Originally I'd planned to take the direct bus from Odesa to Tallinn. The flaw in this plan was that it goes through Belarus and getting a fully visa for a stretch on the bus is not practical or financially sensible. Hence the detour to Lviv. I ended up with a change in Riga and an end destination of Tartu. The Polish border is one hour out of Lviv. I was quite looking forward to a border crossing at a sensible time followed by an uninterrupted night of sleep. Hahaha no such luck. The bus was stuck at the border for a full six hours. Four in between Ukraine and Poland, pausing in lines of stopping altogether in carparks. We stopped at Duty Free for a while. When border control came aboard and collected all the passports, half an hour or more later they were all returned except for mine. The bus driver looked worried and tracked it down for me pretty quick. Eventually we progressed to entry to Poland, and the bus was fully unloaded. We hauled our luggage through customs and then.. the bus disappeared. A further two hours were spent perching on suitcases in the carpark outside Polish customs. Nobody had any idea what was going on. I wondered if this duration of delay was factored into the schedule, but figured I'd probably be missing my connection. At least it was still warm. At 0230 the bus finally materialised and I got to sleep. Around mid-morning the next day, it broke down. We waited for a couple of hours by a highway in Lithuania. Other buses stopped and picked up the passengers they could fit. I ended up on an Ecolines from Vilnius to Riga, sitting next to someone who was planning to make the same Tartu connection as me. This bus was scheduled to arrive shortly before the Tartu bus departs, and the latter often waited for it. Hope! And indeed I did make the connection with one minute to spare, and successfully got to Tartu. The funny part is that if the original bus hadn't broken down I probably wouldn't have made it. I am struck by the attitudes of people in authority on public transport in different regions. The guy from Vilnius told me that even if you're late for a bus, usually they will wait for a while, and call you, and make every effort to see you aboard. In Western Europe I get the distinct impression that the rules matter far more than people; if you're late you miss it, and it's nobody's fault but your own. I once had to elbow my way through Victoria Coach Station with a minute to spare after a 3 hour delay on the District Line, and was technically on time for my bus and it hadn't actually left yet, but they almost didn't let me board because I wasn't 15 minutes early, and gave me a really hard time about it like I had done this on purpose. On the other hand, if you go much further east, they just sort of don't give a shit. They'd leave you at a service station because counting the passengers is too much like work. So maybe the Baltics is where one finds the peak of public transit customer service? More photos from transit.
I went to Tallinn City library this afternoon. It's small, but a nice place, good fancy ceilings, some nice rooms with nice chairs and old books, the wifi is good, lots of power sockets, very quiet. I hung out with my laptop for about an hour and a half. Just before 5.30pm I realised I had thought the library closes at 5, but hey I guess not. A short while later I packed up my stuff and went downstairs. The front door was locked. All the lights were off. Not a soul was in sight. I went back upstairs to ask the other person sitting on her laptop there if she this was normal and she knew another way out. She did not. We wandered around and tried a few doors. Haha. We were locked in the library. It didn't open again until Monday. We proceeded to call and email every contact number on the library webpage we could find. She also called the 24h Tallinn city general helpline, and they promised to call back. She called her mother, who called someone she knew who worked at a different library, who also promised to call back. Meanwhile we found a window that was big enough to climb through and not too far off the ground to jump out if necessary. We decided this or calling the police would be an absolute last resort. We made an effort to get through to the pub next door, in case they either happened to have a spare key or the library employees had gone there after work.. but no answer. M and I introduced ourselves, and bonded over veganism (<3!) and travel and chocolate and the small art display in the library we would not have bothered to look at if we weren't trapped there. M's family members turned up outside the window, and went to see if anyone was in the pub who could help. The city helpline called back and said the director had been contacted and was on her way, but lived 30 minutes away. She eventually showed up, and turned out to be a distant relative of M, and the daughter of the person M's mother had called earlier! It's a small country. She was accompanied by a surly security guard who took photos of our IDs. Apparently we'd set of a silent alarm when we opened the window earlier and security were already quietly surrounding the building. Then they let us out and I had dinner with M and her family at a nearby veg*n buffet. Just another day.. (Also this morning I went on a walking tour and found a SPECTACULAR vegan chocolate shop, really enjoying Tallinn so far.)
