Travels With Jim and Rita
Discussing the challenges, rewards, and drawbacks of living overseas. Follow our decision to sell our home and live abroad until the housing market adjusts. Information for the would-be expat, digital nomad, roving retiree, or just plain traveler. Host Jim Santos is a published travel writer with over 200 articles and seven books (jimsantos.net). He and his wife Rita lived in Ecuador for 6 years, and are currently test-driving the roving retirement lifestyle. Jim is also the host of the popular "International Living Podcast".
Travels With Jim and Rita
Episode 39: Discovering Hidden Gems and Coping with Surprises in the Baltics
What do cobblestone streets, ornate architecture, and a surprise health scare have in common? They're all part of our unpredictable adventure through Eastern Europe! Join us, Jim and Rita, as we recount our travels from Warsaw to Vilnius and Riga. Our journey took an unexpected turn with a health challenge in Riga, but it didn't stop us from first exploring the city's vibrant history and culture. From the charming old towns and picturesque landscapes to the fascinating stories behind landmarks like Riga's House of the Black Heads, this episode is packed with unforgettable moments and insights. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just dreaming of your next trip, our stories offer a blend of inspiration, humor, and a reminder that travel is as much about the journey as it is about the destination.
As we wrap up our holiday travels, we're excited to share our progress on establishing our U.S. home base while balancing our health and travel aspirations. Stay connected with us through our blog, YouTube channel, and Instagram for more detailed accounts and visuals of our adventures. Plus, we've got our books and audiobooks available for those who want to dive even deeper into our travel tales. Engage with us, share your own travel stories, and let's explore the world together. Whether you're tuning in for the scenic landscapes, cultural insights, or just a bit of travel escapism, there's something here for everyone.
Youtube Cello Video: https://youtu.be/5F_mkdMHE6U
Vilnius Photos: https://www.jimsantosbooks.com/page/photos-6/
Riga Photos: https://www.jimsantosbooks.com/page/photos-7/
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2292506/supporters/new
https://www.jimsantosbooks.com
http://jimsantos.net
https://www.instagram.com/jimsantosblog
https://www.youtube.com/@jimsantos508
jim@jimsantosbooks.com
Welcome to Travels with Jim and Rita. I'm your host, jim Santos, along with my wife, rita, and welcome to the second season of our podcast. In the first season, we set in motion our crazy plan to outfox the real estate market in the US and actually increased our retirement nest egg by selling our home and car and spending the next three years or so living abroad and exploring the world. Now that plan is in disarray as I develop pancreatitis in Latvia, necessitating a return to the US for further treatment and surgery. Join us now as we adjust our goals and try to salvage our travel plans. Hello everybody, and welcome back to Travels with Jim and Rita. Rita and I are making progress on getting our home base set up so we can start traveling again, but it is slow going. We do have a major breakthrough, though, as work on replacing the floor is finished up and painting is just about done, so that means, tentatively, we may be able to move in by New Year's. Now, before we begin, I want to thank those of you who responded to our special holiday episode and answer the most often questions. Yes, that was a true story and yes, the help desk at the Senate was just as politically incorrect as I described it. Actually, I held back a bit, and if I ever get around to finishing the book about my time in the US Senate, you'll hear about it. Then, all right time to wrap up our overview of our truncated attempt to travel the world for a few years.
Speaker 1:A brief recap after selling our home of six years in the Hardin Valley area of Knoxville, we set out on our quest. After five weeks in Mexico and pictures of that visit will be up on the website jimsantosbookscom soon we took some time to visit family and friends before taking off once again, this time for Europe. Our plan was to visit some sites in Eastern Europe, take a swing through the Nordic countries and shoot back to Las Vegas for an International Living Conference, before crossing the Atlantic again, this time starting off in the UK. In previous episodes we talked about our stays in Berlin, prague, budapest, krakow and Warsaw, and today we'll cover what turned out to be the final two cities before our plans and my pancreas blew up Vilnius, lithuania and Riga, latvia. As you may recall, since Budapest, we had been traveling by bus, using the very convenient and affordable FlixBus system.
