We had originally planned to visit Poland back in 2022 as part of our Finland trip, but had to change our plans due to covid restrictions. With the geopolitical situation in that part of the world, we decided to go ahead and visit Poland and the Baltic countries this year when they are still relatively safe and stable, and also to check off few more countries in Europe on our bucket list.
After 24 hours in Vilnius, it was time to continue our backpacking journey to our next destination. Another early morning workout with a 20 minutes uphill walk to the bus station. P.S. The support for Ukraine is evident everywhere in Baltics.
Arrived Vilnius bus station at 8.30am for our 9am bus from Vilnius to Riga. Another day, another Lux Express bus. :) Today it's a 4hr 15min ride from Vilnius to Riga.
We booked our Lux Express bus tickets from Vilnius to Riga online on Feb 28 (about 3 months before), and was able to get it at a good price of EUR 9.90 ($10.50) per person.
Lux Express bus is very comfortable and clean. There is a power outlet for each seat, a personal entertainment screen, toilet onboard, free WIFI, and free coffee/tea. These bus rides were actually good for my vlog productivity as I managed to finish editing a few videos on the bus rides.
The Baltic countries are all part of Schengen so I wasn't expecting to have to 'cross a border'. We didn't go through any checks when we were crossing the border from Poland to Lithuania, but as we were crossing the border into Latvia, two border patrol came onboard to check everyone's documents They took quite awhile to look through my passport and asked where I entered the Schengen from. I actually forgot that my first entry point was Helsinki and said Gdansk instead. Luckily, they found the entry stamp on my passport eventually...lol!
Random buildings as we entered Riga.
Hello Latvia...country #49! We arrived Riga bus station on time at 1.15pm and it was time for another workout with a 20 minutes walk from the bus station to our hotel. We definitely put our backpacks to good use on this trip.
Stayed at Hotel Justus for 1-night in Riga. We chose this hotel because of it's location in Old Town.
Booked this hotel for $107 using our Capital One $300 travel credit. It could have been $30 cheaper but I was too lazy to change the booking.
According to Google, this is a 4-star boutique hotel but what do you think? The brickwall, wallpaper, and carpets definitely look very 'historic'...lol! We knew all these when we booked but still chose it because of the location, provides free breakfast, and the reviews are good.
Btw, we were not impressed by this hotel at all. Not only was the bed not comfortable, the internet and air-con weren't working when we were there. =.=
Explanation on the quirky design of the hotel... The immaculate renovation of the historical building was completed by April 2009, and so today the authentic facade conceals 45 cosy rooms uniquely designed to embrace the charm of genuine brickwork combined with fascinating art objects, antique as well as contemporary.
It was already 2.30pm by the time we dropped our luggage and changed. Time to explore the quaint little cobblestone streets of Riga Old Town.
All the main landmarks in Riga were within a short 5 minutes walk from our hotel
Our first stop was the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Hubby got an audio guide and was reading everything in the museum. We spent 2 hours in this museum and my favorite thing in the museum was any chair I could find...lol!
I may have gotten A1 in SPM Sejarah (History) but I really don't remember what I learnt. I don't think we learnt much about the history of this part of the world in school.
The Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) only restored their independence in 1990, which wasn't that long ago. This explains their strong support for Ukraine.
It started raining when we left the museum. What happened to the blue skies earlier? Thankfully our hotel was close by so we went back to grab our rain jackets and umbrella. We attempted to continue our sightseeing in Riga but it started pouring.
We decided to have early dinner at a nearby restaurnat first while we wait for the rain to stop. We had originally picked out another restaurant (Lido) but had to make do with this restaurant, Liberia. Our meal costs EUR 41.90 ($46) but the food was just ok.
Thankfully the rain stopped after we finished dinner and we were able to resume sightseeing at 6.30pm.
The message is loud and clear in front of the Russian Embassy in Latvia. The Latvians put that big red poster there so the Russian Ambassador will see it every time he comes in/out of the embassy.