... testimonials about flying less..." I'm a perpetual digital nomad, but committed to not flying at the beginning of 2018. I'm not a climate scientist, but as a recent academic I took major advantage of the international conference circuit to travel as much as possible during my PhD. I never liked flying, but I wanted to see the world and that just seemed like what you had to do. In retrospect the sheer volume of academic travel is quite obscene - especially given the number of people I meet who complain about having to do it so much! In 2014 I found myself four events in continental Europe a week apart each, and persuaded my institute to pay for a three week Interrail pass instead of a bunch of flights. I took a bus from Edinburgh to Paris (W3C Working Group meeting), hitchhiked from Paris to Dusseldorf (IndieWebCamp hackathon), then a train to Innsbruck (tourism), train to Florence (World Wide Web Conf), trains to the coast and a ferry to Croatia (tourism, chillin'), buses and trains through Croatia to Slovenia (Extended Semantic Web Conf). Then one flight back to Edinburgh. Since then I dreamed of slow-moving ongoing travel with no date I had to be back by. Now I find myself with all the time in the world, no ties or dependents, and a remote job, and can finally live it. It's a great way to discover new places, get a better grip on international geography, and have diverse experiences. In short if you can swing it, finding alternative ways to travel without flying is the bomb. Learn how to sleep and/or work on buses, make some time, and give it a shot. Academics with flexible schedules and hours (by which I mean, you tend to work all the time and mostly it doesn't matter where from) are in a superb position. If you're in a position to fund (time-rich, schedule- and location-flexible) students to travel, persuade them to look at alternatives before jumping on a plane. I always start investigating a new route with Rome2Rio. Sometimes finding connections can be daunting and time consuming, and I'm also happy if anyone wants to ping me overland/sea travel questions I can try to help based on my experiences so far. Disclaimer! I know many people, academics or otherwise, are not in a position to devote days to getting from A to B! I know many people are not physically or mentally able to spend long durations on buses. I know sometimes flying is just the only option if you don't want to miss out altogether! Consider this post aimed at those who can, and just need a bit of a nudge to step out of their comfort zone.
My default state is absolutely sleeping late, not going outside, not interacting with people, staying in my pyjamas all day, not showering and eating only toast. I work every day to operate outside of this. Staying in hostels and shared accommodation can actually be really good for me, because I usually have to get dressed and interact with people on some level. Staying in places with shitty internet mean I have to go find a library or a cafe to work from. Staying in places for a short length of time means I have to go out every day if I want to see 'everything' or at least get a good sense of the place. Of course constantly moving around brings its own set of exhaustion and other problems, which is why I inject solo accommodation for longer periods into my travel schedule. I love living on my own, but I have to ramp up effort to not spiral into a sad smelly hole. Some days are easier than others. And it's such a vicious circle. Some days I'm on the sofa absolutely unable to function and wondering what's even the point and I am getting better at realising OH I probably just need to fucking go outside for an hour and I'll feel better. And then actually making myself do it. Last couple of days I've been working on brain-melting server-y stuff and ending the day in a total haze, but managed to go out around 7pm, picked a direction to walk, and discovered new beautiful areas of Tallinn and felt infinitely better, which is much better than curling up with Netflix for the whole night. Relatedly, now I have a job with regular video calls I tend to get mostly dressed for those. Though recenty I bought a nice loose jumper which I can put over my pyjamas and it makes me look semi respectable from a distance. So uh, work in progress. Sorry colleagues. Doesn't help with the showering thing. When I started this job I was quite terrified of how much facetime I would be having because from experience there are days when I just can't but actually I'm getting used to it and it's quite nice to have 15-30 minutes each morning of seeing friendly faces. Even if I wake up in a nope mood and don't think I want to dial in, I tend to feel better afterwards. This is vastly better than in-person office job which involve being around people all day and render me unable to even go out to buy groceries at the weekend. As ever, it's a balance I suppose. And trying to be in tune with my moods; to figure out the difference between what my brain and body are telling me they want on the surface, versus what would actually help me to feel better.
