Since I last wrote from Riga, I wanted to write about a few more things from that last day in Latvia:
Daniel asked if I wanted to join him for dinner on our last night there. I thought why not as he was a nice guy. He reminds me SO MUCH of a good friend Dave from college. They look a lot a like, talk the same, both from small towns with similar small town experiences. So many times, I wanted to call him Dave, and had to catch myself and say Daniel.
So after dinner, I met back up with Kathy as we had talked about going out. Saturday night was a strange one. All of a sudden, we were walking around town and there were lots of people wearing all white and they were walking in herds. We figured there had to be something going on. Later we found out there was some sort of rave with over 10,000 tickets that were sold and you had to wear all white to get in. Too bad I didn`t have white to wear (and none of the backpacker friends I was with did either). Oh well – not something we needed to go to.
We heard there was a big concert near by and bands were coming in from Poland, so we decided to check it out. Kathy had met two others in her hostel, Julia from Berkeley (few minutes from where I grew up), and the other was German. So the four of us decided to his the concert. It was the first time I met other girls that were traveling for more than a few weeks so that was fun as we all had lots of experiences to share and discuss.
The first band (can you call one guy a band or was he just a musician?). Regardless, he was hysterical. He was rocking out by himself with a guitar and has some sort of back up music like drums, synthesizer and something else. His second song had really deep meaning and I think I remember ALL the words, “I`m so abusive…I`m so abusive…I`m so abusive”. He would sing or chat this in 3 lines, then rock out, then repeat. His next song had a few more words, but not much. I have to admit, watching him was entertaining.
The next band was a crazy Latvia band of 4 guys. They had the letter “Z” on their right shoulder, so we kept calling them ZZ Top, yet they were young, and had no long beards. But it was funny. After a while, we were enjoying the music and talking to lots of locals. The locals kept coming up to us four ladies. (I think it was because we didn`t belong at this concert as it was a lot of the bands groupies all dressed in black leather, so the four of us girls in our bright colored clothes really stood out.) But it was a fun night out and I think we finally called it a night at 2am and it was actually getting dark outside.
I decided to spend the last day going to the beach with Kathy. Since I had a train to Russia that night, we decided to wake up early and head out to Jurmala beach, which is known as the Baltic Riviera.
First task, finding the right ticket window at the train station to buy a ticket. So we looked around and I was keeping my eye out for anyone in beach attire. Then we found a sign in English telling us where to go. Kathy and I decided to play our odds and stand in different lines, as I have been the line that moves the slowest so many times. Of course her line moved faster and we got our tickets.
Now where we looked at each…where do we go for the train as there are no signs directing you? So this time we stood back from where we purchased our tickets and waited for people wearing swimsuits to buy a ticket and then walk somewhere. We finally thought we found two girls going to the beach and followed them and got to the right train with a couple minutes to spare. Whew!
Once we got off the train, we had to walk through a small town, with lots of trees, almost forest like. We just followed the crowd and finally made it there. Along the walk, we passed lots of quaint “wooden houses”, and I guess this beach town is known for all wooden houses. They were very simple and nice.
I have to admit, the beach was beautiful. Very soft, white sand everywhere. Guess this is another volleyball town as all around us there were volleyball courts and many people brought beach volleyballs to pepper with (or bump around as non volleyball people call it). It was a relaxing four hours and perfect end to Latvia. I went in the water and thought it was nice. Kathy thought it was way too cold. This time, it was the Gulf of Riga that I swam in.
GAME – NEED YOUR INVOLVEMENT:
From time to time there may be funny things that I need help in understanding. This is one of them.
***Take a look the picture I took with the blue street sign photo and let me know what you think it means. Leave me a note on the message board tab with what you think it means. Creativity counts: – Blue sign with tree, car, house, children on it. What does it mean?***
On the way back to the train, we stopped for lunch. The only place we saw was called “Safari”. So you may assume it was African food. From the outside there were paintings of giraffes, elephants and rhinos. But inside, the only thing on the menu was pizza (and a lot of Hawaiian pizza at that). Too funny, but a slice hit the spot.
Back in Riga, I sweet talked my way back into the hostel and asked so nicely if I could go back to my old room to shower since I had an overnight train. They hesitated, but finally said ok and gave me a key. I was ready to go, as I thought my train left at 5:30…
It gets confusing as everyone uses the 24 hour clock in Europe. As I was ready to leave for the train with all my stuff, I looked at the ticket and realized it was for 19:30 (or 7:30 at night). I must have thought 7:30 and then thought 17:30 which was 5:30. So I basically had 2 hours to kill. Good news I made the mistake in my favor and didn`t miss the train. So I decided to go to the “Museum of Occupation of Latvia”. This documented Soviet atrocities and chronicles the Latvian resistance movement from 1940 onward. It was interesting to learn all about when and how Latvia was occupied by the Russians, German and many others, and I was able to make it.
My end to Latvia, was an 13 hour overnight train to St. Petersburg. A few interesting points to that ride:
Meeting my sleeping compartment companion:
I was sharing a sleeping compartment with a little old grandma. When I came into the cabin, she smiled, but she didn`t speak any English, and I didn`t speak any Latvian or Russian. She must have been saying goodbye to the love of her life the way she was leaning out the window, blowing kisses, waving, and mouthing some words. She had a single long stemmed red roses that must have been given to her before she boarded. I will say, it was very sweet. This lasted for almost 20 minutes before we took off.
4 hours later – Russian passport checks:
-I knew we would be woken up at the Russian border. What I didn`t realize was what the process involved. First stop was before midnight, where a big guard came to look at my passport, stamp it and then took some information card I filled out. We were at this station for about 45 minutes when they checked everyone. Back to bed around midnight.
-An hour later, we stop and are woken again. This time a very petite women (in really high heels – maybe 5 inches), comes and wants our passports and immigration cards. She takes them away, walks away (which I read about and wasn`t concerned). She was gone for about an hour and finally came back with all the documents completed.
4. Another 15 minutes later, a short, round lady comes in and talks to the grandma in Russian and points to me (I think to ask if we are traveling together) and grandma said no. So the round guard wants me to pull out my bag, open it so she can search it, and she then pulled most everything out to see what I had. I guess I passed as she signaled to close and left. Back to bed around 2:30.
For an overnight train that I was hoping to sleep on, not much sleeping happened as I just couldn`t get comfortable. Oh well, it was an experience and better than sitting awake in the common area all night trying to be safe. Little grandma and I had a good night and only smiles were exchanged, but I helped her with all her bags when we got off as she had too many and was very frail.