015 Latvia

The title of this post suggests that I will write here all the things that I saw, did and experienced when I was in Latvia. I cannot do this because I would fill up the internet and Google will be angry with me because they need some space as well. So I see myself forced to make a selection out of all the amazing things. If you want to, you can also read it very fast, and it will take less of your time.

I entered Latvia through the twin cities of Valga (EST) and Valka (LV). I came in by bus from Tartu, and I would leave by train 2 hours later. I set off to explore Valga, and I came across a Tourist Information office, where I got a map and left by backpack. I asked the girl working there about the places in Lithuania I wanted to go to, and she told me it would be better to walk over the tourist office in Valka. In Valka, the guy in the tourist office gave me some maps, and when I aksed him if I should visit Cecis or Sigulda, he instructed me to visit both places. I had not yet decided where to go, so I chose to go to Cecis first, because it was closer. I also asked the guy what I could see around here until my train left, and he told me to visit the river between Estonia and Latvia. More precisely, he told me to visit the Estonian side, because it was Bigger, Better & More Beautiful. After some further questions, he revealed that he thought that everything in Estonia was Bigger, Better & More Beautiful than in Latvia. And remember, this was the Latvian tourist office. How wrong he turned out to be!

In Cecis I stayed for a night in a hotel. It was boring, but the breakfast was good. After visiting the Castle ruins, I set of to walk towards Sigulda. I was first thinking of mountain biking or canoeing, but it was quite rainy, and cycling in the rain is no fun, walking is a little bit better. That night I camped out near a river, and tried to make campfire with wet wood. The next morning I walked to a village somewhere, and took the bus to Sigulda. They also have castle ruins there. I stayed in the house of an old lady who rents out rooms to tourists. I wanted to visit the castle the next day, but because it was still raining, I went to Riga already in the morning.

Riga was great. I didn’t see much of the old town, visited not even one museum, and failed to explore a single tourist attraction. I stayed with a couple of students in the apartment that they just moved into. I was their first guest. It was quite interesting, because everyone was afraid of the furnace (it was on gas and no-one knew how to light it properly). Besides that, there was one set of keys, and 5 people living there, which led to some complicated logistical puzzles.

Because I was there in the weekend before the universities started again, there were many parties. I was only in Riga for 2 nights, but I think we partied for over 2 weeks worth of live music and beer. Especially the official student party in the main university building was memorable, because they had a nice Ska band performing, and it was interesting pretending to be a Latvian student.
Besides the parties, we also visited some old factories, and we went to see the harbor area where we went to a workshop where some young people make crazy bikes. We were there because the boyfriend of my host was having his bike repaired, but I also got talking to the guy running the place, and he showed me some of the creations. I sat on a orange Harley Davidson  bike with tiny wheels. It was good being in Riga. It is a much bigger city than Tallinn, and there were many things to do there. I could have easily stayed for another couple of days, but there were more places I wanted to see.

On Monday, I felt it was time to hitchhike again, I was going to Liepaja on the coast, about 220 km away. The hitchhiking went fine, the longest time I had to wait was 40 minutes, which was when I had to wait for the bus to take me to the beginning of the main road to start hitchhiking. From there, an old guy from Lithuania took me halfway. I had to walk a bit to the next good spot, where a guy in a very old car took me for a short bit. He didn’t speak anything that I could understand, but he seemed nice. The last 100 km I rode with a guy who turned out to be a couchsurfer as well, and he told me some things about Liepaja. He also told me stories about his trip to Tanzania to climb the Kilimanjaro and visit Dar el Salaam, which sounded fantastic, I will put it on my list of things to do.

In Liepaja I met Solvita, my host. In the evening we went to cycle on the beach. It was cold, we didn’t go swimming. We later went to a bar where we met some more couch surfers. A German guy told me about a military prison you could visit, which seemed like a place I would want to see the next day. But first we woke up at 7:30 to go and pick mushrooms. On the first day, I had responded very enthusiastically when the mushroom picking plan turned up. I didn’t know then that mushroom picking is traditionally done very early in the morning. I asked if this was because the mushrooms are not there in the afternoon, and why we had to get up so early. I was told that it is better to go early, because it is always done in the morning. I gave up, and got out of bed.

It turned out to be actually very nice to wake up early for once, and when we were somewhere in the middle of the forest looking for non poisonous mushrooms, it once again struck me how great couchsurfing is, because you end up in all these fascinating places you would never go to as a general tourist. I was explained which mushrooms you could eat. I settled for only picking a specific, easy to recognize yellow mushroom. I didn’t want to poison the people I stayed with, and I was promised that I would eat them myself later on as well.

In the afternoon, I went to the military area that used to be closed off for civilians, and I visited some bunkers that are slowly being destroyed by the sea. I also visited a big orthodox church standing amidst the soviet block buildings. Then I went to the military prison, which was nice. I got to wear a gasmask.