Baltic Bliss

I BEGAN MY LIFE NOT AS A JOURNALIST, BUT AS A LOGGER. Working summers and holidays in the woods with my dad, I sawed down trees and drove big trucks — all before the age of 20. That was how old I was when I delivered myself from that hard and dangerous profession — by pedaling away from home on a bicycle.

I crossed America, cycled through Europe and island-hopped the South Pacific. I spent six months in New Zealand and another six in Australia. I eventually made my way through the Outback to the northern outpost of Darwin, where I departed for Southeast Asia.

In Asia, I backpacked through Bali, bussed through Java, hopped a boat to Singapore and crossed Malaysia to Thailand. I flew into Burma, tramped to Dhaka and endured a 32-hour train ride from calamitous Calcutta to bustling Bombay. I traveled for nearly seven years before returning home to study journalism in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

I had some great summers during those early years of travel. In fact, I practically chased summer, traveling between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. But even as great as those summers were, my best summer ever was in the Baltic.

I cruised with my (then) wife and kids, ages 8 and 10, on the Baltic Sea. We experienced wonderful ports and long summer days, with the sky never getting completely dark. Watching the sun set (at midnight!) from our veranda on the Westerdam, it seemed that summer would never end. In fact, it did not. That summer still lives on this web site.

But Baltic Bliss is not all about me and my special summer. I launched this site so that it might benefit other travelers in the Baltic Sea region. I’ll add to this site periodically, so be sure to sign up for an e-mail subscription, or bookmark the RSS feed. Please let me hear about your experiences in the Baltic also - by leaving comments at the end of the articles.

Thank you for visiting.

Ralph Grizzle