Speaker 1:When we were first making our travel plans months earlier, we were planning on going from Warsaw directly to Riga in Latvia, and then to Tallinn, estonia, and across the Baltic by ferry to Helsinki and so on. But when we looked at our handy Flixbus app, we found that the Warsaw-Riga trip, while economical at about $32 a person would take over 12 hours and we'd arrive after dark. Not sure we wanted to spend 12 hours on a bus, no matter how comfortable. We decided to see if we could break the trip up into two shorter legs. Looking at a map we decided to see about Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, about which we knew absolutely nothing. A Flixbus told us we could get from Warsaw to Vilnius in just over eight hours and then on to Riga in four. A quick check on Airbnb showed us we could find a very affordable place in a good location in Vilnius, so we decided to spend a few days there. Now, rita, I think it's safe to say that, looking back, vilnius was a pleasant surprise and we could have stayed longer.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, because our Airbnb was right in the Old Town Center and we could walk just to anything, any site that was available there, so it was a wonderful experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now first about that eight-hour bus trip. It was actually pretty pleasant. We saw some beautiful parts of Poland along the way.
Speaker 2:Actually I didn't even realize it was eight hours. We did a couple of stops, rest stops, and people could get something to eat and use the facilities that were there.
Speaker 1:Yes, they do make for a pretty pleasant bus trip, but I still think eight hours is pretty much my limit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, unless it was a ferry or something like that, where you could really get up and move around. The bus was comfortable and we certainly absolutely saw some beautiful scenery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Poland was very impressive.
Speaker 2:Very, very Wow, Unbelievable. Same with Lithuania and Latvia too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of farmland in all three countries.
Speaker 2:Yes, well taken care of Beautiful farmland.
Speaker 1:Yes, Now you mentioned our Airbnb, farmland. Yes, now you mentioned our Airbnb Once again. We're in a courtyard right off the main square in City Hall, and near convenience stores which, oddly enough, all the convenience stores seem to be underground.
Speaker 2:Right, they were. That was the first time we experienced that. Really yeah it was interesting. You had the main entrance on the road, but you go in and then there'd be steps down next to stone walls, I guess they really wanted it to be authentic old town, you know. So that makes sense when you think about it.
Speaker 1:Now, Airbnb was a little bit dated. We did notice some cracks on the walls in some places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of worried about that. After going through the earthquake in Ecuador I thought, hmm, what's happening here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it did have plenty of room and plenty of windows. We were able to let the breeze in and actually be very comfortable there.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, it was pleasant.
Speaker 1:We had our first dinner shortly after moving our stuff in at a nice little corner restaurant. Got to watch the birds fighting over the crumbs, yeah. And then took our first walk down the streets in Vilnius Beautiful cobblestone streets, cobblestone and brick, lots of flowers and lots of colorful balloons and decorations all around.
Speaker 2:All the storefronts were very. They were just really innovatively decorated.
Speaker 1:One of the places I really enjoyed was a biscuit shop that was decorated with giant flowers and cookies and macarons.
Speaker 2:That was nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the next day then we went out and looked around at the old city wall area, which was impressive. We didn't see any inside any buildings, but if you look at the pictures on our website, there's just these huge brick walls. That was obviously at one time a major fortress. One of the neighborhoods that we looked up and were told that we should check out was called the Uzupis neighborhood, kind of a bohemian area. A lot of artwork and wall murals.
Speaker 2:Right, that was interesting.
Speaker 1:Basically on the side of a hill too. Oh yeah, definitely on the side of a hill. Basically on the side of a hill too. Oh yeah, after crossing a river down near a park area. The rest of our tour of Azupis was basically uphill. Right at the edge of Azupis and Old Town is a beautiful brick church and monastery called St Anne's. I really enjoyed looking around in there, particularly in the monastery, looking around in there, particularly in the monastery, where there were. Obviously the walls had one time been very colorful and painted with all kinds of scenes from the Bible and things like that, but now they were all very much faded.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think they're in the process of trying to renovate some of that as well. It also had one of the more beautiful pipe organs that we've seen in some of these churches and that had been fun for me and all of the churches we went into. It seemed like everyone was trying to up everyone else on their pipe organ game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and then a lot of the smaller churches. That was the most magnificent part of the church, rather than the altar or the choir area, right.
Speaker 1:One of the days there, we also decided to take a little walk through a park. And this is one of those things where looking at a map can get you into trouble, because it looked like we just kind of walked through this park and we eventually come out at the Church of St Peter and St Paul, which looked like it could be interesting and while on the map it was pretty much you know, over here, go over there, turn left, turn right, In actuality, going through the park there was a huge staircase, Lots of stairs.
Speaker 2:Yes, a stairway to heaven or hell. Whichever Decide what it was, but it was grueling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the hill was so steep that they had built metal steps in to help you up. And yeah, it was a long way up the stairs and a long way down city streets before we finally made it to the church.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'd have to say it was really worth it.
