Scandinavia / Baltic Afterword

1. You can definitely get around with no problem using English in Scandinavia even though they all have their own languages. Swedish (and Danish) are pretty similar to German so if you know some German, you can sometimes relate. Finnish is always the odd one, as is the country itself. (Bless them!) We didn’t have much problem in Tallinn with English either though you gotta be prepared that shopkeepers in the kiosks usually don’t speak English. In Riga, I’ll have to say its 50-50. Even in the Old Town or city centre… don’t expect they speak English, especially older people. The younger generations are often ok though. It’s quite a funny experience now that I come to think of it - that you can understand absolutely nothing on the streets in any one of the places we’ve been to. We’ve become illiterates. Now who says English is an international language?!
   
   
2. Euro is a no go, whether in Scandinavia (apart from Finland of course) or the Baltics. In Tallinn’s Old Town, about 90% would take Euro, apart from a few street hawkers. It might be helpful to have some spare Estonian Kroons just to be sure. But you might just get by with Euro there. Riga? Absolutely not. I haven’t seen anywhere in the whole city that takes Euro. And since Latvian Lats are not exactly the most popular currencies in the world, you might need to exchange it in some bank or exchange shop. I would imagine souvenir shops and bigger restaurants in Sweden and Denmark to take Euros, but the conversion rate would probably be hugely inflated. So it would be better to have the respective currencies ready or otherwise rely on your plastics (which I did especially in Sweden when I ran out of cash).
   
3. Our trip this time was literally flooded with daily lattes and hot chocolates. The late Sep/early Oct weather was not exactly warm. What’s better than enjoying a cuppa in a nice cosy café to keep yourself warmer? I don’t think I have ever intensively had hot choc every day for 3 weeks in a row. And sometimes even more than one in a day! (Hopefully not gonna be reflected on my weight! LOL) Gaz has become the latte expert and me the hot choc expert. He came to the conclusion that the best latte came from a little bar/cafe in Riga (where we only went out of our desperation for the free WIFI available) I haven’t made up my mind for the best hot choc mainly becos I didn’t pay too much attention. But the one in a Helsinki café called “Java” was quite nice. Another one served in a tiny back alley café near the Tallinn City Museum tasted good too.
    
4. After the whole trip, I went through googlemap again to re-learn all the names of the sights/places we’ve been to. Reading maps is a sign of masculinity – or so I found out! Never doubt a guy’s map-reading skills even though you’re sure he’s wrong and don’t ever try to offer to take a look at the map even when you’re lost. Since I wasn’t the one reading the maps during our journey, I only have a vague orientation of the cities we visited. But it’s really fun to be able to point at places on the googlemap and think “been there, done that!”
   
   
   
   
   That’s a wrap - the trip of my life so far :) Not really possible to put down every single thing we've been through, but the memory stays - in my head :)