Cheapskate Chronicles Redux: Free Walking Tours in the Baltic States

Literatu G. (Vilnius, Lithuania)

After a hiatus, I was eager to embark on my next travel adventure, and decided to map out a trip to the Baltic States. Nowadays people like to refer to these countries individually, instead of the collective Soviet-era umbrella nickname, so just to be clear I'm talking about Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.Why? No reason in particular, but probably a curiosity to learn about some lesser-visited countries (by Americans, anyway) was a factor. 

As usual,  I set about planning my two week holiday by Googling "free walking tours" and then adding Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn, only half-expecting to actually find any. However, a pleasant surprise was in store as results came up for student-run  Yellow Free tours, which as luck would have it, operated free walking tours in all three cities I plugged in (and then some). So, I am happy to report that I took all three free walking tours (please do tip the guides), and below is a recap.

Constitution Wall, Uzupis republic (Vilnius, Lithuania)

Vilnius, Lithuania. A turnout of about forty people were on hand in front of Vilnius' Town Hall for the Vilnius free tour. The guide (Martina) showed up holding a battered bright yellow briefcase (thus the "Yellow" in Yellow Free tours), the sight of which brightened up everyone's moods on this cold, cloudy day. True to its motto of guiding tourists to leave the beaten track, our walking tour bypassed popular sights such as the Cathedral and Gediminas Tower inside the old town, but rather crossed the bridge over to the mock independent republic of Uzupis, an artists' colony and bohemian district. 

After looking at some off-beat public art pieces along the river, and examining their hysterical Constitution Wall (translated into ten languages!), we circled back through the hills for a nice view of the Vilnius skyline and landed on Literatu St., where small artworks are mounted on a wall as a tribute to famous literary figures in Lithuanian literature. Not something I would have particularly noticed if not for the tour as the Lonely Planet guidebook didn't play it up.  I found Martina and the tour to be quite entertaining, and whetted my appetite for a longer stroll in Uzupis on a later date.

Riga, Latvia. Even the most uninformed traveler has heard of Riga's reputation as the party capital of the Baltic States, with heaps of young Brits flying in for stag dos and hen parties (thanks Ryanair!). My agenda focused more on the milder, historical side of Latvia's capital. 

Stalin's birthday cake (Riga, Latvia)

The free walking tour in Riga went all over the place, literally. After meeting our guide (again with the battered yellow briefcase - where do they get those things?!), we started off with a quick peek and briefing inside Riga's Central Market, notable not only for the produce and seafood available within, but also for the reused German zeppelin hangars. Then, we went to the other side of the train station away from the Old Town and into the lesser-explored "Moscow Suburb" area of Riga. 

In this area, we passed by Spikeri, where warehouses are becoming gentrified and turning into cafes and art galleries. This district still has a lot of the traditional old wooden houses, some of them converted into the unlikeliest of businesses. Other notable sights include the Academy of Science, unofficially known as "Stalin's birthday cake" and which by some stretch of imagination resembles the Empire State building, and the Holocaust Memorial which pays tribute to brave Latvians who hid Jews during the war.

Eventually, we retraced our steps back to the train station, and came out to the other side into Central Riga, the new part of town where business hotels proliferate. A stroll on Elizabetes Iela brought us to the Radisson Blu hotel, whose tourist hangout Skybar offers excellent views of the Old Town from its 26th floor perch. They've started charging a 2 lats (approx. $3.80) admission fee from Thursday to Sunday, alas.  The 2 1/2 hour walking tour ended in the small park across from the hotel, and it's a short walk back to the familiar confines of the Old Town. 

Tallinn, Estonia. The Old Town, with its wonderfully preserved medieval walls and numerous pointy church spires, attracts up to six daily cruise ships at the height of summer. While most of the passengers take ultra-expensive tours flogged by their cruise line, the savvy ones make a beeline for the daily Tallinn free walking tour at noon. Given that the Old Town is quite small, easily navigable by foot, and the port is only a 10 to 15 minute walk away, it's the best way to learn some history on the cheap. 

Tallinn, as seen from viewing platform

The tour meets outside the Tourism office just off the main square, and makes its way through Toompea hill just outside the city walls. There you'll find out why one of the towers is called "Kiek in the Kok" (it's a long story), peek inside St. Alexander's Orthodox Cathedral, and come face-to-face with Tallinn's pink-hued City Hall (forgot to ask the guide about the interesting choice of colors). 

Of course, holidays wouldn't be complete without having your photo taken, so an obligatory stop is made at a viewing platform in Toompea where your shots of the Tallinn skyline are sure to delight Facebook friends back home. 

Among three walking tours I took, this one had the least among of walking and clocked in at just slightly below two hours, but was no less interesting and delightful as the ones in Riga and Vilnius. In every instance, the guides made the tours fun, spoke very good English, and were helpful in answering whatever smoldering questions visitors had. The Baltic States are a relatively inexpensive destination, with these tours as one (or three) of the capital cities'  screaming bargains.

 For an rundown of other free walking tours I've taken in Europe, check out this link. 

A Photo Walking Tour of Boston's Back Bay

As we crossed the street into Boston's Copley Place, I spotted Saba, proprietress and tour leader for Boston's PhotoWalks, standing beside Science along with two other participants in today's photo walking tour of the Back Bay neighborhood.

Such was our delight at the historical facts and better photography tips we learned during yesterday's Beacon Hill walking tour that we mustered the enthusiasm to embark on another photo walk, despite today's frigid temps and howling winds. Disconcertingly enough, the staff at our hotel shrugged off the abysmal weather as being "normal" for this time of year. Oh well, we decided to just pile on the layers and soldier on.