One evening I spent with a table full of locals, including a variety of dietary preferences, trying to think of a Ukrainian dish that was ordinarily vegan. The criteria being that you could walk into any Ukrainian restaurant and order it without modification. Nobody could come up with anything. The closest we got was borsch without meat - nobody was sure how common it would be, but seemed fairly confident you can request it without. And you need to make sure they leave it to you to add sour cream, and don't dollop it on for you. Someone said they were sure in some places varenyky (dumplings) must be vegan, but I understood the traditional recipe for the dough to involve both eggs and sour cream. Nonetheless, there were a handful of lovely vegan cafes in Odes and Lviv, so I did not starve to death. Vegano Hooligano (Odesa) There are two branches, though I only visited the one closest to the train station. The food is healthy Asian-inspired-fusion. A variety of soups, wraps, burgers, salad bowls and cakes, featuring lots of tofu. Also an extensive drinks and breakfast menu. I ate in a couple of times and took food to go on the train. There's an English menu, and one of the waiters was very friendly and happy to speak English. There's power and wifi, and plenty of seating, and they take card. Zelen (Odesa) A vegetarian cafe near the train station... which was not open during the hours on happycow. True (Odesa) A fancy feeling place, pescatarian, with everything well labelled and an emphasis on health. Lots of raw dishes, and many of those containing honey can be veganised. I took the waitress's recommendation and ate a very delicious mushroom steak with lentils. It was a pretty big portion. Also latte with hazelnut milk. Agrus (Lviv) A vegan (except for occasional honey) bakery 30 seconds from my hostel. I had breakfast here several times and afternoon snacks too. There is a lot of space, power and wifi, and they also sell various eco products like bags. On one occasion I also took a pie to go for lunch later. A welcoming atmosphere, and the food is very good quality. Omnomnom (Lviv) All vegan with a nice vibe in the evening, and extensive menu. I regret that I only went once. I ate a burger; it was good, but I should have ordered fries too. The burger had pickles including pickled ginger which was fantastic; and an omnivore at the table revealed he hadn't realised the cheese is vegan. The hotdogs look amazing. I also tried peanut milk for the first time here! In a flat white. Great. Pear tart with caramel sauce was a delicious dessert. Dogs Like Ducks (Lviv) A small hotdog place with power and wifi but fairly minimal seating. A very friendly atmosphere. Also great hotdogs! They're quite small; I ate one which included beans as a topping. Good for more of a snack than a full meal I think, but only 55 UAH (about 1.50EUR) each. They also have some healthy raw cakes, homemade lemonade and milkshakes, and a few vegan groceries for sale. Green (Lviv) A fairly large restaurant with more of an upscale vibe and no wifi. They have a really varied menu, all vegetarian with vegan labelled. Fortunately I went with a large group so I got to sample several things. For myself I chose the most unusual dish on the menu; a foamy sponge ball with cashew cheese and vegetables in the center, with salty bubbly not-caviar on top. They have interesting fruit cocktails, which can be requested without honey or sugar, as well as some fantastic raw desserts. They have a large range of groceries to buy in the entrance as well. Little Green (Lviv) Owned by the same people as Green, but with a completely different menu and vibe. Still no wifi though. Thai noodles and soup are good options, and they have several pitas with seitan and tofu. Marusia (Lviv) This is cheap fast food, Ukrainian style. Lots of kinds of dumplings, including a hummus filled one which is ostensibly vegan. Not quite traditional, but at least I got to try varenyky. Pretty good, well seasoned with paprika and very filling. Other stuff Lviv and Odesa are both absolutely bursting with cute coffee shops, stands, and windows. None of them have plant milk on the menu, but most of them carry soya, almond and even hazelnut if you ask for it. Probably best to learn the Ukrainian (in Lviv) and Russian (in Odesa) words for these to be on the safe side. Ukraine is pretty damn good at bread, so dropping into a bakery for some interesting rye or fruity loaf can be a good snack option. Many bakeries also offer coffee and wifi. I tried kвас (kvass), a traditional drink made from fermented rye bread (non-alcoholic). It's sweetened to varying degrees with fruit or sugar. I had some handy locals in Lviv to directy me to a place where it wouldn't be too sweet. Apparently we don't trust the old ladies selling it from sketchy barrels on the side of Castle Hill. It tastes like across between coca cola and beer.. but like in a good way. In any case it was very refreshing on a hot day. What else did I do in Ukraine?
