seekingmygreaterperhaps

This year, I had a magical pre-Christmas season with two new friends as we travelled around the Baltics. Meet, Christine and Megan! It’s my first year in Dubai, and I met Christine through a mutual friend who I know from working together in Brazil, and Megan is also new to Dubai and works at my school. We all clicked and decided to truly test our newly forming friendship with a group trip to the Baltics. (Spoiler alert, there was no drama and we actually all traveled very well together! To my surprise and delight.)

I found this small group trip through Baltic Travel, and the price was right, so I pitched it, and we all signed up to go. Actually, I looked through their itinerary and the hotels they were staying in and tried to just recreate the tour myself, but in a surprising twist, it was cheaper to do with them as a travel company, so we did it that way. The tour was very well organized. Basically they book your hotels for you and take you from place to place. There is a walking tour in each city, and then you have the rest of the time for your own exploration. It’s not really a cohesive group tour where you will bond with the others on the tour, so I am elated that I went with friends. I highly recommend them as a tour company- everything was great.

To kick off our trip, we had a layover in the Riga airport from Dubai before a tiny flight to Vilnius. I wouldn’t normally include this as a detail of my journey, but guys, this is one of the best airport lounges for the size of the airport. Riga did it right y’all. They had jaegermeister on tap, but more importantly, the local super strong alcohol that we all wanted to try (balszam or something?). We tried it, and then realized very quickly that we were not built of the same stuff at the Latvians.

Vilnius, Lithuania

This is my 50th country I’ve visited!

(Christine, Megan, Paulo, and me)

In Vilnius, we were lucky to meet up with my bestie from Brasilia, Paulo! He has been living in Vilnius to work at one of the international schools there, and I was so happy I was able to reconnect with him! He showed us around to different parts of Vilnius, told us the good food to eat, and was a general delight, as always.

The middle picture is one of my favorite things about Vilnius- the Portal art installation. They have Portal stations in various countries around the world, and it is a live camera footage. When we were there, it was a live stream to Poland, and you wave to people, and when they wave back it is an absolute delight. What a fantastic concept and idea to connect people.

One of the quirky areas of Vilnius is the “Republic of Uzupis” which is an artists haven that claimed itself to be a republic. They even have their own constitution! A few of my favorite rights

• A man has a right to celebrate or not celebrate his birthday
• Man has the right to make mistakes
• Man cannot share what he does not have
• A person has the right to understand
• As well as… a person has the right to understand nothing.

We had lunch over in this area and walked around and enjoyed the art and bohemian vibes.

Vilnius is named the Christmas City of Europe in 2025, so it was lovely to see how well decorated all the buildings were. This was our first Christmas Market of the tour. I found my favorite Hungarian delight, kurtoskolacs, and couldn’t be happier! We had dinner with my friend Natalie, who also just moved to Vilnius to work at a school, but a different one than Paulo. I am beginning to feel how vast my network of friends is becoming. Yes, it is really sad when people move away from you, but then you get to visit them in cool places.

Our official tour guide took us on a walking tour around Vilnius. A few of the main highlights that I remember are going into the university and seeing this absolutely incredible room with a fresco painting that is super old. The other thing that came up in every single city is markers for “The Baltic Way“. This was a demonstration that happened in the summer of 1989. Approximately two million people joined their hands to form a human chain spanning 675 kilometres (419 mi) across the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, who had been subject to the Soviet Union’s repression for more than 45 years. At the time, the three Baltic countries were occupied by the Soviet Union. (<from Wikipedia, I linked it above.) These three countries are really proud of this organized demonstration of resistance- and even more impressive is that they organized it before they had access to like the internet. As we drove through the countryside of these countries, it was even more impressive because people covered the entire distance. It’s something I had no idea occurred before I went on this tour. One of our tour guides in another city pointed out how much pro-Ukraine flags and memorabilia we saw, and how the people of these three countries in particular are giving money and support and resources to Ukraine. Because they know what it is like to be occupied, in very recent memory, so they know how important it is to support Ukraine.

Riga, Latvia

I am a huge fan of The Weepies– and they have a song called “Riga Girls” and it was in my head the entire time I was in Riga. The song doesn’t have much to do with the city, but here it is.