Albert Street (Art Nouveau Street) - Before World War I, Riga was an important city thanks to its strategic position and enjoyed raipd economic growth. It was at this time that most of the Art Nouveau style buildings were built in this city. And it is still today the city that has the most important concentration of this style of construction in the world.
The sun sets quite late here and it was still pretty bright at 7.15pm. It started drizzling again so we decided to wrap up our sightseeing at the Riga Dome Square and head back to the hotel.
Glad we got back just in time before it started pouring again. As much as I like sunny days for photos, I was actually glad we had the rain to cool down the room because we'd be 'cooking' all night with the non-functioning air-con in our hotel room.
30 May 2024 (Thurs): Riga - Tallinn
Free breakfast at Hotel Justus
Checked out of our hotel at 8.30am and it was time for our morning workout with a 15 minute walk to the bus station. P.S. This trip was also a fitness training...lol!!
We had originally planned to visit Poland back in 2022 as part of our Finland trip, but had to change our plans due to covid restrictions. With the geopolitical situation in that part of the world, we decided to go ahead and visit Poland and the Baltic countries this year when they are still relatively safe and stable, and also to check off few more countries in Europe on our bucket list.
After spending 4 days hopping around 4 cities in Poland, it was time to continue our journey to the next country...Lithuania! Traveling around Poland was very easy by train, but we found out that traveling between countries in this part of Europe is not as convenient by train. As such, we opted to travel by bus from Warsaw to Vilnius.
We got to the bus stop 20 minutes earlier as we weren't sure where to wait for the bus. Thankfully, our booking confirmation had a map to help us find the bus stop which was adjacent to Warsaw Central station. The bus arrived on time at 12am, and we only had to show our printed confirmation to the bus driver.
We booked our Lux Express bus tickets from Warsaw to Vilnius online on Feb 20 (about 3 months before) so we were able to get it at a good price of EUR 9.90 ($10.50) per person.
The bus was a 2-2 seating and it was clean and nice. There is a power outlet for each seat, a personal entertainment screen, toilet onboard, free WIFI, and free coffee/tea. As much as I like to be strategic when selecting airplane seats, I made the mistake of not selecting our seats strategically for this 8-hour overnight bus ride. I should have selected one aisle and one window seat in 2 different rows for each of us to increase the chances of us getting 2 seats for each of us. The bus was about 75% full.
Arrived Vilnius bus station at 8.30am. Hello Lithuania...country #48! Our morning workout began with a 20 minutes walk from the bus station to our hotel, with hip-hop Einstein cheering us on.
Arrived our hotel, Hotel Pacai Vilnius at 9am.
Booked our 1-night stay at this 5-star hotel with a Marriott 35K Free Nigth Certificate from our cc. The Standard room would have cost $249 per night. Not that we would pay o much for a hotel but cc has definiely enabled us to stay in facny places that we wouldn't normally stay.
Lobby & hotel restaurant
Glad we were able to check in early at 9am and got a free upgrade to a Deluxe room. The ceiling is very high and the design looks classy.
Nespresso and Milton Brown toiletries were complimentary.
After lazing around the hotel and freshening up, we were ready to head out and explore Vilnius at 11am.
We felt like we were in a museum instead of a hotel. This hotel is set in a Baroque palace dating back to 1677. Famouns for being the most magnificent mansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, this mansion lived through the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the rule of Russion czars, Napolean's entrance to Vilnius, and the Soviet before it was reborn in 2018.
Vilnius old town is comparatively less crowded as compared to the old towns in Poland. There were many one-way cobblestone streets.
The bohemic Republic of Uzupis. As if Lithuania is not small enough, the people in Uzupis consider themselves as a separate 'self proclaimed' republic and the bohemian heart of the city. They even have their own president, currency, flag, army (around 11 men), and Constitution, which consists of 39 articles that tell you the rights of the place, such as everyone has the right to be happy, and a dog has the right to be a dog. It is even translated into multiple languages.