Took a slightly arduous bus journey from Lviv to Tartu. Hung out in Tartu for a few days, got a cold. Took the train from Tartu to Tallinn. Yay, apartment to myself! Learned stuff about SaltStack and Postgres. Got locked in Tallinn City Library for a couple of hours. Caught up on blog posts about Ukraine (not food and food).
Explored Tallinn. Went for evening walks around Russalka beach, Paekalda and Kadriorg, Linnahall, Patarei prison, the culture kilometer and Kalamaja and through old town. Went for a run. Worked 3 days, more or less.. (more) Spent a day at Stroomi beach and Paljassaare conservation area; swam in the sea and walked many miles. Wander around some parks near the Estonian National Library. Hung out with vegans at potluck in Toompark.
Wrote some code or whatever. Worked from the National Library of Estonia (didn't get locked in). Went Night wandering around Tallinn. Spent a day wandering around old town and proofreading Someone's thesis chapter in a nice tea shop. A day out in Pirita; woods, Botanical Gardens, TV Tower, cemetaries, beach. Fleamarket and end of summer festival in Telliskivi. Went up the tower of St Olaf's church, the tallest building in Tallinn. Watched the sun set from Sea Plane Harbour then stuck around for bonfires and music on the Night of Prehistoric Lights (and made some dreads for M from Spain). Applied for Estonian e-residency, did my taxes, and applied for some more Euro/travel-friendly banking options.
Remember that time I walked to the (Kaliningrad) Russian border from Poland? I wanted to do that again, from the Lithuanian side. This is a slightly longer ordeal, requiring better transportation than feet. Long story short, I didn't actually make it to the border, but I did see it from the top of a sand dune. I got pretty close though. Anyway, I'm sure that border is less exciting than the Polish one, because you can actually cross it (in a car, not on foot). The Curonian Spit is not connected to Klaipeda, but the ferry takes 5 minutes. They run every hour, from 0700 out, up to 2215 returning. It costs 1 EUR return for foot passengers, or passengers with a bike, and you can buy tickets from the machines at the port in Klaipeda old town. I rented a bike from my hostel for 24 hours for 5 EUR (we managed to lower the seat all the way so I could just about use it). Most bike rental places in town are 10-12 EUR. The spit is well furnished with cycle paths, in various states of decay, but mostly well-maintained. This route is pretty popular. The northern most coast is an enormous long sandy beach. Very glorious. It's backed by epic dunes, and you can only access it at designated points from cycle paths running down the middle, because tramping around on the dunes is a no-no. Large portions of the spit are also do-not-enter nature reserves. After I got off the ferry in Smiltyne, first I went right/east (not the direction of Kaliningrad) to check out the other end of the spit for completeness. There's a sea museum, a dolphinarium (ugh) and the start of the beautiful beach. I pushed my bike along the beach for a while, which wasn't so bad on the wet sand, until I could join one of the main cycle paths, peeking out between the dunes. It was easy sailing for a while; the path was in good repair, and either flat or any ups were well compensated with excellent downs. It weaves through the forest, with views of dunes on the right and pine trees on the left, or sometimes trees on both sides. It took me two hours from joining the path to get to Judokrante, the next village. Here I stopped for lunch at Pamario Takas, a super nice place with loads of outdoor seating and.. lots of vegan options! The food was homemade and delicious; I ate lentil patties, coffee, panna cotta, and a wheatgrass shot for a boost, which all came to about 14 EUR. But I hadn't had breakfast. Judokrante has a nice seafront, with lots of restaurants and sand sculptures. My lunch break was 45 minutes. My butt was already aching a bit, and it was nice to relax, but I tried to resist temptation to linger too long. I followed the coast through Judokrante - featuring some amazing sand scupltures - and rejoined the main cycle