Riga had my favorite Christmas market. I’m just gonna say it. It was charming, and felt cozy. It had amazing food and the handmade goods were unique. All three of us just wanted to stay and hang out, it was such a vibe. 10/10 recommend.

Riga as a city is also a vibe. I think our walking tour here was the longest, as we crossed through old Riga and art nouveau Riga. Did you know that Riga has more art nouveau buildings than any other European city, including Paris? Because I sure didn’t!

It was… raining the entire time, so that kind of put a damper on the walking tour (see what I did there?), but even with the weather, I loved the architecture of the city.

After the tour, we had lunch at an awesome Georgian restaurant, and then walked over to the big city market. It is located in an old (or never used?) bus terminal, and it is HUGE! A great place to find treats as well as cheaper souvenirs than the Christmas market. I bought wool socks that I used at Christmas stockings for me and Kya.

I saw an influencer type person do a bunch of poses in the tree like this, and when she left I kind of went to do the same thing to make fun of her, and then it turned out REALLY great. So I take back my insulting thought and instead am grateful that she demonstrated how to pose all cute in a Christmas tree. Also peep the new hat.

Tallinn, Estonia

Our final stop on the tour was Tallinn, Estonia. When we arrived, we felt it get cold. I was sure glad for all the cute Christmas wool socks I had been buying. Oh, and it was also raining. (For my family and friends who know me- this is absolutely on par. I have terrible luck with rain/weather when traveling.)

At this point, we felt like Christmas market experts. Step one- get the hot wine. Tallinn had some great other flavors as well. Step two- find a snack. Step three- then walk around to see the handicrafts.

(Can you see me hidden in the Christmas trees in the third photo?)

I don’t know if you can see how clear the blue sky is in those pictures, but that is also representative of how *bleeping* cold it was. That to say, I am so glad I had the jacket and the multiple layers on. Growing up in the midwest winters did help prepare me for that! Tallinn is absolutely STUNNING. It is a medieval city, and the doors are so incredibly unique as well. We stopped in a really old bakery that still hand paints it’s marzipan creations too.

For dinner there are a couple of medieval spots you can find on the tourist trail in Tallinn. One of them is Ill Drakkon. It is right next to the Christmas market, and we all decided to get the venison stew. Well, the experience is unique, for sure, because it’s medieval and they basically scoop it out of a big bucket and give it to you. I could get a pickle for a euro, and I was like, hell yeah! And she said, okay- go get it. And I was like, how? She said- with your hands. And then gave me a cup to put my pickle in. I’m all for experiences so I was like, cool! But for my germ-conscious friends, maybe avoid this one. Also, we didn’t know if it was from here or something else, but all 3 of us had stomach aches that evening. I’m just putting puzzle pieces together, haha!

We went to another bar that had traditional music, and it was PACKED! I was trying to help us find a table or a place to stand, and who did I run into? Oh a group of Brazilians! We were chatting in Portuguese for a while, and then my friends came back and were like… oh you didn’t find a table, but you found new friends. Ah, I love Brazilians. They are like family wherever you go.

That ended our tour, and Christine went off to be with her family in her home country, but Megan and I continued our travel. We both stayed in Tallinn for one more night, and then I went off to Finland and she continued on. (Finland will be another post)

Our last day we went to the hipster area of Tallinn and explored more artsy stores as well as a giant… antique terminal/ thrift store/ market stall? It was an awesome way to stay warm as well as shop around.

In the evening, the temperature dropped even further. I ventured out on my own to get dinner, and I picked something that was open and nearby. Well… I stumbled into a Russian supper club, straight out of what I imagine to be the 80s. I walked in and immediately knew I was out of place, but I sat down and looked at the menu. I love cabbage rolls, so I was happy. But then, the music started. This old man had a microphone and was belting on a makeshift stage old Russian tunes. Then, the dancing started. Everyone was up and singing and dancing along with the music. The music kept getting louder and louder, it was true merriment. I was nodding along, like oh yeah this is my jam, but I had no idea what was happening. It was a delightful way to end this part of my trip.

(I won’t go into the fire alarm going off in the hotel in the middle of the night and everyone needing to evacuate in their pajamas in the freezing cold.)

Stick around for the next stop: Finland and Lapland!