I just booked for myself tickets to Riga, Latvia and Vilnius, Lithuania. A visit of both baltic capitals would complete the trio of baltic capitals (visited Tallinn, Estonia in June 2004). It's exciting to see how these 3 countries, so close to each other in geography, often bundled together as a result of soviet times, reveal their history. Estonians, i suppose, speaking a Finno-Ugric language - closely related to Finland, and less so to Hungarian is probably more Scandinavian and it kind of showed in Tallinn. Reticence, cleaniness, order - stereotypical Scandinavian attributes perhaps? The estonian language is beautiful and melodious. Thanks to the proliferation of vowel sounds... a 2-horse race with Italian for one of the loveliest sounding languages in Europe. Alas, it's plagued by 14 word cases.. a horror for non-native speakers.

Latvia, i think, historically has close links to the Hanseatic League, so is closer to Germany and again, it shows through in their architecture. I have to see for myself. Plus, having a large Russian-speaking population, a legacy of Soviet policies, it's kind of trapped in a two-faced situation now. The Latvian-speakers and Russian-speakers generally lead their own lives. Latvian is a Baltic language, which is closely related to Lithuanian. Both are Indo-European languages, so technically, much more familiar to English and other predominant Indo-European languages compared to Estonian (totally different family).

Lithuania was once a major power, the Lithuanian and Polish Empire in the 15, 16 and 17th centuries ruled over much of eastern and central europe. And yes, Lithuania is historically close to Poland. It's population is predominantly Roman Catholic, compared to the Lutherans in Latvia and Estonia (more Scandinavian). Vilnius had a large Jewish population, pre WWII. Called affectionately 'Jerusalem of the North', much of its Jewish population had been decimated in the 1940s. Intriguingly, Lithuanian is perhaps the closest living language to Sanskrit, one of the oldest Indo-European languages. So, listening to Lithuanian, gives you a good approximation of how early Indo-European thousands of years ago would have sounded.

All of them are lovely places and i can't wait to go. Bureaucracies dissolved, thanks to their integration into the EU, so no visas needed. A pity, i would still need one to enter Russia. So hopefully, it all works out. Would be interesting to see if any ethnic Chinese live there, because i have continually been amazed at how far the Chinese have spread and opened restaurants all over the globe. Saw them in Hungary (gosh.. tons of families celebrating X'mas in a Chinese restaurant, speaking Hungarian to the locals). Saw them in Slovakia. Then again, i pause. I think about Communist China and perhaps, relations with the Soviets were cordial enough at the time, that Chinese people could move to soviet satellite states in East Europe and settle down. Hmm...would be interesting to find out what drove them there in the first place.