St. Anne's church was built in the Gothic style and hasn't changed for over 500 years.
Interior of St. Anne's church
In our attempt to get to our next stop, Google navigated us through some random paths and we ended up walking through Bernadiny Sodas park, and a hike we weren't prepared for.
I didn't know that the Three Crosses Monument is actually located on a hill. This monument is not only a symbol of religious importance but also symbolizes the nation’s rise up against the Soviets.
Panoramic view of Vilnius city from the monument. Worth the short hike.
Completed our unplanned hike and took a quick break under the shade in front of Lithuania National Museum.
Vilnius Cathedral holds immense historical and cultural significance, making it a true gem of Lithuania. With its stunning architectural design and grandeur, the cathedral stands as a symbol of the country’s rich heritage. Spot what I did with the sun in the photo. :P
Cathedral Square is the main square of Vilnius and is surrounded by several significant buildings, including Vilnius Cathedral and the Gediminas Tower.It serves as a gathering place for locals and tourists alike, with its open space and beautiful architecture creating a sense of grandeur and tranquility.
Support for Ukraine can be seen everywhere in the Baltics. See the blue & yellow flags in front of the Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania.
Cute little street next to our hotel
Wrapped up our 2.5 hours sightseeing of Vilnius at 1.30pm at Town Hall Square.
Spent the rest of the day chilling in the hotel. We didn't even go out for lunch or dinner as we were trying to deplete the Mountain House meals we brought. :) Beautiful sunset and view of the hotel's courtyard from our room.
We had originally planned to visit Poland back in 2022 as part of our Finland trip, but had to change our plans due to covid restrictions. With the geopolitical situation in that part of the world, we decided to go ahead and visit Poland and the Baltic countries this year while it is still relatively safe and stable, and also to check off few more countries in Europe on our bucket list.
After spending a day in Warsaw, it was time continue backpacking to our next city on this trip. It was an early morning start at 4.30am as we've got to catch our 5.36am train. We don't get free breakfast at Intercontinental but the hotel had some pastries and coffee at the lobby for the early birds so we grabbed some to-go for the train ride.
Early morning 'workout' walking 6 minutes with 10kg on my back and 5kg in front.
Arrived Warsaw Central train station at 5.05am with 30 minutes to spare. All announcements at the train station and in the trains were in Polish only. Glad we planned everything out in advance.
Our train IC13100 arrived on time for the 5.36am departure. The 2hr 40 min journey was smooth. We had pastries and vitamin C for light breakfast.
We booked our PKP intercity train tickets from Warsaw to Krakow online on Apr 29 (about a month before) when the schedule opened so we were able to get it at a good price of PLN 74.80 ($19) for 2.
Arried Krakow Glowny station on time at 8.15am. We decided to take an Uber to the hotel as it was too far to walk with our backpacks. It took awhile for us to figure out the Uber driver pickup location in the train station. I asked a few people who seemed to be local but none of them knew where the 'rooftop parking deck' was. =.=
I called the Uber driver and he didn't seem to speak English so I randomly asked a Polish guy who was walking by if he could help talk to the Uber driver to tell him where we were waiting. The guy was kind enough to talk to the driver and pointed us to the direction to wait for the driver. Thankfully, the driver found us.
Arrived our hotel, Sheraton Grand Krakow, at 8.50am but our room wasn't ready yet. Even though the location for this hotel wasn't as convenient, I opted for this hotel because we needed a hotel that would allow early check-in and late check-out. I was pretty certain that Sheraton would accommodate this, especially with my Marriott Titanium status. :)
Since our room wasn't ready yet, we planned to just check out the lounge and see if there was anything to eat before heading out for sightseeing. However, as we were sitting in the lobby repacking our stuffs to keep with the concierge, the staff who checked us in came over and told us that we could have free breakfast at the restaurant. Even though I get free breakfast with my status, I wasn't expeting it on check-in day so this was a good surprise!