Speaker 2:It was, it was, and we went by that private school that was just letting out. It was kind of interesting to see the kids. Yeah, it went through a nice neighborhood in the end before we got to the church. So it's nice to see how people who act how they live in these communities.
Speaker 1:This church was kind of right on the edge of where I guess you say the new town was. A big traffic circle and a lot of more modern buildings around it. But it was really impressive. We had gone from a brick church that had a lot of woodworking inside it. I mean beautiful woodworking, but it was mostly wood. Inside to this church that was almost entirely white on the inside, a white stucco interior.
Speaker 2:Right. I don't know, though, if it was marble, or if it was, or what that was. I just don't know what. I don't know what those all the figurines were made out of so many.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they might have objected if we went up and tried to scratch them to figure out what they were. But yeah, there were over 2000, just000 just intricate carvings everywhere you looked, several domed ceilings that were all just beautifully decorated. A wireframe ship with a dragon head was hanging down in one part of it. So it was just a beautiful church and unlike any that we had looked at up to that point. So it was really worth the trip.
Speaker 2:Because it was so white. All of those figures, it makes you think that they weren't marble. You know that it was something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were too white. They didn't have any veining in them or anything like that, so they well have been stucco. Now, because we had had that wonderfully aerobic walk on the way out there, we decided to take a bolt ride back, and that was really the end of our too short stay in Vilnius.
Speaker 2:And you forgot to say that it was very hot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was extremely hot.
Speaker 1:If you've been listening to this podcast, it kind of goes without saying that we were in the city in the middle of another heat wave.
Speaker 2:Yes, of course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now I would recommend, if you're anywhere in the area Vilnius is definitely an interesting city to stop by and check out.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely yeah, it was a pleasant surprise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, next up was our now routine Flixbus journey, this time only four hours, to Riga, the capital of Latvia. Now again, we knew next to nothing about Riga before the trip, but I have to say that, again, it was one of my favorite cities. How about you, Rita?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, once again we had an Airbnb that was right in the old town, this time in a modernized apartment building in an old building with an elevator, which is always nice.
Speaker 2:It was beautifully done. It really was. It had brick flooring and brick walls some of them and the bathrooms were all modern. Small kitchen, modern.
Speaker 1:It was very comfortable, yeah, very well worth it.
Speaker 1:The old town itself. All those cobblestone, brick streets, just beautiful ornate buildings all around us, everywhere you looked Right. Plenty of restaurants with outdoor seating, colorful squares, all with flowers. Probably the only downside to being in the old town there something that Rita found out later was that you can't always get a cab. Was that you can't always get a cab? Yeah, there are some areas where they're not allowed to bring the vehicles into, which is great for the city, but not so great when you're dragging a couple of suitcases. I think it was our first full day there.
Speaker 1:We went down and found this beautiful shady park that kind of followed along a canal that led us down to the very impressive Freedom Monument, which is basically a big tower on a platform that has a woman standing at the top with her arms upraised and she's holding three stars. It's called the Freedom Monument and I have to check this, but I believe it was erected to celebrate their departure from the Soviet Union at that time and gaining their freedom as a country in their own right. Now, on that walk we also found one of our very favorite things a large market, big marketplace. It looked like buildings that had formerly been part of railway stations and railway storehouses, and they had converted them all into markets with clothing, fruit, vegetables, meats, seafood, a vending area where you could go and have lunch, which we did, of course. We picked up some nuts and some fruits there. Just a wonderful market. It's a shame we weren't better equipped to be able to take advantage of that you know.
Speaker 2:The amazing thing about the size of that market and as diverse as that market was anything from seafood any type of meat. You can imagine. It's in a small town. It was huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, riga is the capital of Latvia, but Latvia itself is not a very big country and Riga itself is not a very big city.
Speaker 2:No, and it was a much bigger market than Budapest.
Speaker 1:Much. Yeah, covered a lot more territory and had a lot more to offer.
Speaker 1:That was every part of Europe. Of course there are a lot of interesting churches. There was one just right across from our home, as a matter of fact, and we had some great meals there, including for me. Finally, I'd had so much trouble finding an actual sausage meal in Eastern Europe when I thought it'd be everywhere, but I found a big sausage meal and of course that triggered my penultimate gastric attack.
