Thread: Travel Blog; CIS/ex-USSR countries (i.e. Russian speaking)

Very interesting, Hanna!

Just one curiosity, you said that "half the people there were nordics", how can you tell? Do you also speak norvegian/finnish/danish? Or for their looks?

Originally Posted by fabriciocarraro

Very interesting, Hanna!

Just one curiosity, you said that "half the people there were nordics", how can you tell? Do you also speak norvegian/finnish/danish? Or for their looks?

To answer, I need to give a little lecture.. Norwegian, Danish and Swedish is ESSENTIALLY the same language, it's just that the spelling and pronounciation is different and, about a couple of hundred words are different (easily memorised). So I can have a conversation with a Danish or Norwegian person in my language, and he responds in his language - we both understand each other. Our countries are not very big (population wise) and they are so similar so many people tend to think of Scandinavia as one country/are. Finnish is a completely different language, but they have a Swedish speaking minority there and everyone can understand Swedish + they have signs and information in both languages. For that reason, Finland is also part of the group. And anyway, it's a very easily recognisable language to me - I know plenty of words and phrases in Finnish - there are tons of Finnish people living in Sweden.

Anyway, I can usually tell that people are Nordic either from their speech, or just their height/faces and looks (tall, blonde) or how they are dressed. There is a daily ferry (takes 1000s of passengers) to Riga from Stockholm and a similar one from Helsinki, and it's quite a popular budget holiday or weekend trip. Also there are flights. Some people go because there is a very large beach area near Riga - there are lots of hotels there and they are quite cheap. After the Baltic states joined the EU and people could not buy cheap alcohol on the ferries anymore, the popularity of these trips declined though!

The beach in Liepaja at 21:00 in the evening, 3 July


Random shot from the old town in Riga. More than half of the people around are tourists.


At a street right next to the hotel I stayed at in Riga, this is a typical sight:




I thought they were supposed to have super fast broadband in the Baltics? I have not been impressed so far 1 MB!!! Best broadband speed on this trip so far, was in the very cool Pridnestrovie Republic.

Originally Posted by Hanna

To answer, I need to give a little lecture.. Norwegian, Danish and Swedish is ESSENTIALLY the same language, it's just that the spelling and pronounciation is different and, about a couple of hundred words are different (easily memorised). So I can have a conversation with a Danish or Norwegian person in my language, and he responds in his language - we both understand each other. Our countries are not very big (population wise) and they are so similar so many people tend to think of Scandinavia as one country/are. Finnish is a completely different language, but they have a Swedish speaking minority there and everyone can understand Swedish + they have signs and information in both languages. For that reason, Finland is also part of the group. And anyway, it's a very easily recognisable language to me - I know plenty of words and phrases in Finnish - there are tons of Finnish people living in Sweden.

Very interesting to know that, Hanna! We have almost no information on those languages here in Brazil.... well, it's reasonable why, but anyway, good to know! Do you consider any of the languages easier than the others? Might be an option after I finish my studies in Russian and Dutch.

By the way, great pictures! =)