path. The next leg was long and same-y, through the woods. I occasionally detoured to check out a side road to a beach or a cape or a birdwatching tower. Mostly when I needed to hop off the bike for a bit. Sometimes I tied the bike to something and took a little walk through sand or a non-bike-friendly track. Walking was becoming a relief. Sometimes the bike path got pretty sketchy, with holes and sand. Sometimes it arched over dunes, making hills I couldn't quite summit. The freewheeling down was fantastic though. There were quite a few people, but not so many that I didn't have long stretches with nobody in sight behind or in front of me. The next villages around the coast are Pervalka and Preila. Little bits of scenic ports, a few restaurants and signs to things of interest I did not stop to check out. Though they are small, there's plenty going on in all of the villages. Lots of people - mostly Germans and Lithuanians - come here for holidays, so there are tons of guesthouses and plenty of restaurants. There are also a disproportionate number of museums, galleries, open air art and sculptures, and other historical artefacts. Also many viewpoints (marked on openstreetmap at least), and natural features with mythological significance. I skipped by most of these, keen to get to the border, and still at this point thinking I could see them on the way back. The final (agonising) stretch between Preila and Nida is a wide, smooth concrete road. It looks like it's designed for cars, but I think it was just the cycle path. I limped into Nida (as much as one does so on wheels), followed the coast around and saw the port. I found the bus stop, and confirmed the times. It was 1630 when I arrived, and the next bus was at 1800 (and one after that, at 2000). It's 4 EUR back to Smiltyne, and an extra 5 to take a bike. This seems like a horrible ripoff, but what can you do. I parked my bike at the supermarket, and went for an amble to the 'Death Valley' sand dunes. This is just one of many exciting things to see in Nida, which is the biggest town on the spit. I considered walking all the way to the Kaliningrad border anyway, but that would have taken an hour and a half. There was no way my butt was getting back on the bike, and if I somehow missed the last bus I was pretty screwed. So I opted for seeing the Russian bit of the spit from the top of the dune instead. Close enough. The bus was waiting half an hour early when I got back to town. Two other people had just had the driver load their bikes into the compartment on the back. I felt like he could have awkwardly stacked a third one in there, but he didn't. Nope, you can't come. I drifted a few meters away, fumbled with my phone, looked presumably scared and confused. I'd already considered my options if the 1800 bus wouldn't take my bike, and I didn't like any of them so I hadn't settled on a backup plan. Whatever my expression was doing made the driver sufficiently sympathetic that he came over and led me around the bus and opened the side luggage compartment. My bike went in there sideways. I offered him my eternal gratitude (and an extra 5 EUR) and went to wait in the bus. The ride all the way back to Smiltyne is an hour exactly. The bus only stops in the villages, and won't be flagged down on the road. I got to see a slightly different bit of the spit for most of the stretch, as the cycle path I used on the way out tended to swap spit-sides whenever the road did, to the opposite one. I had three ferries remaining to me by the time I got there, and considered sticking around in Smiltyne a bit; sitting in a coffee shop (there's one with a hammock in the yard) or on the beach for a while. It was getting grey and cool, and I was just exhausted and achey though, so I took the 1915 ferry right away. I pushed the bike back to the hostel. Overall it was a great outing, but I definitely overestimated my cycling abilities. I'm entirely convinced my sister would have managed to get there and back, and included a nice lunch, swim in the sea, and most of the museums and points of interest, with no problem. I guess I should practice. All photos are here and GPS trace on RunKeeper.
