Due to cost and times of flights to Tallinn, we were forced to begin our latest trip away with a night in London. We did our best to make it feel like a part of our holiday rather than an extended lay-over: walking around as much as we could during the afternoon and catching a show in the West End (39 Steps - funny and good value for money as we got dinner from Gourmet Burger Kitchen included in the deal we scooped from lastminute.com). But London also did it's best to exasperate: waiting half in hour in the checkout queue at Primark (I needed underwear), the rain and wind during the afternoon, the cram of people on Oxford St at 7pm as we headed to the West End, the cost of the train to and from Stansted… It reminded me why we quickly ditched the idea of living in London.

Arriving in Tallinn on Sunday afternoon was a relief. Late autumn in Estonia is not exactly prime season for Tourism. It was scarf and glove weather but the first snows were yet to arrive and add that Christmassy feel. And it rained off and on for the three days we were there. On Monday night we got caught in a torrential downpour that turned Viru Street (the main street leading into Old Town) into a river and we were forced to take shelter in Hesburger (Finland's version of McDonalds which has spread to the Baltics) and have our dinner there.

But we did manage to eat a bit healthier and a bit more Estonian the rest of the time, though not always contemporary Estonian. Sunday night's meal was in a Medieval merchant's house, replete with serving wenches, candle light and clay beer tankards. With our flavoured beers (I had honey, Marisa had cinnamon) we had dried elk meat, which was a lot like the kudu biltong we had in South Africa. For the mains, I had pork marinated in beer which was the best pork I've ever had (I couldn't stop making mmm sounds whenever I put some in my mouth), and Marisa had a game hotpot which was basically elk and wild boar mince. Each dish came with a variety of extras: sauerkraut cooked with bacon, honey swede, bulgar wheat, rye bread parcels filled with beans and curds, ligon berries. It was an interesting and satisfying culinary experience.

Our hostel was in the heart of the walled Old Town of Tallinn, and we spent most of our time exploring that part of the city: plenty of churches (including the World's Tallest building back in the 16th century), medieval-y houses and store houses, fortifications, gardens, and cobbled streets.

We did venture out of the Old Town a few times, making it about five or six k's out of the city to walk along the beach in the only extended period of blue sky we got in Estonia.

Our initial plan was to go to Lahemaa National Park on the Monday, but the Information Centre was closed on Sunday when we arrived and didn't open until after the transfer to the park left on the Monday morning, so that didn't really work out. It meant we felt we'd pretty much done Tallinn by Monday night and arranged to catch the 10am bus to Riga the next day.

The bus ride took four and half hours and followed the coast most of the way. I could see how it would be quite nice when it was ten degrees warmer. Anyway, Riga. It's similar to Tallinn in many ways: capital and largest city of former soviet state, contains a world heritage listed Old Town, but it felt that little bit bigger, that bit more modern (not that Tallinn was particularly backward…). And while pretty much every spoke English in both countries, Latvian and Estonian are not closely related languages (Latvian is a non-Slavic, non-Germanic language which is only closely related to Lithuanian; Estonian is closely related to Finnish).

The Old Town in Riga is less well defined than Tallinn, as only one section of the old wall remains, and there's a bigger range of buildings and architectural styles. In fact, I found the architecture more interesting when we stepped out of the old stuff and into art nouveau neighbourhoods, or at the soviet skyscrapers (a brick ministerial building, TV tower over the river), and the wooden shacks along Satekles Iela.

