Country #51 - Estonia

The Old Town

I woke up relatively early today especially after how long it took me to fall asleep last night. I was able to eat a good, big breakfast at Go Hotel Shnelli before setting out for the day in Tallinn, Estonia. I started the day by walking straight uphill to the Toompea area of Tallinn. Toompea is elevated over the rest of the Old Town and is home to some beautiful churches and views. I went to St. Mary’s Cathedral first. It was unique because the inside was covered with different coats of arms. The climb to the top was closed due to the rain, but that was okay with me because it helped me to decide which church to climb up (you can also climb up St. Olaf’s church which is what I did).

I then made my way to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which is more of a traditional Russian style church, and afterwards, I made my way to the two viewing platforms on Toompea, Patkuli and Kohtuotsa. By the time I got to Kohtuotsa I was pretty freezing as the viewpoint attracted a lot of wind.

I then my way down into the heart of the Old Town. The entire Old Town, including Toompea, is stunning and it is amazing that it survived WWII so well. I walked first to Town Hall Square which includes, obviously, Town Hall. The Town Hall is a castle-like structure and the rest of the buildings on the square are unique and colorful. From there I made my way to St. Olaf’s Church where I had a workout climbing to the top of the tower. It was really steep and once on top it was now really windy and pouring rain. However, the climb was totally worth it for the views out of Tallinn!

After arriving back on the ground (completely out of breath) and visiting the actual St. Olaf’s Church I made my way to Viru Square and Gate via St. Catherine’s passage. St. Catherine’s passage is a cute, but tiny, street that runs through a few of the Old Town streets. My walk led me past a really cool design store where I somehow only managed to make one purchase (Scandinavian branded design stores are a weakness). New luggage tag in tow (yes I know I’m lame but it is a really cool tag) I walked past the Viru Gate and into Viru Square. I had planned on taking the tram to the Kumu Art Museum but there were no ticket machines in sight. Instead, I called an Uber because they are so cheap here. Like ten minutes is under $5 it’s so nice. Also weirdly enough my driver was American which was pretty bizarre.

I arrived at Kumu and was immediately impressed with the modern building’s design. The first floor of Kumu featured the Estonian national collection, the second floor features works since WWI, and the final floor was an exhibit on travel which I, of course, found cool. It took me about two hours to do the entire museum but I really enjoyed my time there and definitely recommend it. By the time that I left it was raining even harder and the sun had started to go down. I took a quick walk through Kadroig Park right outside and then called an Uber to take me to

Balti Jaama Turg, a new market that my hotel had recommended. By the time I got there, though, nothing was open so I walked around the Telliskivi area my driver had recommended to a cute area where the restaurants were formed completely of boxcars and other train cars. It was really unique and I ended up finding a crepe and waffles place called Margot. I had a Cadbury Creme Egg hot chocolate, a yummy pizza crepe, and a half order of a caramel butterscotch waffle served with ice cream that was so good.

After dinner, I called my mom on the short walk back to Go Hotel Shnelli. I am so tired after a full day on little sleep and I’m going to try and get to sleep early before an early morning so I can make the most out of my day in Vilnius, Lithuania!

51 countries down, 145 to go.

To learn more about Go Hotel Shnelli click here.

Country #50 - Latvia

The Flights

Today was another crazy travel day as I set off back across the pond to visit Eastern Europe! Eastern Europe has been at the top of my bucket list for a long time so I am really looking forward to the countries on this trip, including Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, and flying out of Norway (I’ve been before this trip but I’m doing Bergen this time so it’s a new city for me). I also want to do Eastern Europe before it gets much colder so that I can enjoy it.

Today I flew out of Dallas on a family pass. I didn’t get business class but I did get a row to myself which was very nice. I slept about four hours and watched the new Spider Man on the plane. As far as nonstop London flights go (and I’ve flown them a bit thanks to studying abroad and prior visits) this was the first time I have flown out of Dallas, so it was probably one of my longest flights ever so far at nine hours.

After landing in London I had plenty of time to transfer to my next airport but not enough time to safely venture out and see anything. It’s not like I haven’t been to London before, so this was purely a transit visit. I landed at Heathrow where I then sat for a while and figured out my plan for the day. I decided to transfer straight to Stansted (worst airport ever, I’m sure I’ve said that before) instead of waiting around at Heathrow or going into London and risking any sort of problem.

I took the tube to Liverpool Street where I made it on the next Stansted Express train right as the doors were closing. I dislike how expensive the Stansted Express is but it gets the job done and if you don’t have time to book early it usually the same price (if not cheaper) the day of than the National Express bus coaches, and it is definitely quicker than those.

