When we planned our rough hitchhike route from Kaunas to Riga, we were pretty confident that we would arrive easily and quickly. Thanks to Hitchwiki we had a decent starting spot and it only took like 3 seconds to get picked up by the first couple. Unfortunately they misunderstood the dropping off spot and took us to a different place. We were pretty demotivated, because we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere whilst it was raining and on top pretty windy. After understanding that we had to deal with the situation as it was, we looked for a better place to stand and after walking a little we found a spot which wasn't great, but not terrible either. It probably took around 20 minutes after Albert picked us up. He was Lithuanian and on his way to Kalingrad. Since he didn't speak English and we don't know Lithuanian, me (Chantal) and him communicated in Russian. I don't speak it fluently but 2 years in school were enough to have a conversation about his life, why he's going where he's going and about our trip. After about 45 minutes with him, he dropped us off in the middle of nowhere.
Again we were like: how do we ever get away from here? But it literally took 3 seconds, until a huuuuuuge lorry stopped in the middle of the street. He must have blocked the street for about two minutes (cars were already waiting behind us) until we and our huge backpacks climbed up this massive lorry. He was another Russian speaking Lithuanian guy and even called all his lorry driver friends and asked if anyone was going into the direction of Riga (nobody was though).
He dropped us off at a spot with wasn't bad for going to a close by city, but for our direction is was quite tough. After standing there for like 20-30 minutes with two cars stopping but going into the wrong direction, we decided to walk a bit further and tried to stop cars from another place. Yet we were without success for like another half an hour. Since it was raining during all of that time we were cold, wet, hungry and demotivated. We were about to look for a blablacar when our hero Nerius stopped. We asked him in which direction he was heading and we couldn't believe his answer: Riga.
Exactly where we needed to go. 2 hours straight. We couldn't believe our luck. Nerius was a great guy, I was also communicating with him in Russian. We noticed that rather than English, a lot of people know Russian as a second language. The ride was super funny, since we found a lot of things to talk about. He taught me Lithuanian and Russian at the same time. So after 130km we arrived at the airport in Riga (because that's where he was going to pick up some friends). After dedicating to not flying, this was the last place we imagined ourselves to be at, yet there we were. Ačiū (thank you in Lithuanian!) Nerius!
We took the bus into the town and found ourselves a hostel in Rigas old town, because Couchsurfing wasn't successful at that time. Straight away we were welcomed with a typical Latvian Welcome Shot, which was used as medicine (and it tasted like it as well!). After that we made many friends with people from our hostel, which we would go out with on the same day. We went to a club which was called Rock Cafe and well - we danced our asses off!
At around 3 o'clock we decided that it was time to go home, but whilst Franzy was spreading one of our "Take your Chanzy"-Stickers, we caught this one guy's attention and we started talking to him. He said that we was going to play some music on the streets. Franzy and the other girl were tired and decided to go to sleep, yet I just wanted to listen to his music for 5 minutes.
Well, to be honest those 5 minutes turned out to be 5 hours of him playing the guitar and me singing in the streets of Riga. We even created our own song (to be launched later!) and we had a lot of fun, even though it was freezing cold after a while. He also told me about this beautiful beach that is next to a forest and around 40 minutes by train away from Riga. Since we were staying in a lot of cities and during hitchhiking also didn't have much time to relax, I thought this would be a perfect place to go to. Therefore we decided (and I decided for Franzy as well) that we would meet up the next day to go there. So at 7 o'clock and after helping a lost guy from Iceland to find back to his hostel, we said goodbye to each other and went to sleep.
The next day, since it was full of plans, I stood up at 10 o'clock. Meaning, that I had 3 hours of sleep. Well, didn't matter to me, Franzy and me were already on the road to find a great spot to have an overview over Riga. We found one. Here's the result of our search:
We also got groovy up there, we put some music on and danced. Later on, we will launch a video of awesome places where we have shown our moves. After enjoying this view, we met up with my friend from yesterday. We got into the train and had great talks about everything. Latvian language, culture and the country itself. During the train ride we were amazed by our surroundings. There was basically nothing but trees, trees and more trees. We completely escaped the city and were just in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Latvia. To give you an impression of what we mean, just have a look at the following picture.
From there it only took us like a 15 minute walk to the beach. The walk itself was already great, because it was a huge wooden path, that would slowly take us to our astonishing destination.
As soon as we arrived at the beach, I couldn't help myself but start crying because I was that amazed by its beauty. For some reason this always happens to me when I reach the sea after not being it for a while. But I guess rather than describing this place now, we should let photos speak. Of course they are not at all able to reproduce the magic of the place, but at least you can more or less imagine what it was like. Here are some impressions:
There you go. For me this is still one of the highlights of this trip. Meeting this random guy through a random occasion, singing random songs and then discovering this place together. Could life be more exciting? I guess not. After we were able to watch an incredible sunset, followed by a clear star sky and a freshly brewed Latvian tea, we returned.
We stayed in a hostel for two days when a couchsurfer replied and let us stay at his home for one night. Helmuts, another hero on our trip. He was that kind, he actually picked us up straight from the hostel and drove us to yet another amazing nature place. Here I would also like the pictures to talk for its beauty.
After having a beautiful walk around this nature place, we headed to Helmuts home where he pleased us with loads of tea and even a great vegan meal he cooked for us. He was a great guy and we were really grateful to have met him. We still keep in touch.
The next day we would then head to Estonia. Latvia, it was an absolute pleasure. Thanks for having us and we will definitely come back one day (preferably in summer!).
Chanti & Franzy
TakeyourChanzy
Comentarios