Made a quick stop at the Sheraton Club lounge, which I was able to access with my status.
Only non-alcoholic drinks and some snacks were served in the lounge during the day.
Took an Uber back to Krakow main station to catch the train to Osweicim.
The 1-hour train ride from Krakow Glowny to Oswiecim costs PLN 30 ($7.70) for the 2 of us. This train is operated by Koleje Malopolskie, a local train. No assigned seats but there were plenty of seats. Oswiecim station is the nearest train station to Auschwitz. We arrived Oswiecim station at 11.45am with plenty of time to spare before our 1pm tour of Auschwitz.
It was possible to reach Auschwitz museum by a special "M" bus conncting the station with the main entrance of the museum and the ride takes only 5 minutes. However, since we had so much time to spare, we decided to walk 25 minutes (2km) to the museum.
Arrived the museum at 12.15pm but had to wait about 15 minutes as we could only go in 30 minutes before our scheduled tour. Glad we bought our tickets online early enough because the spots were limited for each tour and they do sell out. Our tickets cost PLN220 ($55.50) for the 2 of us.
After a quick security check, we collected the sticker for our English tour (there were many tours for different languages) and waited for our tour guide to call out the 1pm English tour.
Met our tour guide for the 1pm English tour and collected our audio devices before starting the tour. Benefit of using the audio device, we could walk at the back of the group and still hear our tour guide.
Auschwitz concentration camp was the largest concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Poland during World War II and the Holocaust. Over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives here.
We walked through the gate with the slogan 'Arbeit macht frei' which translates to 'Work makes you free'. All prisoners were forced to work, which killed many of them. Initially, the work was used solely as a tool of terror, which had no purpose other than to exhaust the workers. They were forced to build the camps themselves. With no tools or machines, they did everything with their hands as the overseers beat and terrorized them.
Dramatic scenes of the incoming transports during the selection process on the loading platform. Columns of women and children on their way to the gas chambers...marching to their deaths. :(
It's hard to imagine what these people went through, but Korean Englishman's episode of the Korea Navy Gas Chamber training gave us a glimpse of how it felt like being in a gas chamber.
Piles of luggages, shoes, and possessions left behind by those exterminated in the gas chambers.
For those who were not sent to the gas chambers, they were held as prisoners in bad living conditions, and most of them were killed within a few months.
Men who had been sentenced to be shot at the "Death Wall" stripped in this room. It happened that death penalty was also executed here.
The gas chamber and crematorium. From August 1940 until July 1943, this building served as a crematorium to incinerate the bodies of deceased or murdered camp's prisoners.
We finished the first part of our tour at 2.30pm. We were trying to beat the rain so we hopped on the 2.40pm shuttle to go over to another part of the concentration camp - Birkenau.
Arrived Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp II at 2.50pm for our 2nd part of the tour. Our tour guide tried to speed up the tour as it was going to rain and there wasn't much shelter in this area.
Birkenau was the largest of the more than 40 camps and sub-camps that made up the Auschwitz complex. The majority (about 90%) of the victims of Auschwitz Concentraion Camp died in Birkenau. This means approximately a million people. The majority, more than 9 out of every 10, were Jews.
Our group did a pretty good job walking fast and keeping up with our tour guide. Our guide completed the rest of our tour here as it started raining outside. A lot of buildings on the other side of the camp were destroyed already but this brick barrack that we were in is one of the original ones.
We were free to walk around the area ourselves after the guided tour ended, but we decided to wrap up our tour at 3.45pm as it was raining and took the shuttle back to camp 1.
We got back to camp 1 around 4pm and literally ran 2km to Oswiecim train station to catch the 4.18pm train back to Krakow as we didn't want to wait another hour for the next train at 5.32pm.
Made it back to our hotel at 6pm and got the keys to our room 201 and the hotel staff had already brought our bags to the room. There was also a plate of desserts in the room for us. :)
Our room for 1 night in Krakow - Grand Deluxe Suite with Wawel Castle and Vistula River View.