As we walked around on our first afternoon we saw a stage being constructed in the Ratslaukums Square, and after dinner that night we returned to find celebrations for Armistice/Remembrance Day. First up was a traditional Latvian folk group in WWI military uniforms (five singers, accordion player and drummer). There were two bonfires and a crowd of more than a thousand (I'm useless at guessing crowd numbers, it could have been a lot more), ages ranging from 0-90. Next up was a heavy metal band. The banner behind them informed us they were called Skyforger, and by the crowd reaction and number of Skyforger hats and t-shirts (yes, some people thought it was t-shirt weather) they are a bit of a Latvian institution. They had a guy who played either the bagpipes or recorder (though Wikipedia tells me these are tradiation Lativian folk instruments), which was interesting, but the music was a bit too death metal for our taste. But the crowd, ages 0 through 90 seemed to lap it up (yes, the oldies stuck around for Skyforger, though I didn't see any of them wearing band merchandise).

One of the highlights of Riga was the market, which is one of the biggest in Europe (if not the world). There are several halls dedicated to certain types of produce (dairy products; bread and pastries; meat…). The meat hall must have had over forty different vendors all with a wide range of cuts on display, with the butchering going on in clear view just behind the counter. In other halls you could buy lots of different types of salads and savoury snacks by the plate and eat them there. We managed to have two salads (one sort of potato-y, cabbage-y, the other with picked mushrooms, peppers and strips of pork, I think), a pancake thing filled with cheese and two different sorts of bread for under two Lats (around two pounds).

Outside there were the usual aisles of clothing / sunglasses / handbag stalls, though with hardly any knock-offs, which was refreshing. And then there were the fruit stalls amongst which we found feijoas (or fei-hua to the Latvians). They were probably the most expensive thing per kilo in the whole market, but two pounds for four feijoas was a bargain considering I haven't seen them since leaving NZ.

Ther bakeries in Riga were also great: cheap, delicious and with a great range, including some pretty out-there concoctions, like a pound of marshmallow sandwiched with pastry - - would have made a good photo eating one of these but I just couldn't see myself getting through all that marshmallow, and I don't like wasting food, no matter how cheap.

On the Wednesday we caught a bus to Sigulda, which is a little over an hour from Riga. The area around Sigulda is a national park, so there's lots of nature walks, but there's also a bobsled and luge track for the (rich) adrenaline junkie. The information centre in Sigulda was the most helpful we've ever been to: the girl got out a map, circled where we were and proceeded to map out the next four hours of sightseeing including the cost of each attraction where applicable and provided bus and train times for heading back to Riga. In hindsight, she deserved a high five, but we did fill out a survey for her.

In all, we walked about 6 k's to get to Turaida Castle, taking in other historic buildings on the way, a cable car ride across the River Gauja, and what purported to be the biggest cave in the Baltics but wasn't much bigger than a two story house (were we missing something?). We then managed to catch a minivan from Turaida directly back to Riga for 1.70Ls each. (There's a whole minivan public transport system with its own depots that operates underneath and sometimes alongside the larger buses. It makes things a bit confusing at times, as most stops have little to no info about the routes and no timetables, but for those in the know, there's usually multiple ways to get from A to B).

Which nearly brings us to the end of another instalment of Meze and Craig's Excellent Adventure… except for the small matter of Monster Magnet's concert in Riga on Thursday evening, which was the prompt for us to jet to the Baltics in the first place.

Meze commented afterwards how much more she enjoys shows in Europe than back home as she can stand near the front (less people to see over) without worrying about being pushed or squashed or messed with. I think the fact that we've been to see older bands (MM and the Tragically Hip) with older fan bases has something to do with this, but still, I can understand the appeal for bands to tour here. I managed to have a chat with two of the band members after the concert, and scored a pick and a set list (which the bass player signed for me), so my fanboy side feels rather satisfied. And the concert itself was great fun.

Friday was all about getting home: bus to airport, flight to Glasgow Prestwick (not really in Glasgow / ugliest airport EVER), train to Glasgow, train to Edinburgh. But the great part was, being Friday, we've had a whole weekend to relax/recover. The fact I only have three weeks of work left make the thought of the office tomorrow even more bearable! That I only have three weeks of pay left, however, isn't so exciting… not with what we've got lined up for the journey home. Here's hoping for a bumper tax return!!