Tallinn There are a small number of veg*n places in Tallinn, and many places are vegan friendly. Loads of regular coffee shops and cafes clearly mark vegan options on their menu; varying quality though, if the reviews on happycow are anything to go by. Also many homemade ice cream shops have vegan flavours. Despite staying there for a few weeks I didn't actually try them all (I was having a budgetarily-challenged month, for a start). Food in Tallinn is fairly cheap overall, but the vegan places are a bit pricier, and cafes and coffeeshops in the old town certainly are. I mostly cooked for myself. Groceries Biomarket seemed like a good candidate for vegan supplies, but actually there was very little specialist stuff there, and it was pretty expensive. They have bulk grains and organic food. But many of the same things can be found for much cheaper in regular supermarkets. Plant milks are common in all supermarkets, but not particularly cheap. Rimi is the cheapest for everything. You'd be hard pressed to find a litre for less than €2, but you might if you shop around for special offers. The food shop in the basement of Solaris has a good selection of not-meats and not-cheeses, and other vegan goodies. They're in their own dedicated display near the front of the store. Everything else here is more expensive than Rimi though. Vegan mayo in a squashy packet can be found in Solaris for 79c and Rimi for 65c. This is the cheapest vegan mayo I've ever seen. The sachet is not as big as a jar but one lasted me for 3 weeks. Tofu seems to be expensive everywhere. I never found it, but apparently if you look hard enough it's cheap in Rimi. Veg Machine Behind Balti Jaam train station, through the market and into the main hall on the left. It's a small stand with a few seats and healthy all-vegan junk food. The pulled sweet potato burger looks fantastic. But for €4 I had a cheesy tofu melt sandwich. Toormoor Also in Balti Jaam, right behind the fruit market in the entrance, this is a place specialising in raw food. They have a few seats downstairs and on the roof (which is still under the cover of the market building). I had a breakfast here, and tried a creamy fruit coconut milk porridge, and a raw wrap with sprouts and veggies and really good sauce. The coffee was nice too. Two dishes and two coffees came to a reasonable €12.60. Vegan Inspiratioon A nice restaurant in the old town with a variety of dishes, all vegan, and many raw options. Somewhere to go for a casual lunch or a fancy evening meal equally. I tried a burger with black bread and an incredible stack of fillings. Including tofu 'egg' salad, and a great coleslaw on the side. There was a dessert on the menu called 'Estonian spotted cake' so I ordered it. Turned out to be a chocolatey block with fruit, biscuit chunks and candies throughout. Pretty rad. Vigri Pirita is just north of Tallinn around the coast, and with the botanical gardens, TV tower, gorgeous stretches of beach and peaceful forests, it's a great place to go fro a day out. Stopping at Vigri is the icing on the cake. Seriously. The cakes at that place. I showed up ravenous, having been walking for hours and badly mistimed my meals. I restrained myself bravely on the buffet - which was a selection of hearty vegetable based dishes (one with tofu). Bread is unlimited for free outside of the pay-by-weight buffet. Then I induced a food coma with a giant sticky caramel-y nutty cinnamon bun. And rolled to the beach to sleep it off. Also in the vicinity were a branch of New York Pizza (with vegan cheese) and a beach foodstand with a 'vegan' menu on the side! Vegan Italy An Italian restaurant near Ulemiste, south of the old town. At lunch there's a buffet, as well as a la carte. They make their own vegan salami on premises, as well as bread. The buffet had a selection of pasta dishes, lasagnas, vegetables and salads; all good, I tried a bit of everything. It's €9 for all you can eat, and includes a portion of the dessert of the day. It was good food, and very friendly stratosphere. The dessert when I went was plums in white wine sauce. Green Bakery This small cafe has narrow opening hours and isn't central, so I dropped by when I was in the neighbourhood hoping for cake or pastries. Despite the name, they had none. Maybe I was just late. It was pretty busy, and serving a buffet. I didn't get anything, with lunch scheduled at Vegan Italy nearby. Karu Talu An all vegan chocolate shop in the dead center of old town. Abso-fucking-lutely fantastic. Most chunks of chocolate are €2 and they're all dark and rich, fresh handmade. A cascade of different flavours. I tried mint, cherry, almond, snickers, chilli, sugar-free peanut and chocolate-covered kama. Kama is a local cereal, and for coating in chocolate it was puffed into crispy balls. The piece they gave me was as big as my head, and so easy to eat too much of. Adjoined with the main chocolate shop is a section which also supplies teas, coffees, ice creams and savoury and sweet pastries at very low prices. There's