Booked this room with my Marriott 40K Free Night Certificate and also used one of my Marriott NIghly Upgrade Awards for this huge suite that costs $739/night.
View of Wawel Castle and Vistula River from our suite.
The lounge had complimentary Happy Hour from 6-8pm. We were impressed by the food options.
Drink options were pretty good too.
The food served in the lounge was good enough for our dinner. :)
27 May 2024 (Mon): Krakow - Warsaw
Complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel before starting day 4 of our trip.
Walked to the bus stop near our hotel to catch bus 304 to Wieliczka Salt Mine at 8.30am. The public transport system in Poland was good and easy to use. There was a ticket machine on the bus and we were able to buy the bus ticket using credit card on the bus. The cost of this 25 minutes bus ride wasr PLN6 ($1.50) per person.
Our itinerary for the morning was visiting Wieliczka Salt Mine, a World Heritage Site. We bought our tickets online for PLN 268 ($68) for the 2 of us and booked the 9.30am English tour.
Wieliczka is a bizarre, 700-year old, underground salt mine, with a mind-blowing size of 300kms! Via a 2-hour tour, we visited enormous chapels carved out of the rock, chambers, and clear lakes!
The start of our tour was to walk down an endless flight of stairs to get to level 1 - 64 meters deep.
We walked through many corridors and stairs like these during the tour. It was hard to imagine how big this salt mine was because our tour only took us below the ground to 135 meters for a length of 3kms, which is just 1% of the entire size of the mine!
Impressive carvings all around the salt mine.
It was like a whole different world undergroud. I must say the mine was very well maintained.
This was one of the coolest chambers in the salt mine.
There was even a banquet hall in the salt mine where people can organize events here.
Finished our salt mine tour at 12pm and took the 12.40pm train back to Krakow city.
Made it back to Krakow train station at 1pm. Bought some pretzels before continuing our sightseeing around Krakow Old Town.
Weather was pretty but it was quite hot.
Krakow Barbican - defense gateway from 1490s, once linked to the city walls.
St. Florian Gate - Medieval Gothic gate tower dating from the 14th century & adjoining the city's fortified walls.
Took some photos at the Old Town Main Square. This was our third Old Town on this trip and definitely getting the 'same same but different' vibes.
Walked 30 minutes from Krakow Old Town back to our hotel, and passed by this park
Final sightseeing stop in Krakow at Wawel Castle, which was located next to our hotel. It was definitely field trip season there. We saw so many student groups.
Made it back to our hotel at 2.30pm with 1.5 hours to pack and shower before checking out at 4pm. Our train to Warsaw wasn't until 7pm so we asked the hotel if we could still hang out at the lounge until about 6pm and they were kind enough to give us access to the lounge even after checkout.
The lounge staff was also nice enough to get the Happy Hour started few minutes earlier so we were able to grab dinner (and champagne) at the lounge before leaving at 6.15pm.
Time to continue our journey to the next stop. We finally figured out where all the Ubers were dropping off and picking up people.
Back in Krakow Main Station to catch our train at 7.05pm back to Warsaw.
We booked our PKP intercity train tickets from Krakow to Warsaw online on Apr 29 (about a month before) when the schedule opened so we were able to get it at a good price of PLN 142 ($35) for 2.
This EIP train was supposed to be slightly nicer than the 2 earlier train rides we had but the overhead compartment was smaller so our backpacks had to be stored in the luggage rack. Beautiful sunset on our 2.5 hours journey. After traveling around Poland the past 4 days, we can confidently say that the public transportation in Poland is very good, convenient, and cheap.
Arrived Warsaw Central station at 9.30pm and we had 2.5 hours to wait here until our 12am overnight bus to our next country, Lithuania. We found this nice spot in the station to hangout. Not that it wasn't safe but since we were in the public area, we were definitely a bit more cautious of our surroundings. It did make me feel a bit safer seeing 2 police/security walking around watching.
