Greencaviar Travel

My Baltic Adventure Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church We were on an offshore excursion in Estonia, heading to the Song Festival Grounds (Lauluvaljak) – the largest open-air entertainment and music festival grounds in the Baltic. As we passed the coastal district of Pirita, our guide pointed to the bay and said, "It's the Gulf of Finland. You can take a boat to Helsinki from here." Helsinki is only 80 kilometers away and shares the Gulf of Finland with Estonia. Tallinn, the largest city and capital of Estonia is on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland.  Our guide told us a little bit of history of Estonia and Finland under Soviet rules for decades and the contrasts between the two countries post-Soviet Union. Although close in proximity, Helsinki, the capital of Finland has remained subdued and Scandinavian, while Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has transformed itself into a tourist mecca and has adapted a Western European attitude.  Tallinn was named...

My Baltic Adventure Our cruise ship was sailing smoothly through the Baltic Sea along the coast of Sweden. I could tell that we were not that far from shore for I saw under the blue skies miles and miles of greenery dotted by a gray structure – a castle, perhaps - and small houses painted in red, something different from what I’d seen in my previous travels. It was quite charming. As we reached Stockholm, the sky became grey and brooding.  It was not charming anymore. Dark clouds hovered above the cityscape consisting of modern Scandinavian buildings juxtaposed with medieval architecture. It looked like a European city, not necessarily the IKEA picture of Stockholm, but the European city of a Kieslowski or a Fincher movie. Coincidentally, Stockholm was one of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” movie locations. After hearing from the ship location guide that Stockholm is a cosmopolitan and diverse city, and after seeing the cityscape with buildings that seemed to flo...

My stay in Copenhagen was part of my Baltic Adventure. I booked my flight three days prior to sailing the Baltic but did not book my hotel at the same time. When it was time to book my hotel, I was surprised at the hotel rates going for $450.00 - $700.00 per night. Unfortunately, I could not use my Starwood Hotel points because the company has zero property in Copenhagen. My other option was to stay at a hostel and share a room with four strangers or stay outside the city. I opted for the later. On my first day in Copenhagen, I thought I would take it easy and spend the day just visiting one site. I made plans on going to the Kronborg Castle, the home of Shakespeare Hamlet. When I asked for direction from the hotel reception desk, the clerk looked at his google map app and printed a copy of the direction complete with the number of train stops and estimated time to my destination. The trip would have taken 1 hour by train to Helsingør. But after three metro stops, I changed my mi...

I cannot be in Milan and not see Leonardo Da Vinci's “The Last Supper.” So I set aside a day to do the art/museum hopping thing. Although some familiar tour operators offered something called “The Davinci Tour” with guaranteed tickets to see the “Last Supper” for 79 euros, I didn’t want to join a tour group and be rushed; I wanted to enjoy and savor Leonardo’s masterpiece. So the next day, I headed into the town center and looked for the Church of Santa Maria Delle Grazie. I hopped on the usual Metro yellow line from my hotel without studying the metro map that the concierge handed me. I figured the metro was easy and assumed that everybody in Milan would know where the famous painting was. I asked a fellow passenger, where the stop for the Maria Delle Grazie Church and she told me it was the next station which happened to be her stop. As we emerged from the metro, she continued to give me direction to the church. As it turned out,  it was not the church I was looking for. ...

I could have spent a week hiking in Cinque Terre , but my plans to travel the Mediterranean got changed because of an unforeseen circumstance. Today, I finally got around to spending a day in Cinque Terre . And it was one very hectic day. Cinque Terre or Five Lands as the name implies, consists of five villages: Portovenere, Riomaggiore, Vernazza, Manarola and Monterosso Al Mare.  They're hidden in tiny coves along the craggy stretch of the Liguria coastline. Because of very high cliffs and rugged terrain, Cinque Terre was inaccessible and had been isolated and virtually unknown to outsiders for centuries.  Today, Cinque Terre is one of the most visited places in Italy. Like most people, Cinque Terre has been on my travel bucket list for years. Pictures of Cinque Terre are among the most posted on social media or popular on Instagram.  And for good reason: Cinque Terre has the most gorgeous scenic landscape, with century old churches and multi-colored d...

Italy is one of the most visited countries in the world and visiting some of the popular tourist sites is sometimes a turnoff because of the crowd and the waiting in line.   However, my visit to the hills of Tuscany was the most pleasant and enjoyable.  It was not only the eating and wine sniffing, swirling and tasting part of this wine-hopping excursion that gave me a full sensory experience, but the drive along the winding country road amid a postcard-perfect landscape unfolding before me was serendipitous. It was a riot of green. The scenery confirmed what the flight attendant told me about the weather in Europe during my flight to Italy, “spring arrives late in Western Europe this year.”         Passing the Chianti region, we headed to the wine town of Montepulciano and hiked up the highest hill town in Tuscany at 2,000 feet above the Val di Chiana.   We stopped for a photo-op of the valley below us. The views extend into the lake and th...

On my previous visit to Rome, I was with a tour group and got separated with the group while visiting the Sistine Chapel, so I was rushed and not able to appreciate what we came for to see.   This time I’m staying at my high school friend’s apartment in the northern part of Rome so I’m able to experience the true exuberance of life in this Italian capital:   the swirling traffic, the metro, the new bus route caused by a road closure due to a sinkhole, the home-cooked meals, two-hour lunches and very late dinners. However, it does not mean that as a tourist you would not be able to enjoy and get the feel of the city.   You just have to plan your visit because Rome, with its extraordinary museums and millennia of history, can be overwhelming.     So, when my friend asked why I wanted to go to the Vatican museum again, my answer was because I was rushed the last time.   So let me start with the museums. MUSEUMS When in Rome expect to find the...