I arrived at Stansted a little over three hours before my flight. Stansted is the worst, just to remind you for a hundredth time. Their entire system encourages you to be there early, but, surprise, if you are over three hours early you can’t check your bags yet (this wasn’t a problem for me because I had no bags). I would likely never be more than three hours early (I’m usually only two for international flights) except for in transit. So it just puts passengers in an annoying hold because there is literally nowhere to sit in the Stansted main entrance.

After going through what I swear is the longest duty-free section that is impossible to skip I decided to eat at an actual restaurant since it had been a while since my last meal and I was going to be traveling the rest of the day. I decided on the Windmill because it looked cool. It’s a pub (under the Wetherspoon brand) but it felt like a restaurant other than the weird ordering system where you either had to order on an app (which I did) or go to the bar (kinda hard to leave your bags at your table as a single traveler). I got a burger that was funnily enough called the American Burger. I then had another two hours so I went and sat in the main waiting area.

So here is my main beef with Stansted. The signs will tell you, without fail, that your flight is boarding the second that it gets assigned a gate. And they also wait forever to tell you the gate so once you know you almost always feel like you need to hurry when in reality boarding hasn’t actually started but you never know when on the off chance it will. My flight today was at 4:45pm. The gate was supposed to be posted at 4pm, was actually posted around 3:50, and then the second it was posted it said that it was now boarding. After a ten minute walk to the gate, I found no boarding for another twenty minutes at least. So basically, they make you run all over for no reason and it is a problem that could easily be corrected. The exact same thing happens when they post final calls. I have run to flights in Stansted because the signs have said final call only to find that half the time boarding hasn’t even started yet.

After finally boarding I had a seat in the back of the plane. The flight was fine other than the fact that I have never in my life seen so many people stand up on a flight. Like literally there would be at least five people in lines for the bathrooms all flight long and others were congregating in groups which is against rules. Other than the annoyance of having the constantly moving passengers run into me on the aisle seat It was a good three-hour fight that I stuck to Netflix on.

When arriving in Riga, Latvia, immigration was a breeze. I then found the mini-bus (basically a bus shuttle) #222 from the airport to the center of town. Regular bus #22 is also an option. The bus dropped off right by the central train station which, luckily for me, was right across the street from my hotel, Opera Hotel & Spa! After navigating the underground crosswalks (because there are too many trams for there to be crosswalks on the street) I came up right in front of Opera Hotel & Spa. Thank you so much to Opera Hotel & Spa for sponsoring this night of my trip! Check in was simple and my room is very nice! It is clean and updated and has an absolutely perfect location for exploring Riga.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Riga tomorrow, and also to having a good night’s sleep after not getting much on the plane last night. I'm also really excited for Latvia as it is my 50th country! I'm so excited to have made it to this milestone and officially be over 1/4th of the way to my goal. It's been an incredible ride so far and I can't wait to keep going!

The East

Today was my first full day in Eastern Europe of the trip! After a late night getting in I set my alarm for 8:30, but then snoozed it until 9:30, and then somehow fell back asleep until 11am. Not ideal, but I still had enough time to see a good overview of Riga! After checking out of Opera Hotel & Spa I sat in the lobby for a bit to finish planning my day since I fell asleep before doing so last night.

I started the day with lunch at an Italian Restaurant. Lame, I know, but at every Latvian restaurant I looked up I would have just ended up getting a burger so I had some tasty lasagne instead. The walk to lunch introduced me to the Old City which is incredible. After lunch, and throughout the rest of my day, I spent a lot of time just walking around Old City. The buildings are very unique and I highly recommend spending as much time as possible walking through them.

My first stop after lunch was St. Peter's Church. St. Peter’s Church was first mentioned in official records as early as the 1200s, while the building itself is old but not nearly that old. My favorite part of the church was the observation. The student ticket was seven euro. You take an elevator to the very top for an awesome view out over all of Riga. The church itself had a really nice art exhibition on display and, while plain for a European church, it was still beautiful inside. I’m glad that the sun was out while I was on the observation deck because by the time I left St. Peter’s it had started raining.

The rain thankfully only lasted about five minutes. My next stop was the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia which was unfortunately closed. I’m looking forward to learning more about the history of the Eastern European countries, but it looks like I will have to wait until another city. The museum sits on Town Hall Square, which was, unfortunately, being renovated. The scaffolding showed how cool the square is when it is not under construction and I’m sad to have missed it!