Speaker 1:I was fine till about 3 am when I woke up, drenched in sweat, with pain just under my solar plexus, reading out to the sides. Now trying not to get too graphic here I managed to barf up a little, but that did nothing to relieve the pain. Finally, about 7 am, it faded enough so I could lie in bed and we took the rest of the morning easy as I napped a bit, but by lunch I thought I was fine. At this point I thought I must have something like an ulcer and decided to try and eat healthier and smaller meals till I could see a doctor once we were in Vegas. Well, anyway, we were soon out and about again exploring the area, and this time we reached the Freedom Monument and turned left instead of going straight, and found ourselves at the most impressive church. We saw in Riga the Nativity of Christ Cathedral.
Speaker 2:That was absolutely amazing, with those gold domes and very ornate inside. However, we weren't supposed to take pictures, but we did manage to snap a couple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can see a few accidental pictures that we took on the website at jensantosbookscom, but those gold top domes, those were definitely the first thing you noticed as you're approaching, because you see them from quite a distance, right, yeah, and I don't know about you, rita, but for me the most fascinating place by far that we visited in Rica was the House of the Blackheads.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely so unexpected.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right in the center of the old town, there in a beautiful square, and in fact if you look on YouTube, you can see a cello performance that was done right in front of the house. It's on our YouTube channel and I'll put a link in the show notes. But apparently, back in the 1300s, a group of young unmarried merchants, ship owners and foreigners that were residing in Riga chose Saint Maurice as their patron, and he was traditionally portrayed as a black soldier, an Egyptian martyr, so they started calling themselves the Black Head. Rita, you grew up catholic I. I had never heard of a black saint before, had you?
Speaker 2:well, you know, technically they're often they. They should have been from the middle east in that era, so they would not have been this lily white, blue-eyed, blonde-haired folks. So maybe we didn't know about it, but I I'm sure there were.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the people in the building were not represented as Arab or Middle Eastern. They were like your basic Nubian black.
Speaker 2:They were Like absolutely had to be from Africa, egypt, somewhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:On the trade route definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just an incredible building and interesting history and we toured the earth and stone basement and then some just incredibly beautiful and ornate rooms in the rest of the building.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yet obviously they were very wealthy, single unmarried merchant ship owners and foreigners, because there was gold, silver and crystal just everywhere, on all the walls and the furniture. Beautiful big ballroom, huge stained glass windows, painted ceilings, just really an outstanding place.
Speaker 2:They obviously controlled the trade there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Riga is on a river that connects it to the Baltic, so I can understand that it would have been a trade center.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So overall, I really found both Riga and Vilnius to be just charming cities, very clean, friendly people and just generally comfortable places to visit. How about you, rita?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, and it was interesting that both of those cities had monuments to depict their when they were part of the Soviet Union, hoping that this would never, ever, ever and reminding young people this should never happen to us again. It was very moving.
Speaker 1:We enjoyed Riga very much and we were looking forward to our trip to Tallinn in a few days, in Estonia. But fate was about to intervene in our plans. True to my resolve, I was eating modest meals and limiting myself to just one beer a day, which is not easy in Eastern Europe, as you sometimes saw people drinking beer with their breakfast. But anyway, on Sunday, september 8th, just a few days before our planned exit on Wednesday, we had dinner in one of the many flower-decorated squares near our apartment. I had a simple fish soup and a Caesar salad with bacon and one small beer. But after the meal I went inside to use their bathroom and on the way out I began to feel the first now-familiar tightening in my chest. We walked around a bit, cut through the park again, and I concentrated on breathing deeply, feeling sure that it would eventually fade, still thinking ulcer.
Speaker 1:When we returned to our apartment I drank lots of water, little milk, ate a few tons and by nightfall things had eased up a bit. I was able to go to sleep. But I woke up around 3 am again, pain back, stronger this time, and once again soaking the bed with sweat. I was back and forth between the bed and the chair in the hallway the rest of the night, unable to find a comfortable position. By the time Rita was up around 7 am, I had to admit to myself that it was time to get a doctor Now. I was reluctant since it was now Monday and we were scheduled to leave Wednesday, but the pain was showing no signs of diminishing. So Rita used WhatsApp to message our host, asked about any local doctors that might make house calls something actually fairly common in other countries, by the way and our host suggested that she just dial 112 and ask them to send out a medical team. Now, rita, I was in and out. How did that conversation go on the phone?
Speaker 2:Well, of course, when I dialed the number, the person answered did not speak English, so there was a brief five minute message still. That I mean five minute pause till they found someone to actually who could understand me. And then I had to give them directions as to where we were and I basically said we're across from the cathedral and I will be out front to meet you, and they agreed to come then, of course, and they were pretty fast.
