miss now, (though I believe that place will be a fantastic place to visit a few years down the road) mainly cos it's still in the transition/restructuring process. After visiting the KGB museum in Lithuania and the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia in Riga, I seem to get the idea that Lithuania was more badly affected by the Soviet occupation than Latvia...ok I don't really know since the the musuems only gave us a relatively summarized version of what both countries went through. Anyhow, that was the feeling I got.
But Vilnius was still a good choice (for me) because it opened my eyes to the (slightly) more backward places in Europe (of course perhaps Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia etc will be even more so, but which I'm not gonna touch!) It's nothing like the places I've been to before. However, the place is very safe (for those who think its #$%@$ dangerous) though the people don't really speak English and it was tough getting directions sometimes.
But yes, Riga is more touristy, the Old Town is amazingly beautiful and the prices of food/alcohol/cigarettes there is freaking cheap too (though I felt so poor because I only had 9-10LVL to spend. For everyone's info, 1LVL=S$3. And I all my money was in coins. I really felt so poor. But in the end, I still had leftover cash because really, food there is THAT cheap, and there's no need to pay for transport coz we cld get everywhere on foot. But anyway the bus to the airport was only S$0.60 lor.) I really liked the place, and the only thing I was quite unhappy about was the size of the place. Riga Old (and new) Town is very small; I wish there was more of the place so I could walk and see more!
Ok, enough words. I'll return with more pictures (+captions) in my next post.
Oh, and I have something to say regarding one of Shu's pictures. BUT I need to obtain her permission before I can blog about it. haha!
Back to work!
posted by joanne at 11:44 PM
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