Introduction: likely played Monopoly board game too often as a child. At the time, Baltic Avenue was the least expensive, cheapest, property on the board.
Wonder if I will experience summer weather before summer is over. It was Mark Twain who said, “the coldest winter I ever experienced was summer in San Francisco.” It has not been much warmer in Scandinavian Europe, below 60 degrees, wet and damp.
July, travel through Sweden and Finland, circle south towards the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and continue onward to Denmark and central Europe.
Tuesday, no shortage of museums to visit, but none that I want to visit, and would prefer a respite from tourists. Purchase 24-hour transit pass, and spend the morning underground, explore Stockholm’s metro (tunnelbana) art scene, described as the world’s longest art gallery, integrated into 94 of 100 station terminals. What would otherwise risk being bleak and dark, is instead, a creative and colorful expression.
Sunshine and 80-degrees, warmest temperature inside of six weeks. Ride the tram from T-Centralen to Djurgården Park, followed by ferry back to Gamla Stan island.
Wednesday, now what, five-mile loop run, cross islands, bridges, and parks. Some places are soft under-foot, remove sandals and run barefoot. I could use some bodywork – yoga and stretching – but there are no soft surfaces in the hostel.
Nothing bad, but a series of non-fatal paper cuts, leads my mind to dark places. Find a local Zen center, secular, non-Buddhist Zen, and attend evening meditation. Sit in a semi-dark room, face the wall, an opportunity to stop thinking, perchance, to forget.
Few practitioners, and they want to know about Zen in the West. Am I cured, no, never, no salvation. Walk back to hostel in the evening, the sky spits at me along the way.
THU 03 July: any genius can take a one-hour flight between Sweden and Finland. It takes the village idiot to take a twelve-hour, overnight ferry for the 300-kilometer trip.
Two bus loads of Korean tourists gaggle at the gangway. M/S Viking Glory is quite new (2021), the semi-luxurious cruise-ferry completes the round-trip once a day, sailing between Stockholm, Mariehamn, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty, and Turku. A range of expensive restaurants, bars, and cafes, make me feel poor.
Return to my windowless stateroom for the evening. The room is small, I may wash my hands in the bathroom while sitting on the bed. In the distance, a car alarm sounds off below deck; I insert earplugs, to silence the sound of children running down the hallway, the sound of high-power vacuum toilets disgorging its contents, and the couple in the next stateroom arguing over which television channel to watch.
Friday, disembark the ship, and find myself walking among cars and tractor trailers. The cute customs agent spots me, and becomes angry, until s/he learns that I have been mis-directed by Google maps, and then, laughs at me or with me.
Hostel, S/S Bore, is located next to the ferry pier; ship dates back to 1960, and used to ferry passengers between Sweden and Finland. It is a crusty, old vessel; it is not pretty, but, pretty unique. Some of the staterooms are nice, mine appears like I have been banished to the dungeon. Door to the stateroom is broken, and hangs by one hinge. Floor of the hallway is soft underfoot, and wonder if I will fall through to the deck below. Grateful to check-in early, free breakfast, better than starting the day hungry, and pretty good coffee, enough caffeine to make me a superhero for the day.
Many mornings, I wake with a sense of dread, and often cringe before I read the news. Congress approved the budget bill – so – it is not happy independence day.
Economics 101: US government revenue is $4-trillion ($4,000,000,000,000), 50% of revenue from personal income tax and 10% from corporate income tax. If US corporations are so profitable, wonder why they pay so little in taxes, but I regress.
US government debt is $36-trillion, and exceeds US gross domestic product (GDP) of $27-trillion. Each voter’s share of the debt exceeds $200,000; for comparison, the average US citizen has $85,000 saved in retirement accounts.
Foreign countries hold $10-trillion of the debt, including Japan, China, United Kingdom, and Canada. Interest expense on the debt exceeds $1-trillion, more than 25% of US government revenue, and more than the Defense Department $0.8-trillion budget.
New tariffs imposed by the current administration will reduce the incentive for foreign countries to trade with the United States. Following less trade, means that foreign countries may reduce its reserve of US currency, which means that they do not have to buy as many US treasury bonds. Following less interest in bonds, interest rates will increase to induce buyers, regardless of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (Bank). Following increased interest rates, the US dollar will lose value against a market basket of foreign currencies. Following a weakened US dollar, US inflation will increase, and citizens will pay higher prices for EVERYTHING. Citizens may believe that they died and went to Argentina; there will be a reckoning, now or later.
I am left to wonder why the Republicans – the party of fiscal responsibility – in the Senate and House, approved such a feckless budget. Here endeth the lesson.