not really any seating though. Tea and Coffee Shop A small cafe in the old town. They mostly wholesale loose leaf tea and coffee beans (a massive selection of both) and related equipment. There are a few tables though, plus power and wifi. They offer every plant milk you can think of for drinks, and have several homemade vegan cakes. I had a spectacular banana bread and spent a quiet afternoon there. Bliss After getting locked in Tallinn City library for a few hours, I went to Bliss. The buffet is extensive, all vegetarian (and well labelled) and pay-by-weight. It's in the Solaris mall, and you have to go through a book shop to get there - look for arrows on the floor. Loads of seats. Desserts and smoothies too. The food was good, and a big variety. Sushi Plaza A regular sushi place, but with a large vegan menu and most of the desserts are vegan too. The sushi is excellent and a good price. Nice atmosphere, too. New York Pizza A regular pizza place with vegan cheese and loads of good veggie toppings. It's above average price, but hits the spot. There are several branches around Tallinn, including one in Pirita right by the beach. NOP Neighbourhood Organic Place was around the corner from where I was staying. It sells groceries, as well as meals and bread. I dropped by, but they had nothing I wanted, and the groceries were really expensive. I never got around to going back for a meal. Pop-ups On a day of wandering I happened upon a flea market type thing in Telliskivi. There were vegan food trucks of course, but I was already full from lunch at home with friends (whom I'd met earlier in the month at a vegan potluck picnic in the park..). Nonetheless, we forced some doughnuts upon ourselves.. Tartu Pahupidi Kohvik A very cute cafe with lots of space and a really nice menu. Good quality healthy food at great prices, and friendly service to boot. I ate courgette ravioli with cashew cheese and it was delicious. I was angling after churros but they were out, and no ice cream either.. the waiter strongly recommended to me the last of the daily cake, which was a truly spectacular salted caramel cheesecake and clearly fate decided I had to have it. Ruunipizza A pizza and pancake restaurant with several vegan options for both. I ate a pizza and a massive plate of fries. They have vegan pastries and cakes too, plus good smoothies. If I'm ever back in Tartu I'm definitely returning for a not-cheesey mushroom bean pancake! Mahemarket A cafe inside a bio/health food shop. There's a small pay by weight buffet and some cakes and salad. And you can take anything from the shop to accompany your meal. It's a nice space in a block of hip shops with a courtyard. When I was there, next door was a popup ice cream shop with vegan flavours. Not sure if that's a permanent fixture though. Parnu It's a small place. I found one vegetarian cafe and went there twice, for dinner then breakfast. Piccadilly Wine and Chocolate More than half of the menu is vegan, and really delicious. The Greek soup was hearty and filling, packed full of veggies accompanied by crunch black bread and only €4 (which after Tallinn felt great). They have a few vegan cakes, mostly raw cheesecake style. I tried chocolate and blackberry and approve. For breakfast I had an unusual savoury porridge with vegetables, mushrooms and green salad. It was incredible actually. Helsinki I'm going to throw Helsinki in here because it intersected with my Estonia time, and was just a couple of day visit. Main point: it's expensive. Everything is expensive. Best bet is just.. don't eat here. In two days I spent all of my food budget for Lithuania. Well, it felt like that. There are plenty of vegan places, and many of them are co-ops. There were two I tried to go to which mysteriously weren't open during the signposted hours. Frustrating, but.. there are plenty of alternatives. Soi Soi Finest vegetarian junk food; most items are vegan but there is some cheese flying around. I enjoyed a seitan burger with vegan cheese, deep fried cauliflower, and sampled sweet potato fries. €10.50 for the burger and side. Very satisfying. Roots A healthy cafe that's part of a yoga studio; good food, but on the pricier side (relatively!). A burger packed with root vegetables, amazing melty vegan cheese and cracking salad, plus a flat white set me back €17. There's lots of space, it's a nice place. Jänö A junk food stand very handily right by the Finnish National Museum and open until midnight most days. I believe it doesn't operate in the winter. They offer various not-meats on a bed of fries, ice cream, candies and fancy juices. Cheap (relatively) and filling; I had not meatballs and sampled soya sausage. They come with several blobs of different sauces. Kippo An all vegan outlet on the 3rd floor of the Forum mall. Obviously a mall environment, but nice food. A sandwich and a smoothie combo will be around €14. They make their own cashew cheese and there's a choice between that and mozzarella (which my educated tastebuds suggest is Violife).
