Italy
I traveled all over northern Italy. There were many cities to see, including Rome, Florence, Bologna, Milan, Venice, and Genoa. One thing that I learned while in Italy is that you should never drive there. It's pretty chaotic and there are no rules on the road! Now, that said, the food was really quite wonderful, and many of the vistas there were quite beautiful as well.
Latvia
Riga was a beautiful city that actually had significant German architecture, showing it's heritage. I visited during the summer so there were flowers everywhere within the city. The food was absolutely fantastic and the people were very friendly. Perhaps most notably, the sky never actually got black there at night, instead it stayed at a deep blue color, likely due to how north the country is located.
Lithuania
I stopped in a small town there that bordered another country. You can see the difference in normal and Soviet Architecture
Russia
I mainly stayed within Moscow while visiting. Getting into Russia is significantly more challenging than other countries as it requires a visa & I had one at the time. Moscow itself is a massive city that has tons of Soviet bloc era architecture. That is to say, it's pretty drab. Nonetheless, the subway systems there were quite beautiful, with mosaics and chandeliers unique.
Germany
There's not much to say about Germany unfortunately. I had been there in the past, but I was little and dont remember much. I was at the Frankfurt airport for some time before my flight. I was rather annoyed because they wouldn't let me keep my water even though it was unopened. As far as the folks went, everyone there was very polite.
Addendum
I honestly got extremely lucky when I left and came back. As it turns out, Russia was about to invade Georgia due to border tensions, and shortly afterwards, they expelled Americans from the country.
So by sheer luck I managed to avoid that particular moment in history and was already on a plane. It's really kind of odd how things just shake out.