Saturday, there is an accordion player on the street corner, and for a few moments, feel like I have been cast as an extra in the movie, Amelie (2001). Local art museum is free in the afternoon, and view the Gunnel Wåhlstrand exhibit. A Swedish artist, her works resemble pencil drawings or photographs, but they are ink-wash on paper, and the nuanced effect on the art is based on ink saturation. She has a limited collection, completing only two works per year, about 54 pieces in the past 23-years.
SUN 06 July: wet morning, rain cover for backpack, no rain cover for me; weekend track repair, no trains, so three-hour bus to Helsinki; bus driver was polite, no drama. Weather was cold and damp, explored the city on foot, until the day was rained out.
Monday is cold, and Tuesday is going to rain. I do not want to run, but I should run; I am awake two hours before I get outdoors and run along the harbor. There are green spaces and parks, but, most of the surfaces are paved; occasionally I find a more forgiving surface, like packed dirt and sand. The sun appears for a fleeting moment.
WED 09 July: morning ferry to Tallinn Estonia (Eesti), more locals than tourists, and more closely resembles an uncivil cattle drive, but, at least the sun is shining, and makes for a pleasant day to explore Tallinn’s photogenic, and medieval-walled city.
The three Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania declared their independence in 1918, after World War I, and subsequently, were illegally annexed and occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, until the states returned as sovereign nations in 1991. Russia denies that it illegally annexed and occupied the region; history rhymes with Ukraine.
FRI 11 July: damp, wet, and cold; walk through the modern city, to the bus station (bussijaam). Clean, modern terminal, well-signed bus, courteous driver, no drama.
Estonia appears more European than Russian; 100-mile journey south, two-lane highway, clean and green, stands of white birch and pine. Pärnu, with its sandy beach, is the destination of choice for summer holiday. Day gives way to sunshine, rare t-shirt weather. Day started out cold, damp, and wet in Tallinn, and ended sunny and mild, ideal weather to explore the city, and appreciate its green spaces.
There are posters for the Pärnu Music Festival and Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt, his minimalist composition style, tintinnabuli, is inspired by Gregorian chant. Sometimes, I sit down at the piano and play, Für Alina. Enjoy listening to Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, or the deeply moving, Spiegel im Spiegel (mirror in mirror).
Saturday, morning sunrise, and a recalcitrant sun quickly retreats behind the clouds. Slow start to the morning, and six-mile run along the beach.
SUN 13 July: morning bus, LuxExpress, to Riga Latvia (Latvija); short walk from bus station, past the central market, to the hostel. Nearly one-million people live and work in greater Riga, making it the largest city in the Baltic States. At times, there are dense crowds of people, and some of the people, appear quite desperate.
Monday, explore Old Town, brilliant sunshine and blue skies, 80-degrees, warmest day inside six weeks, and walk until my feet ache. City’s RIGA letters prominently display the cat and dog from the dialog-free movie, Flow (2024), which won the Academy Award for best animated feature; the Oscar statuette was briefly on display at the Latvian National Museum of Art. This is no Disney movie, but art; the death of the secretary bird, near the end of the movie, is truly sublime.
Visit the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum (Rīgas geto un Latvijas holokausta muzejs), a mostly sobering and grim reminder of mankind’s ability to be cruel, as if, the world requires any more reminders (ie. Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine).
I am reminded of filmmaker, Ken Burns, who produced the documentary, US and the Holocaust (2022), which argues that the United States knew of Hitler’s prosecution of Jews during World War II. Burns suggested that the failure of human nature is man’s inherent nature to be cruel. I wonder what does it mean to travel the world.
The next day, Dr. Omer Bartov, professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, penned New York Times Op-Ed, and argued that Israel is perpetrating genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and that Israel quashes any criticism as anti-Semitic. Bartov was born and raised in Israel, and served in the Israeli Defense Force.
Former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert (2006-2009), argued that Israel is guilty of war crimes, in a May 2025 interview with Haaretz, Israel’s longest running newspaper.
Genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes … semantics … unless one is a Palestinian in Gaza. Perhaps there will be a day when journalists are allowed to enter Gaza, and to bear witness. There is no just war, there is just war.
One day, when it is safe, when there is no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it is too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.
Omal El Akkad, Egyptian-born, Canadian novelist (October 25th 2023)
Three-mile run through the park that surrounds Riga Canal, away from traffic. Afterwards, visit Latvian National Museum of Art (Latvijas Nacionālais mākslas muzejs), which features the work of Latvian artists. One gallery focused on the period during the Russian occupation (1940-1991); graphic art rallied against the totalitarian regime of manipulating information, acquiring power, and subduing its people.