After two very quick stops, I made my way to Riga Cathedral. When I walked in I heard what sounded like a live choir and orchestra performing. After buying my three euro ticket I found that I was lucky enough to be visiting the church during their practice! The chorus was huge and it was such a cool, but completely unexpected, moment to be able to sit and listen in such a beautiful place. After taking my time listening and then walking around the church cloister I then made my way to the Three Brothers, which are the three oldest houses in Riga. Their exteriors are very unique, especially for buildings dating from as early as the 1500s.

My walk from the Three Brothers to my next stop, Latvian National Museum of Art, was a little longer. However, I was able to walk through Bastejkalna parks, a lovely park that flows through the center of Riga. During my walk, I found some sort of kayak competition being held on the small body of water that flows through the park. I arrived at the Latvian National Museum of Art about an hour before closing time. I did the permanent exhibitions starting with the top floor, which was a super unique, all white space. The other floors were art by specifically Latvian artists. The museum wasn’t too large (though the building was grand) so I was able to do it all in about forty-five minutes.

After the museum, I headed to Alberta Iela (Albert Street), which is known for its Art Nouveau buildings. The buildings were cool but definitely did not take a lot of time to see. I walked down the street and then made my way back to the center of town. My longest walk of the day, at about fifteen minutes, took me from Alberta Iela to The Freedom Monument. The Freedom Monument stands at the start of the Old City and is a monument to the soldiers who died in the Latvian War of Independence. I then went to Riga Black Magic. It’s a super cool cafe where I had some cake and amazing hot chocolate. Latvia is the coldest country I have been to since Argentina so the hot chocolate was much needed and so good! It was the kind where you stir chocolate into warm milk which I really like. Black Magic had a really cool decor and I definitely recommend it.

After recharging on basically just chocolate I made my way back to Opera Hotel & Spa to gather my bags and head to the bus stop. The stop for the 22 or 222 bus to the airport was right down from Opera Hotel & Spa about a five-minute walk, and the bus arrived about ten minutes later. On the bus I met a British man who asked how long the bus took. We then went on to chat for a minute during which time he told me that when he hears of Alabama it makes him think of slavery or “worse things” which was not ideal to hear. Otherwise, he was really nice and wished me well on my trip, but that part of our conversation was definitely a bit awkward.

Security at the airport was simple with no lines and afterwards, I headed to my gate and found a good spot to sit. I was three and a half hours early for no reason other than that by this time it was dark in Riga and I decided to go ahead and be early. There was a Vanderbilt football game on and somehow I was able to have good enough wifi to watch over half of it. It was a horrible loss to Georgia but it gave me something to do to pass the time. Once I finally boarded the flight itself only took about thirty minutes.

When I arrived in Tallinn, Estonia, there was no immigration as I was passing from one Schengen Area country to another. The Schengen Area includes twenty-six European countries that have eliminated border control for fellow Schengen Area countries. I thought about taking an Uber because it would have been about five euros cheaper than a taxi but at 12am the wait time was too long and it was raining. I took a taxi instead and the ride took about ten minutes. I had a really easy check in at my hotel, Go Hotel Shnelli, who I cannot thank enough for sponsoring two nights of my trip! My room is very comfortable and the best part is the view of the Old Town from the room.

After arriving in my room I watched a little more football before showering and going to sleep pretty late. My goal is to get up early enough to have a full day exploring Tallinn, as after day one in Eastern Europe I am really looking forward to it!

50 countries down, 146 to go.

To learn more about Opera Hotel & Spa click here.

To learn more about Go Hotel Shnelli click here.

Country #42 - United Kingdom Day 2

The Palace

I slept for a few hours on the flight from Saudi Arabia to London, UK and then had a pretty long immigration line to wait in at Heathrow. From there I made my way to the Tube which I took to London Victoria station. I then stored my bags for the day at the Victoria Coach station which ended up being super convenient. By this point, I was so tired but I also really didn’t want to waste a day in London. Who knew how perfect my day would end up being!

After leaving my bags I decided to just walk around the area and head towards Buckingham Palace and then perhaps just walk around the parks. However, as I was walking that way I realized the one major thing in London that I had never done was, in fact, to visit Buckingham Palace! The Palace is only open to tourists pretty much in the summer months and as a result, I was unable to visit during my study abroad in the spring months.

