Hello from Athens, Greece!

My Europe 2007 trip is almost over now, and a lot has happened…

First stop was Riga. Where’s Riga? It’s the capital of Latvia. Where’s Latvia? Latvia is one of the three Baltic countries. Where are the Baltic countries? OK, stop asking me so many questions, and check out this map:

You could say it’s in the north-eastern corner of Europe – straight to the east of Sweden, and just before Russia. The three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) were all of part of the former Soviet Union, and gained their independence in 1991 right after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Latvians haven’t had it easy in the 20^th century:

“During the periods of Soviet and German occupation, Latvia lost 555,000 people, or more than a third of its population. This is the number who were murdered, killed in battle, sentenced, deported, scattered as refugees, and who disappeared without a trace.”

from the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, 1941-1991

First the Soviets occupied Latvia is 1941. Shortly after, the Nazis came in and ran the place for a few years, until the Soviets eventually prevailed at the end of World War II.

The museum was fascinating and I learned tons about the entire history of Europe. Latvians are struggling economically, and the switch to Western style democracy with mostly capitalism has improved the lives of many, but others faired better under the Soviet system. This is a topic that interests me greatly, but I have so little information about it, I won’t attempt to write any more about it at this time.

So why did I go to Latvia?

Salsa! I was invited to instruct in their big salsa congress there, and like virtually any city in Europe, it has a thriving salsa scene:

I found the above posted in several spots in the metro (subway) system for Riga. Like all European salsa festivals, instructors from all over were invited. Luis Vazquez and Melissa Fernandez were there (Luis, one of the three famed Vazquez brothers, who largely are responsible for putting the LA salsa scene on the world wide Salsa map, has decided to live in Europe for the time being, and is popping up at festivals all over the place. Everywhere I go, I hear that he has either recently been there or is soon coming.)

The organizers did a great job of running the congress, with three nights of parties going till late, and several classes packed with dancers. The festival was run by eight woman, who I think are all in this picture along with one lucky guy (I believe a DJ hired from Holland):

I think my favorite part in going to these congresses is running into people from other places. Some of these people I have seen in other places in the past, and it’s always a blast to run into them in what-should-be-but-really-isn’t unexpected places.

The world keeps shrinking

Of course, the majority of people there were Latvians, but Europeans like to travel to congresses all over the continent (and beyond.) At the congress, I met and/or danced with  people from Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Switzerland, and Austria. This includes a woman from Pakistan who is studying in Geneva, Switzerland, two guys from New York City (one of whom had bought my ReplayerStudio software in the past, and told me he was going to be there), and another American who has been living all over Europe for the last twenty years.  I met a group from Thessaloniki, Greece (Greece’s 2^nd largest city) – the guy comes up to me – Nikos – and says that Giorgos from Athens says hello. Giorgos is actually the guy whose house I am at right now, giving 5 days of private lessons to. I had never met Giorgos before, nor Nikos, but they know each other, and so I got to hear about Giorgos in Athens, from Nikos (who is from Thessaloniki) while in Riga. The world keeps shrinking and shrinking… Another guy comes up to me, Octave, from Sweden, and says, “hey how’s it going!” Well he looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember where. He had to remind me that back in 2000, during my first visit to Sweden, I was hanging out with him and his friend Tony in Tony’s apartment in Stockholm.

A flash from the past

This came from a woman from Finland named Henni. The story starts back in 2000 in Oslo, Norway. I was there teaching workshops, and Henni came all the way from Finland with her partner to attend the classes. Then, about two years later, I was visiting my salsa friend Dennis in New York City. (Anybody remember Dennis Gittens from Denver, Colorado?) Dennis was living in Denver for a few years, hanging out, dancing salsa, but eventually decided to head back to New York for the more intense city life. So I’m visiting him in NYC, and we go out dancing for the evening. There, he introduces me to his dance partner, Henni!  Henni had decided to also move to New York – but from Finland. That was quite a coincidence. Now, five years later, I run into her again in this event in Latvia. “What are you doing here?”, I ask. “Just here for some fun”, she says. “OK, but isn’t it kind of far from New York City?” Turns out she had moved back to Finland a few years ago, and made the short plane flight from Finland to Latvia for the weekend party. The world is getting smaller and smaller.

(RUSSIA)

I’ve always wanted to visit this place, and since I was going to be in Latvia, Russia is only a stone’s throw away (by plane.) Russia’s second largest city, St. Petersburg, was just about a one hour’s ride by plane from Riga. Plus it was going to be the beginning of September – a perfect time to visit. St. Petersburg is up very far north, and the days would still be long, not yet very cold, and just past the rush of tourist season.

Russia isn’t as easy to travel in as many other countries. For starters, unlike many other countries for someone traveling around on an American passport, you can’t just buy a plane ticket and show up at the airport. I had to obtain a visa first. Well, several phone calls later, and after having filled out various forms, FedEx’ing my passport away for a couple of weeks, and over $300 consumed, I had the visa I needed to get into the country.

Another onerous requirement is that every tourist “register” while in Russia. Apparently, wherever you go you must get your visa registered within three days for every place you stay at. Apparently, the police can stop you at any time, and ask to see this document, and if you don’t have it you’d get fined, bribed, or worse (actually probably not worse.)