WED 16 July: rain overnight, wet streets; trash everywhere. Cross boulevard via underground tunnel to bus station, it is early morning, and wonder if I will become a crime statistic. People mill about the bus station, likely, with no intention of riding the bus. Arrive in Vilnius Lithuania (Lietuva); rain showers en route yield to blue skies.
Would have enjoyed visiting Kaliningrad Oblast, westernmost federal subject of Russia. Would have required separate Russian visa, likely not worth the current political risk.
Thursday, awake to a dream that I am falling off the lip of a powerful waterfall; the drop does not end, my stomach tightens, anticipating the crash into jagged rocks below.
Morning run, I have the city to myself, early daylight is flat, but there are no crowds.
FRI 18 July: modern train station, well-signed; disappointed to board tired-looking train, likely, 1970s rolling stock. Full train, mostly locals, few tourists. Five-hour journey, mostly tedious, across a flat, but green landscape. Many snoring people in hostels during the past week, my eyes burn with fatigue, grateful for a private hostel room.
SAT 19 July: awake, and grey sky threatens rain; sluggish, do not want to run. Running tour of the city; eventually, body and mind awake, and I run effortlessly, like a cheetah or a gazelle, predator or prey.
Wanted to visit Curonian Spit, but punt, due to stubborn low-pressure system. In hindsight, should have traveled directly from train to ferry, Klaipėda mostly underwhelming. Enjoyed visiting the three Baltic states, it is clear that each deliberately shed any vestige of its Russian-occupied influence.
Check out of hostel, and muster at a large, modern shopping mall, with an indoor skating rink. Scattered, powerful thunderstorms throughout the day; more than once, the lights go out at the mall, and it becomes black as pitch. Check-in at the ferry terminal; never-ending scenarios play in my head, getting delayed or canceled.
Klaipėda is the northernmost year-round, ice-free port. There are six ferries per week for the 14-hour trip to Karlshamn, Sweden. It is a functional ferry, not a cruise ferry. Its floor plan resembles the ferry that I traveled between Italy and Greece (May 2023).
Purchased shared 4-berth stateroom, rather than an airplane seat. My comrades include three gruff-looking Lithuanians. They do not speak English, I do not speak Lithuanian; communication devolves to grunt and point, tensely civil, but polite.
One Lithuanian commands the stateroom, as if it belongs to him, rather than a shared space, like a hostel. He unpacks dinner, which includes pickled meat, and smells like feet. I served in the Marine Corps, I can tolerate almost anything; it is just one night.
There is nothing else to do, I take a sleeping pill, and go to bed. The snoring is deafening; will I damage my brain if I push the ear plugs any further. I am the first person awake the next morning, and get dressed in the dark; briefly tempted to turn on all the lights as I shut the door and exit the stateroom.
SUN 20 July: there are mostly men on the ferry, and most are ugly (takes one to know one), and wonder if it is a convention. Many men have a large, protruding stomach, exhibited with a sense of pride. Many are crass, and many lack social norms.
Foot passengers depart the ferry and board a bus to the terminal. I watch the tractor trailers depart the ferry, and recognize that most of the men were not locals or tourists, but truck drivers. I am slow to the party; in hindsight, makes more sense.
I have a headache, not a migraine, likely dehydrated; take the bus to the city center rather than walk. Check into the hostel. Feel better later in the day, and take a running tour of the city. In hindsight, there is not much here, not sure why I did not just take the onward train to Malmö or Copenhagen. I know why; believe in seeing all the bits and pieces of a country that a tourist may skip, and also, to de-couple travel days, to absorb inevitable delays and cancellations. Finally, less than 20-hour of daylight, too.
Do not despair, more boats remain; ferry from Wales to Dublin, ferry from Belfast to Scotland, ocean liner, Queen Mary 2, from Southampton to Brooklyn, New York.
MON 21 July: walk to train station, un-staffed, more of a train stop than a station; church bells chime in the distance, and the slightly cool air, smells fresh. Two-hour train to Malmö, Sweden (Sverige), on a clear day, views of Copenhagen, Denmark.
WED 23 July: past few days have been underwhelming, Klaipėda, Karlshamn, and Malmö, and more than happy to move onward. Travel long enough, there will be underwhelming days, inevitable, and the cost of admission for world travel.
Sub one-hour train to Copenhagen (København) Denmark via Øresund Bridge. Vehicular traffic operates on the upper deck, trains operate on the lower deck. At Peberholm Island, vehicular and rail traffic continue through a tunnel beneath the Drogen Channel, as to not disrupt air traffic at the adjacent Copenhagen Airport.