I decided to walk by the ticket office and it just so happened that I was in luck! There were tickets available for that exact time - it was meant to be. I bought my ticket without hesitation and headed inside. You have to go through security of course and once inside you have to turn off your camera and put away your phone. So I don’t have any pictures from inside, but it was as spectacular as you might imagine.

It was really cool to see such important and historic rooms and to learn so much about them. Audio guides can be pretty hit or miss but this was definitely a good one! It was also actually nice that cameras weren’t allowed because you could just take time, enjoy things, and not have to worry about taking pictures or having people taking pictures all around you. I spent a few hours inside and learned so much. It’ll also be cool next time I watch The Crown to be like oh yeah, I’ve seen that room!

After finishing the palace you exit to the Buckingham Palace Gardens in the back. I was able to take pictures here and then stopped for some Buckingham Palace Ice Cream as well! I then walked back towards Victoria Coach station with a few stops along the way. The first was at Marks & Spencer to stock up on my favorite London candy, Percy Pigs Phizzy Pig Tails. I don’t know why but I love them. I then grabbed Shake Shack to go and made my way to get my bag at the coach station before catching my Gatwick Express train to Gatwick Airport from London Victoria station.

It was a really great day in London and I am so glad that in the limited time that I had it worked out so perfect for me to be able to see the one thing left at the top of my touristy things in London list! I was exhausted by this point but had a great trip and am looking forward to heading home for about two weeks before I head out again, next time to Eastern Europe!

49 countries down, 147 to go.

Read about my first day in the United Kingdom here.

Country #49 - Saudi Arabia Day 1

The Computer

Just to clarify, I do plan to actually enter Saudi Arabia before the end of my travels. I just counted this transit trip as the Guinness rules say that it is okay. But I have my visa, and I will be spending a few days in Riyadh in October or November of 2018. This post only focuses on my first visit and I will have a much more in depth post about my actual visit once it takes place. I look forward to visiting soon!

I had another great night and breakfast at Rove Hotel Trade Centre before spending my morning working on my blog at Rove. I had a long day (and night) to come and didn’t want to wear myself out trying to get out for an hour or so before my flight. I bid all of the awesome people at Rove Hotel Trade Centre farewell before taking the metro to Dubai Airport (DXB) to leave the UAE and head to Saudi Arabia. It’s a huge airport but as long as you know your terminal it is pretty simple to navigate.

The flight into Saudi Arabia was thankfully not a long one (that will be the flight out). I will be staying in the airport in Saudi Arabia which, according to Guinness, is within the rules. I would obviously prefer to go through immigration and get a passport stamp as I anticipate doing wherever possible, but unfortunately a visa of any kind here can cost U.S. citizens upwards of $850 if you have no connections to the country, which I obviously don’t. I was also glad to not have to deal with the Jeddah airport more than I already would as this past year it was voted the worst airport in the world - comforting, right?

Upon landing it was interesting to look out over the city. The most notable and completely unexpected thing that I saw? An Ikea. It was weird. When we landed it took a while for the bus to take us to the airport, and upon arrival in the airport I found the transit desk. I then went through a weird transit lounge and out the other side to go back through security. It was definitely my strangest security screening of all time. I have been in separate lines for women before but here the women are taken into a separate room. The screening is then performed by women at least and it didn’t take a while and was basically just a TSA equivalent pat down.

After security I ended up in duty free which was pretty barren but interesting to see what was there. I had a picture taken in duty free (the only place I could find a sign with the airport’s name on it) and then walked around the tiny terminal. There was a Baskin Robbins and a few other small stores. What is so strange to me about this airport is how wealthy of a country Saudi Arabia is to have such a depressing major international hub, but oh well. There are a lot of strange things about this country and this is the least of their worries I’m sure.

I then found a place to sit in the packed terminal before heading to my gate for London. I met two really cool women who were from Dubai (but actually Nigerian) who I got to be my witnesses for the country. I was worried about finding someone who spoke English but it wasn’t too much of an issue! They were really interesting to talk to, especially during the really long wait to check our computers. Yes, I said check our computers..

This has been a thing for a year or so now on flights from the Middle East and Africa to countries like the U.K. and U.S. ever since a plane blew up in Egypt. I’m not exactly sure how checking the computers would help if one were to blow up but oh well. It took forever which was annoying because the definitely do this every day. There was just a lot of waiting before finally, they checked both my computer and iPad in a tiny cushioned box, along with everyone else's’ on the flight.

