Lithuania

Klaipeda
Great place to be based. Stayed in a 'hotel' for about 24 pounds a night. Busses are cheap as are the van buses. The old town has huge character where you can try local food and beer.
Take a day trip across to the Curodian split and take a bus to Nida (hour bus ride). Palanga and the strip are tourist prices but Klaipeda is really cheap. Had a beer snack and a meat pototato with meat and 4 celepines with drinks (all a meal for 2) and it came to about 10 pounds!

Local Food is about potato waffles with pig ears and celepines with local beer. Cheap and filling!

Palanga has a great promenade with very impressive cafe's and all sorts of activity.

Klaipeda has one of the biggest malls in the Baltics with an in door ice rink surrounded by great styled cafes.

Busses from Riga or Viluis will be about 3-4 hours and about 20 pounds with Ryan air flights going to Riga and Vilnuis.

Hill of Crosses is near Klaipeda where you will see more crosses than you could imagine. It is seen as a prilgrimage site for some but my experience was more about how what may have started out as a deep heart statement has become a way to make money. It has been commercialised.

Aarhus

Rocking, awesome 10 out of 10

Travel:
Flew from Stanstead on Ryanair specials tickets £2 return!

Bus to town 90 kroon

Accomodation:

Stayed in the Sleep In back packers (about £15 pppn)

Clean and friendly with free internet and extremely helpful staff

Food:

Had a traditional pork grill buffet at Benny's (about £10 pp)

Another good deal was XL lunch buffet (114 kroons) by the canal

Beware calsberg beer is about 55 kroon!

Culture:
Aros was worth a visit and your ticket (about £10) is valid for the whole day so after I had a good time my mate went in afterwards (hint hint)

Bikes are on hire (20 kroon) which you get back when you return the bike

Aarhus was awesome, the people friendly and the weather brilliant

Dublin

Flights: Flew from Gatwick with Rynair for £2 return :D

Accomodation: Most back packers around the city centre have shared dorms for £15

Culture: found Temple Bar extremely dissapointing. Went to Temple Bar pub and the best 'Irish' culture we could get was a guy singing U2 covers. Also we paid the equivalent of 1pint of guiness in the UK for half a pint in Dublin. To be honest, a trip out to Black Rocks was the high light (of course excluding the Guiness factory).

Estonia

Tallinn

Flights: from Gatwick with Estonian Air or from Stanstead with Easy Jet. Return fares are usually round the 200 pound mark so book early or keep an eye out for specials

Accomodation: There are a number of back paking hostels but if you with a group your room price (divided by the number in the group) may actually work out cheaper per person in a hotel and that will include breakfast, so shop around. Back packing hostels are around 10-15 Euro's.

Food: I highly recomend you do not try any cafe's off the main square if you on a tight budget. The gentle wolf pub (hell hunt) is top of my list with a good meal or starter between 5-10 Euro's. Try the club sandwich or the tender chicken strips as a starter. You can always try the Finnish McDonald version Hesburger with a burger meal round the 3 Euro mark. Tallinn is just awesome when it comes to atmosphere and most coffee shops abound with character. For the best lemon marigue visit Kaheksa (means 8) . For the best cocktails, stop at Stereo's before popping upstairs to one of the best clubs in the city, Prive.

The local supermarkets sell the traditional blood sausages and sourkraught. Also try a sandwich cake!

Activities: Besides visiting the main square and old town and it's churches, a walk along the sea towards the yatch club offers loads of photo opportunties. Tallink Spa Hotel has an awesome spa with sauna rooms, jacuzzi's and pools, all for next to nothing. 10 Euro's for 1 and a half hours! Check their website to find the best times and prices.



Culture

Estonia has a rich history and an amazing story of independence. Visit the Museum of Occupation and watch the movie, The Singing Revolution to appreciate the location you are visiting.

A law was passed in 2008 that all locals are to wear some form of reflective clothing/item for when out at night. See if you can spot locals wearing their reflective items.

Finally, Estonia has some of the most untouched beautiful forests so make a trip out the city to visit one of the many forest locations. Summer time you can pick berries and mushrooms (make sure they the right ones) and in winter they have a Christmas market.

Other ideas: take a day trip to Helsinki