New hair. i18n workflow stuff. Ferry to Helsinki; touristed in Helsinki; spent far too much money and didn't sleep enough. Those Fins sure know how to party. Hung out with bengo and the MyData2018 crowd. Return ferry to Tallinn, and another night there. Bus to Parnu; beach, mosquitoes, nice food.
Bussed from Parnu (Estonia) to Riga (Latvia) and then straight on to Cape Kolka. Spent a night on the beach in a barrel house. Hitchhiked around the coast to Liepaja with a stop in Ventspils. A day chilling in Liepaja before a bus to Klaipeda (Lithuania). A few days in Klaipeda, wandering and cafe- and hostel-working on i18n stuff. Cycled 40 miles along the Curonian Spit. Estonian e-residency was granted, pending pickup of ID card in a couple of weeks.
Bussed to Kaunas. Settled in to a hostel and co-working space. Did a bunch of i18n related stuff involving babel extractors and the transifex API for OCDS extensions. Generally explored Kaunas city center, ate lots of good food. Went to Kaunas botanical gardens and for a long walk along the river.
Continued work on i18n stuff for OCDS extensions. Went into tourist mode; visited the Ninth Fort, memorial and museum, the City Hall Museum, the Kaunas Castle Museum and Church of the Ressurection (and some random other churches), the Vytautas the Great War Museum and the National Art Museum, aaaand saw the Pope and the crowds of 100k people who came to Kaunas to see the Pope. Finished Bojack Horseman (again (by which I mean I just finished it all when the new season came out)) and the Expanse book 6. Did a ton of character sketches for my imminent month-early Nanowrimo novel Birds.
Went for a long walk to the reservoir at Kaunas Lagoon Regional Park. Took the train from Kaunas to Vilnius. Toured the Vilnius vegan food scene. Researched and spec'd i18n stuff for BODS. Went to a rave in my hostel.. for like 10 minutes. Went to Vilnius TV tower and nearby green spaces. Day trip to Trakai, castle, lake, etc.
Holy Donut has this thing called a 'freak shake', one of which is vegan. It looks fantastic in the picture and description so finally I managed to give it a try. The only thing 'freak' about it though is how many things are wrong with it. Get it together people. Issue 1: They were out of coconut cream. No dairy cream is not okay. So okay, I go without. I resent that it's still more expensive than the non-vegan ones though. Issue 2: The chocolate crumbs were glued to the inside of the glass, with chocolate. How am I supposed to eat this? I object to such delicious chocolatey goodness being used solely for decoration. I chipped them off with my spoon and made a mess everywhere. Issue 3: Chocolate may look good swirled around the outside of the glass, but it set rock solid in the cold soy milk. I made a lot of noise and not much progress chipping away at it with my spoon. I. Want. To. Eat. The. Chocolate. Issue 4: The menu advertises 'lots of bananas'. There was only half a banana involved in the whole affair. How can I count this as a portion of fruit now? I spent a long time eating this milkshake and eventually got most of the chocolate out. It was a loud and messy process, and people definitely looked at me funny. In conclusion: I do not recommend the Holy Donut 'freak shake'. Also it was €7 which is EXCESSIVE. I had such high hopes.
Everything wrong with this Holy Donut milkshake