I had also heard hotels were quite expensive. I’ve been to 40 countries now, and I can always find an affordable hotel. Well, Russia may be the exception. I walked into at least 7 places – many of them are inside quite ugly, rundown buildings. The hotel would have no door front at all. You climb up a couple flights of stairs in a dingy stairwell, and come to the “entrance” of the hotel. You pass through the door, and you enter a much nicer, more modern, clean area. Something obviously remodeled in the last handful of years. Prices – the absolute minimum was $100. Usually $140 to $180.

OK, so I think this must be a pretty nice room. Instead, I’m led down this small hallway, with the doors to each room quite closely spaced apart. I see the room – it’s tiny, tiny! And I heard consistently that the prices for rooms in the capital of the country, Moscow, are about double! A Russian friend of mine, who had been in Moscow on business told me how his 4 star hotel room cost him almost 800 Euros. That’s over $1,000 U.S. Dollars!

Moscow is now number one

As it turns out, Moscow is now rated the most expensive city in the world. St. Petersburg isn’t as bad, but the prices for hotel rooms are enough to quickly kill a solo travelers budget.  Luckily, I discovered something that, for some reason, hasn’t caught on in a big way yet. There are several websites that advertise “apartments” for rent. These are scattered around the city and concentrated in the more popular tourist areas. Anyway, I never stayed in a high priced “sardine” hotel. Instead, I found one of these apartments. The first one, for $130 per night, was ideally located, and was a rather large apartment with a full kitchen, laundry machine, stereo, TV/DVD, computer with an internet connection, printer, home telephone, and even a full-sized tube of toothpaste (which I never used.) In addition, they had books, a dartboard, and board games.

The next place was just $107 per night, and was even bigger. It has two bedrooms, plus a smaller room, and a rather large kitchen. If a group of people were traveling together this could get seriously cheap. I had no idea what to do with all of the space.

The KGB in my apartment

Why anyone would want to stay in a hotel when they can have all of this is beyond me. However, please read on … Part of the $130 deal is getting picked up at the airport and driven to the apartment. But the taxi guy didn’t speak any English. We get to the apartment with all my bags. We go down this back alley way, enter through a big metal door, and climb up this big-time rundown stairwell. Then we come to a big iron door. He puts in key in the hole, turns it, and we go through the door … There are several men in black suits and someone flashes a card that says KGB. The next thing I know, I wake up in a dark and dank prison cell …

OK, just kidding. So we walk through the door and into this very nice apartment. I’m like, “so what now?” Then he hands me his cell phone, and this woman tells me in broken English that she’ll be there in 10 minutes and to wait for her. The taxi guy takes off. Sure enough, the landlord shows up 10 minutes later and she explains everything to me and then everything is fine. She leaves me her cell phone number, and says she’ll meet me back here in three days at 11:00am to have me check out.

No receptionist here

Well, the place was great. But it occurred to me that every time I went outside, I was carrying the only way to all of my stuff – the key they gave me. At first I forget to take her phone number with me. And even if I had it, and I had been mugged and lost everything in my pocket, I would have dug quite a deep hole for myself. I wouldn’t be able to get into the place, wouldn’t so easily find the apartment “landlords”, and wouldn’t have a dime on me. I got smarter the next time. I had a cell phone with the numbers. I collected some numbers of some local people who I became friends with, and remembered the name of the business that rented the apartments. However, getting mugged might still keep me out of the streets for the entire night or more. If one stays at a regular hotel, you can at least go there and go right to the receptionist who would make you feel like s/he is saving your life.

Anyway, travel (as well as life in general) is full of risks, and that is a risk I’m willing to take. Although I have to say, staying in a private apartment instead of a public hotel the first couple of days has more risks. And remembering to have a few numbers on you (separate from your wallet and cell phone) is probably well warranted.

Cell Phone Heaven

It’s getting ridiculously easy these days to have cell phone service when traveling from country to country. I own an unlocked GSM phone. Now, soon after arriving to a new country, I buy a SIM card. A SIM card is a little chip you buy and then place inside your cell phone. It defines your telephone number and how much time you have remaining on your card (before you have to “recharge” it with more minutes.) Anyway, it’s getting easier and easier each year. These days, you can walk right into a cell phone store, and immediately purchase such a SIM card. In some countries you can just buy one right from a kiosk – as simple as purchasing a bottle of water. Prices?: Latvia - $4, Russia - $5, Greece - $7. This gets me a local telephone number and some minutes. The rate for calling per minute is usually pretty high, but, as in all of Europe, receiving calls is totally free.

“Where’s the English?!”

I was somewhat shocked to realize that Russia has the fewest English speakers of anywhere I have ever been. For the older generation, it makes sense that they wouldn’t speak English, but I did expect it of the younger generation. However, that was not often the case. In addition, Russians use a different alphabet called Cyrillic, and only mildly resembles our Latin alphabet.

Here’s an example:

Санкт-Петербу́рг

What’s that? There’s where I was! That’s “Saint Petersburg” in Russian. When you can’t even read a sign that says where you are, life can get difficult.

Of course, not speaking the local language puts you at a disadvantage, but not being even able to read stuff (even if you don’t understand it), makes a big difference.

For example, when I go to a local Russian restaurant and the entire menu is in Russian and nobody speaks English, you might not end up eating the exact cuisine of your choice!

When, I go through the Metro (subway) or on a bus route, and you just see a bunch of funny characters, you can literally get lost.

So, my little “reading and getting around lifeline” became to at least learn the alphabet:

After I while, I could at least read some simple stuff. Sometimes, the context helps you out:

To be continued …