AskMecha: Where to go for a wintry week off in Eastern Europe? Mechazens, I'm teaching English in Riga, the capital of Latvia, for a year, and I'll have a week or so off around Christmas and New Year's. Where should I go? →[More:]

Part of me wants to just kick it here in the Baltics, which are easy and really small, but I'd rather save Tallinn and Vilnius for weekends in better weather. Doing a Kiev-Lviv-Odessa-Kiev circuit seems cool, but taking the train there involves going through Belarus, which as a US citizen is a huge hassle, or via a long detour through Poland, and my Russian or Ukrainian is about as good as my Xhosa or Amharic - give me a phrasebook with words to try to parrot and I'll be able to barely get by.

Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria also appeal, and I can speak some Spanish which would be helpful reading signs and things in Romania, but other than that, I've got no real idea where to go. Georgia and Azerbaijan also seem cool, but I have no idea what's there. I've been to Istanbul but would go back; I've never been to Israel, but I've got heaps of stamps from places like Malaysia and Indonesia in there, so I don't know if they'd let me in.

Poland, an obvious choice, is sort of off the list as I've already spent time in Krakow and will be getting down there for different reasons toward the end of the school year in June.

A few more details:

- I'll be traveling alone, so I'll probably be doing lots of reading and writing and museum-going, and less out-all-night partying.
- If airBaltic flies there from Riga, that's way easier, and almost certainly cheaper, for me than connecting somewhere else.
- The cheaper the better: a destination with hostels and other cheap places to stay is better for me and my way of traveling than staying at the Hotel Fancypants. I'll also be working off a good-for-Latvia salary's savings, so spending less than, say, $500 total would be awesome, though $750 is kind of what I'm expecting to set back.
- Trains are better than buses. By far.