Not actually asking for partners at this point of time (though any interested parties are free to show your hand) as i'm not yet clear of my commitment to family for that period.... but i guess it doesn't hurt to start asking for advices and showing of interest.
i'm targetting jan, and possibly up till early feb. being fickle minded about locations. initially thinking of just 2 weeks in malta, but the transport to malta seems expensive. but later tried to look for alternatives and found two possibilities with some basic info.
1. Baltics (helsinki-estonia-riga)
fly to helsinki via beijing/istanbul (S$888 onwards, exclude tax)
visit tampere to see mixture of the old industrial bloc and new culture
take ferry from helsinki to tallinn in estonia (1130-2pm, abt S$30)
go further down to riga in latvia.
highlights: snow festival in tallinn (early jan), world heritage riga
pro: travel time is short for most location. winter should be beautiful here.
con: i wanted to see old towns full of old rocks... scandinavia and baltics just seem so "new" and clean. i dunno but many shots i saw taken of the places are disappointing or is it the photographers??
some pictures for helsinki, tampere, talinn, riga
2. Adriatics
fly to various european cities (cost to europe all seem abt the same)
fly to dubrovnik in southeast croatia, and move along the coast
visit hvar island and split
visit rijeka (18 jan - 3 feb, international folk festival)
KIV enter north italy by land, and fly back from milan/rome, or
KIV go to zagreb and fly back to the euopean city started.
highlights: rijeka festival
pro: all the old roman ruins and rocks i wanted.
con: travel time is longer than option 1. flight to dubrovnik is going to be expensive... but land is going to take half a day from zagreb to dubrovnik, too painful for me.
richard iason (some of his pics can be seen in lonely planet) has some great pics for croatia.
anyone being to the above countries to give some advices on itineraries, interesting places or even the weather there? if someone has some very nice pictures for estonia and latvia, please let me know too.
i'm targetting jan, and possibly up till early feb. being fickle minded about locations. initially thinking of just 2 weeks in malta, but the transport to malta seems expensive. but later tried to look for alternatives and found two possibilities with some basic info.
1. Baltics (helsinki-estonia-riga)
fly to helsinki via beijing/istanbul (S$888 onwards, exclude tax)
visit tampere to see mixture of the old industrial bloc and new culture
take ferry from helsinki to tallinn in estonia (1130-2pm, abt S$30)
go further down to riga in latvia.
highlights: snow festival in tallinn (early jan), world heritage riga
pro: travel time is short for most location. winter should be beautiful here.
con: i wanted to see old towns full of old rocks... scandinavia and baltics just seem so "new" and clean. i dunno but many shots i saw taken of the places are disappointing or is it the photographers??
some pictures for helsinki, tampere, talinn, riga
2. Adriatics
fly to various european cities (cost to europe all seem abt the same)
fly to dubrovnik in southeast croatia, and move along the coast
visit hvar island and split
visit rijeka (18 jan - 3 feb, international folk festival)
KIV enter north italy by land, and fly back from milan/rome, or
KIV go to zagreb and fly back to the euopean city started.
highlights: rijeka festival
pro: all the old roman ruins and rocks i wanted.
con: travel time is longer than option 1. flight to dubrovnik is going to be expensive... but land is going to take half a day from zagreb to dubrovnik, too painful for me.
richard iason (some of his pics can be seen in lonely planet) has some great pics for croatia.
anyone being to the above countries to give some advices on itineraries, interesting places or even the weather there? if someone has some very nice pictures for estonia and latvia, please let me know too.
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