Speaker 1:It was only about 20 minutes or so that two medics showed up, a man and a woman. They examined me, took vitals, asked about pain and history and all that, and the woman was clearly in charge, told us she could give me something for the pain if I wanted, but her strong suggestion was that I should come with them to the hospital for blood work and some scans. Now, at this point I was feeling bad enough that I agreed that was the best move. They gave us time for me to get dressed and throw some things in a small backpack and help me down to the ambulance. Now, rita, this is when you were told you couldn't come with me, which you did not take.
Speaker 2:Well, no, I could not believe it. Not only could I not go with Jim in the ambulance, no, I could not believe it. Not only could I not go with Jim in the ambulance, or I couldn't even follow him and be with him while he was going to the emergency room. I couldn't see him for 24 hours, they said. So I was just like what on earth is happening. But we agreed because he was so sick.
Speaker 1:And I found out the reasoning for that once I got to the hospital, because I was basically in kind of a triage area where there wasn't really any room or accommodations for any kind of visitors. So it wasn't until they decided to admit me to the hospital and put me in a room that there was actually even the opportunity to come visit. So if you're interested in the gory details, we did cover most of the hospital visit in episode 35. But the bottom line is our grand experiment in homelessness was over. They took good care of me and Riga got me through the danger zone and we returned to the States for my eventual surgery and to set up our home base. So we can now try a different approach to slow travel. So, rita, do you have any regrets now that we gave it our best shot but ended up having to come back?
Speaker 2:No, absolutely not. I think that we've always had a home base. This was the first time that we deviated from that, and I think that we're both more comfortable knowing that we have someplace to go, no matter what country it's in. It has been Ecuador before, now it's the US. So, yes, I think that it's better for us to have a home base.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at our age I think we need the home base, Because what was so unusual about the whole events to me was that before I felt really really bad. I felt really really good, Our trip was going just fine, we were really enjoying ourselves, we were out and walking a lot and everything was just absolutely perfect and I felt absolutely great until suddenly I'm in the hospital. So it's just nice to have something to fall back on. I think once you're over 65, it just becomes more important.
Speaker 2:I think that what has been so good for you and I? We know that, no matter what country we're in, that we're able to communicate well enough to get ourselves taken care of. I mean, we've had surgeries in other countries. We've had doctors come to our hotel before in Prague. So I feel confident that, no matter where we are traveling to, we don't put ourselves in harm's way. We're usually in large enough communities and cities that have well-staffed facilities, and most doctors that we've come across speak some amount of English.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was nice that there was no point where I felt like, oh no, I can't be sick in Latvia.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:You know, I always felt confident that I could get good care, wasn't worried about that at all and also wasn't really that worried about Rita being by herself in Riga.
Speaker 2:No, I felt totally safe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which, if you think about it, most people would think you know. You're alone by yourself in this place where you can't speak the language. How are you going to get by? And she got by just fine.
Speaker 2:Right, it was nine days and I even switched Airbnbs twice. One was a little complicated because the taxis did not take me directly to the entrance of my Airbnb and I had to drag a suitcase, run back and get another one, drag another one. I mean it was not the best mode of getting there. We were unaware that the Airbnb and the taxi situation involved the street that I was on but it all worked out.
Speaker 1:But we never had to worry about your safety or my safety in the hospital.
Speaker 2:No, not at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the first day or so when I wasn't sure whether they were going to be taking me to surgery at a moment's notice, I just had the normal concerns that you would have, not knowing what's wrong with facing surgery. I didn't feel uncomfortable at all that we were in a different country.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that has been a good thing that we've learned from travel and a good safety or a good comfort feature Right that we've picked up from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's why this experience and some other things that have happened to us have never made us think, oh gee, we have to stop traveling. The question is what can we do to make our travel easier and more comfortable?
Speaker 2:Exactly Right.
Speaker 1:And that's what we'll be working on next year. So that's it for this week and for 2024. We'll be back in New Year's with some interviews and updates on our new, revised travel plans as we slowly get things organized with our new roaming style. Now, thanks for listening and happy holidays, wherever you may roam. You've been listening to Travels with Jim and Rita. If you'd like to read more about where we've been and see some photos of the places you've been hearing about, check out our blog at jimsantosbookscom and our YouTube channel and Instagram for videos. Meanwhile, you can access my books, audiobooks and short stories at jimsantosnet, and there are links to those sites Instagram, youtube, etc. In the show notes. We'd love to hear from our listeners as well, so if you have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover, or if you want to tell your own travel story, email us at jim at jimsantosbookscom. So until next time, remember we travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us.