I finally boarded and really lucked out - I had an exit row seat, which I had chosen for free in the online check-in, but it was one with a huge gap in front of it. It was a six hour flight to London so I was looking for any help that I could get as far as sleep goes. I got maybe two or three hours of very uncomfortable sleep before arriving at Heathrow very early in the morning. I won’t have long in London, but hopefully enough to at least do something!

49 countries down, 147 to go.

Read about my second day in Saudi Arabia here.

Country #48 - United Arab Emirates Day 2

The Penguins

I got a great night's sleep last night at Rove Hotel Trade Centre and really enjoyed the huge breakfast and tons of options for breakfast this morning! I had an omelette before heading out for another day in Dubai, UAE. My main stop for the day was the Mall of the Emirates because Dubai doesn’t need just one mega-mall, but two. I took the metro from my hotel all the way there and when I got there I walked around for a little bit before the main attraction - Ski Dubai!

Ski Dubai is the tourist of tourist attractions but I don’t care because it was amazing and everything in Dubai is touristy. It is basically an entire ski slope and other fun ski attractions inside of a mall. And it was incredible. I don’t like skiing so that’s not why I was there. My goal was to meet the Ski Dubai penguins! It was really expensive ($90) for my day at Ski Dubai but totally worth it, especially since I have spent very little on attractions this trip. The $90 got me in to meet the penguins, but it also allowed me to do all of the fun activities (besides skiing) inside Ski Dubai and I definitely took advantage of it!

I’ll start from the beginning, though. I waited in the penguin waiting area along with a family from Iran and two girls from China. We watched an adorable penguin instructional video before meeting the penguin trainer and then, of course, meeting the penguins. They were so cute and honestly just pretty hilarious! The first ones that we met were the Emperor penguins, the second largest type of penguin. They were very cute and they were the ones you could meet and pet. One of them was in training and it was adorable watching the penguin learn how to meet people. Their feathers felt like velvet and it was just an awesome experience. Also, the mom from Iran was hilariously afraid of them (in a funny way) and refused to touch them so they took a group picture with the mom like ten feet away - it was fantastic.

The second penguins that we met were the Gentoo penguins. They are smaller and much faster than the Emperor penguins. They were so fun to watch run around and they even played with baby toys! You couldn’t pet the Gentoo because they were so much more active but they were still cool to watch and learn about. I got pictures with all of the penguins and that is where Ski Dubai really makes their money. I spent $50 on two pictures - and it would have been $70 but the girl at the checkout counter felt so bad for me struggling to decide between the two that she let me use her employee discount which was so sweet and super helpful because I really could not decide.

After meeting the penguins I had an incredible rest of the day at Ski Dubai. I spent three more hours there! My favorite thing was the snow tubing - they would spin you around down a huge hill and it was so much fun (remember, I’m from Alabama where we have literally zero snow ever). I also really loved the zorb! A zorb is a giant, inflatable ball that you get inside and ride down the snow in. I have always wanted to zorb and it was so cool! I also had fun doing the Snow Bullet slide, the snow luge, and just riding the ski lift to see all of Ski Dubai. The last thing that I did was watch the penguins put on a little informational show which was, of course, adorable.

I had an amazing time at Ski Dubai, with my only complaint being the prices. After finishing my great day I headed just next door inside of Mall of the Emirates to Shake Shack. I know, very unoriginal, but I was starving (it was after 3:00pm) and I wanted their hot chocolate. I scarfed down my favorite fast food burger and then walked around the mall while drinking my hot chocolate. Afterwards, I took the metro to my next stop, the Dubai Marina. Going from below freezing to over one hundred degrees wasn’t the most enjoyable experience (it made my fingers hurt like crazy) but that’s Dubai for you!

The Dubai Marina was amazing to walk around and see the huge buildings and boats. Some of the buildings are really unique and I enjoyed just walking around the area. I ended up making my way to the Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites as this is the only place that you can get a good view of the infamous Palm Islands. I made it up to the restaurant and ordered just a Sprite to be able to watch the sunset over The Palm. It is a pretty incredible man-made thing to see a palm tree figure in the ocean and is incredibly expensive to stay (or live) there. I was really glad to be able to see it from above!

After a bit, I made my way back down and to the metro to head back to Rove Hotel Trade Centre. It was a full day filled with some of Dubai’s highlights and I really enjoyed every second of it. I’m sad to be leaving Dubai tomorrow but am so glad that I was finally able to visit this incredible (and very hot) city - I would love to come back and explore more of the United Arab Emirates some day!

48 countries down, 148 to go.

Read about my first day in the United Arab Emirates here.

To learn more about Rove Hotel Trade Centre click here.