After exchanging introductions with the two women who braved the conditions, Saba started off the photo walking tour by telling us about the two statues guarding the entrance to Boston's public library - Science (the appointed meeting spot) and Art. Again, she demonstrated various creative ways of composing our photos and suggested different angles to shoot them from. One of my favorite pics is the one above - taken behind the statue of Science facing out to Copley Square, with the John Hancock tower in the background.

We crossed over to Copley Square for photos of John Copley's statue, Trinity Church's reflection on the John Hancock tower, and a few from inside the church which provided a brief refuge from the cold. Afterwards, though a bit reluctant to leave the warm surroundings, it was time for more photos!

A short walk led us to the heart of the Back Bay neighborhood, Commonwealth Avenue, with its numerous statues situated on the grassy mall bisecting the wide boulevard. I couldn't help but notice the contrast between the two neighborhoods that we took photo walking tours in - the narrow, cobblestone, gas-lit bucolic alleys of Beacon Hill versus the wide streets of Back Bay lined with numerous upscale restaurants and shops - a rough comparison in New York City would be the West Village vs. the Upper East Side, I thought.

Easily my favorite set of statues were the bronze trio which composed the Boston Women's Memorial, all of whom were known for their writing (among other things, of course). They provided excellent opportunities for some extreme close up pictures (including a quill pen and hair bun) that Saba suggested which turned out quite well and are included in the complete set of photos here.



After the walking tour finished, we strolled over to the nearby Christian Science center to view its massive reflecting pool. Unfortunately, the pool turned out to be emptied of its contents during the winter months, so instead we just took photos of the surrounding Prudential Tower complex. As we passed a nearby solar powered garbage compactor, I noticed the solar panels atop the brown receptacle and my newly-developed instinct for sniffing out unique photo angles kicked in and voila! - a magnificent shot of the towers' reflection, wouldn't you say?

Check out the complete photo album from the Back Bay photo walk.

More posts from Boston here.

A Walking tour of Boston's Beacon Hill with PhotoWalks

Stamping my foot on the ground as if that would somehow comfort my frozen toes, I wondered if taking this photo walking tour of Boston's charming Beacon Hill neighborhood would be worth enduring the shivering cold for.

I was standing at the appointed meeting spot in front of the Robert Gould Shaw memorial, staring at the golden dome of the Massachusetts state house across the street, fiddling with my camera settings while waiting for the Photowalks tour guide to show up. A typical tourist activity, yes. But not quite so typical on a January weekend in New England, which explained why only myself and my brother signed up for today's walk around Beacon Hill.

What had possessed me to suggest taking this tour in such appalling weather anyway? My fascination in exploring historic, charming neighborhoods in Boston, for one, but a "regular" walking tour would suffice for that. What caught my eye on the PhotoWalks website was their emphasis not only on history, but also on providing tips on taking better, more creative pictures. Being an avid traveller who loves to document my trips, in both prose and photos, but being quite unsavvy in the latter as far as photo composition techniques and eschewing fancy camera equipment in favor of an easy-to-use point-and-shoot, a photo walking tour seemed tailor-made for me. In short, I really just wanted to stop tormenting my friends and blog readers with lousy vacation pictures.

Pretty soon, Saba Alhadi, founder of Boston PhotoWalks and our guide for today, arrived and the tour was on! Since we were already conveniently standing in front of it, Saba directed our attention to the Shaw memorial.
After a brief explanation of the main protagonists Captain Robert Shaw and his regiment, the first ever African-American soldiers who saw battle in the civil War, she instructed me where to stand to block out the sunlight, and demonstrating with her own camera (point 'n shoot!), Saba showed a few creative close-up shots that we could take highlighting different parts of the soldiers' and horse's anatomy.

The goal was that instead of taking a standard, boring, flat photo of the entire memorial, our pictures would capture the figures' action and dynamism. Most of the time, this involved finding the correct angle to take the photo from, and remembering standard advice (which she dispensed to amateur me) such as moving in physically closer to the object being photographed instead of using your camera's zoom feature, and foregoing the use of flash in conditions where lighting is sufficient. We repeated this creative photo-taking exercise with the Massachusetts state house, and I was quite pleased with the result (photo at top of article).



We moved on into the Beacon Hill neighborhood proper, with its trademark gas lamps lining the small, narrow streets. The quiet elegance and tranquility of Beacon Hill appealed to me, and I made a mental note to consider the neighborhood if ever I moved to Beantown in the future, quite conveniently ignoring the concept of affordability. Back to Photowalks mode, Beacon Hill is a minefield of photo opportunities, as every salivating tourist knows. Seeing me starting to take a picture of a gas lamp decorated with holiday wreaths, Saba gently suggested slightly tilting the camera to one side for a more creative take on the photo (the left-most among the three small pictures above). Hmmm...why hadn't I thought of that before?



In addition to historical facts about Beacon Hill and Saba's anecdotes about famous writers and residents, what I found most incredibly useful after 1.5 hours of the photo walk (with stops in St. Louisburg Square and the most photographed street in Boston, Acorn St.) were Saba's ideas for photo opportunities that I simply did not notice, such as windows with beautiful reflections of the buildings opposite, door knockers, houses with lovely arched doorways and other unique architectural details, ice particles that had formed, and so on.

Embarrassing to admit, but if I were exploring on my own, most of these details would have escaped me, and my pictures would be much lamer. And I suppose that is what seasoned photographers have that an inept newbie needs to develop - an eye for noticing and appreciating the beauty in mundane objects, then capturing them in images that make them transcend their ordinariness. Quite a mouthful, I know, but that's one of the lessons I learned from this fun and interesting experience, which I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone. Yes, even in the dead cold of a New England winter.

Click here to view the complete album from the Beacon Hill photo walking tour.