Visit the National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst); notable works include: Amedeo Modigliani (Alice), Edvard Munch (Death Struggle), Henri Matisse (Portrait of Mme. Matisse), André Derain (woman in chemise), and Keys van Dongen (Portrait of a Lady, 1911); used to enjoy van Dongen’s, Corn Poppy (1919), on display at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFaH).
Morning run, along series of canals; there is a tremendous amount of detritus and copious amounts of broken glass, not just here in Copenhagen, but throughout my summer travels through Europe. Do not understand people, do not understand why people trash their environment and their home; I just do not understand.
SAT 26 July: five-hour train to Hamburg Germany; two enthusiastic PhD candidates in the train compartment argue over theorems and proofs. Do not understand any of their discussion, it is mostly tedious; has the world become so specialized.
Traveled to Frankfurt on business, but, my first tourist travel to Germany. Heavy rain in the morning, no match for an umbrella. Several hours later, there is a break in the weather, and I salvage the day.
En route to the city center, walk through Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s seedy, red-light district, die sündige meile (the sinful mile). If Hamburg is dirty, the Reeperbahn is filthy, and resembles a low-rent version of New Orleans’ Bourbon Street.
MON 28 July: walk to Hamburg station (hauptbahnhof), morning train to Berlin. Deutsche Bahn train employees appear unpleasant, as if, customer service is a grave inconvenience. One may purchase an on-line train ticket, however, common courtesy not included (nein, Nein, NEIN).
There is a last-minute track change, and boarding is chaotic. One passenger boards the train, and I double-take; s/he has a face and neck tattoo that resembles Darth Maul from Star Wars. Train begins to move, and my body crashes into deep sleep. Night before, one hostel guest snored loud enough to wake everyone in the room; at one point, I contemplated sleeping in the hallway with my blanket.
Ich bin ein Berliner (Kennedy, June 1963). Walk to hostel, hear the distinctive two-tone siren, and wonder if the authorities give chase to Jason Bourne.
Tuesday, six-mile run to visit the eastside, open-air gallery; the longest, contiguous remaining section of the Berlin Wall. Most noted mural is the Socialist fraternal kiss, between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, based on a 1979 photograph.
Following World War II, Germany was divided in 1949 by the four allied nations (United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union). Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961, to curb immigration from East (socialist) to West Berlin (free market). The wall came down in 1989, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” (Reagan, June 1987), followed by German reunification in 1990; surreal to stand amidst history.
Visit Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag; Berlin does not shy away from its troubled history: a divided Germany, the holocaust, and inciting two world wars. Nine-mile walking tour; return to the hostel, fatigued and demoralized.
WED 30 July: four-hour train to Munich (München) via Nuremberg (Nürnberg); German inter-city (ICE) train travels at speeds up to 300 km/h (180 mph).
What may not be fixed with sunshine. Wanted to attend BMW Driving Academy, but classes conducted only in German. As a consolation, visit the BMW Museum (Bayerische Motoren Werke). There was a time in my life when I wanted to buy a BMW (M3 coupe), but once I could afford the BMW (in cash), it became less interesting. However, I do like BMW adventure motorbikes; rented BMW (G 310 R) motorbike in New Zealand (south island) and Tasmania, Australia; hope springs eternal.
Cost: cumulative travel costs, during past 64-days.
Lodging: $2,542 total | $40 day
Transport: $1,949 total | $30 day (plane | train | bus | ferry | taxi)
Food: $133 total | $2 day
Other: $4,856 total | $76 day (FX | ATM | visa | tourism | RV & motorbike)
– – Svalbard cruise ($4,400 | eight-day expedition)
Total: $9,480 total | $148 day | $54,100 annualized
– – Cash burn: $0 | $0 day (when credit card not accepted)
US dollar declined 10% year-to-date, against a market basket of currencies (DXY), escalated by ongoing tariff threats, making this trip marginally more expensive.
Conclusion: during my travels, I hope that people do not ask my nationality. To be from the United States, or Texas, requires an apology, as I do not resemble its politics.
Sometimes wonder, if I fall far enough, to plumb the never-ending depths of darkness, than it will not matter to where I travel in this world. Travel for me, is to connect the dots, to watch the world go by, and observe.
You may know Rick Steves from his PBS show or his Europe guidebooks. He recently shared an interview with the Wall Street Journal. He is opinionated, and I imagine that at least 52% of Americans won’t agree with, or tolerate his politics, below.
We may learn more about our home by leaving it behind … United States would be a better country if (young) people traveled outside the US before they reached voting age … United States does not need to build more walls, but rather, build more bridges; the first increases isolation, the second increases understanding … fear is for people who do not get out very often … here endeth the lesson.
August, onward to Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and England. Ninety-day Schengen visa soon expires; do not overstay, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
garthmonroe 