Category — Latvia

The last few days in Belo Horizonte I have been doing quite a lot of different things, the results of which you can hopefully see soon in the picture gallery. Here is a small summary:

I went to visit two beautiful caves on sunday with Amilcar, a host from BH, and Julie, hist guest at the time. The caves were really beautiful and located in beautiful natural surroundings. We spent almost all day there and then drove back to BH.

Another day we went to see some waterfalls, also reasonably nearby. They were very beautiful and it was the first time in my life I was swimming in a natural bassin at the foot of a waterfall. Very amazing experience!

And there was more: we went to a super luxurious meat restaurant with the most delicious all-you-can-eat meat and an astonishing view. The view made me sad too. Of the over 2 million people living in this city, a lot of people have to work very hard or don’t even succeed to put food on their table every day. And here we are, eating until we drop. Sad but true, I guess this is one of the many intriguing aspects of this country: filthy rich against alarmingly poor.

We also went to see a live band and a beautiful night view over the city (getting soaking wet while admiring it)

And then there are of course the girls. They might not all be extremely hot, but the amount of beautiful asses here is downright ridiculous!

I really love being here in Belo Horizonte. Her I am just a stranger and not  a walking ATM liek in Salvador. The surfers community is very nice and the regular people too. It is a very safe city, which is also very nice for a city this size (3rd biggest city in Brazil).

On sunday I am moving to Sao Paolo to celebrate christmas with a couchsurfing mother and daughter in Japanese style (their family chooses a different theme-country every year). After that I am not sure where I will spend New years, but that will be tomorrow’s problem

The next morning I woke up early as I was sleeping on an airbed that was leaking and I had been sleeping on the ground since 4am. That, in combination with my back still hurting from the day before was not a good sleeping place I took my laptop and my sleeping bag and made myself comfortable in the comfy chair in the kitchen. I worked on responding to my email and writing my blog. Then I slept some more and when I woke up from pain I went back into the bedroom. I lay down on my camping mattress and blogged a bit more. Suddenly I heard someone knocking on the front door. I was a bit weary of opening it, since Lauris had told me about a homeless guy living in the stairwell and I was the only one awake at the time. I couldn’t identify the person, whoever it was.

When the knocking kept going, I decided to man up and open the door anyway. Lo and behold, it was Ash, the lost surfer. Ash was actually supposed to arrive the night before but never showed up. This happens sometimes in couchsurfing and it sucks: you open your house to someone and they never show up, even without giving you any explanation sometimes. He quickly explained the situation though: he had fallen off a rooftop in St. Petersburg the day before and damaged his back badly enough to want to take a bus instead of hitchhiking. The bus however was only going to Riga during the night so that’s why he showed up now instead of the day before. I woke up Lauris and we talked with Ash for a while. We cooked some breakfast (yes, we actually cooked ) and talked some more.

After breakfast we decided to go explore one of the glass rooftops we could see on the building on the other side. It turned out to be the top of the stairwell/elevator shaft so we walked up the stairs to the top floor and climbed through a fence shielding a stairway up to a platform on top of the elevator shaft. Someone had obviously been living there a while ago. We found a box of completely unharmed longdrink glasses and took them back to the apartment after climbing down.

After the stairwell adventure we walked through the city back to the apartment we had been to the day before (the one with the nice rooftop). This time we climbed up there with six people and we talked a lot. Well, actually they talked a lot and I slept a lot. Ah well, I guess sleeping on rooftops is a new experience as well When we all got cold we went back down and walked to the harbor area where later that day the film festival thing would start.

Lauris knew a bunch of people there so we first said hi to them. They gave us a shitload of leftover porridge and when we were full, Lauris decided to take us to an abandoned ship wreck that was close by. We climbed all over it while I couldn’t help suppressing some thoughts about asbestos and various chemicals (It wasn’t the best looking ship wreck ever, so to speak ). Then Ash started the association game. Basically you sit in a circle and say a word. The next person says the first thing that comes to their mind and so on. Quite funny to see what people’s associations are sometimes.

After a while we got sick of it (or was it secretly the ship that made us sick? :P) and decided to head back to the film festival area. There we just hung out until the movies started. I sat through the first batch of movies without falling asleep! What an achievement! Some of them were quite good (especially for French movies) and some of them had a high what-the-fuck-factor (even for French movies). The second batch of movies I was a bit less lucky, I saw part of the first one and part of the last one and some fragments in between.

During the second break we were a bit bored so Lauris and me decided to go home and Ash decided to stay there. Just before we left I saw part of a Russian movie about a farm family who sold their beautiful daughter to a rich city guy. Quite realistic, impressive and depressing at the same time.

When we got home it was just him and me, the rest of the guys were out somewhere. Lauris wanted to write a letter to an ex-girlfriend and I needed to catch up on email and couchsurfing business, so we both worked quietly for a while. Around 1:15 I fell asleep on the couch which also happens to be Lauris’ bed and instead of him waking me up he slept on the floor (so I found out the next morning ).

When I woke up at 7 the next day I could hear the rain pouring on the rooftop of the hostel. I decided that was a good reason to go back to sleep and sleep as long as possible before getting out of the room (checkout was at noon). I slept and watched TV shows until 11:30, when it really started to be time to get up

I got up and took a shower, but when I got out of the shower I strained my back badly. This was not very good to say the least With a painful back I packed my bag and ooh-ing and ah-ing I went downstairs. At the front desk I saw that the internet computer was free and since I was hurting so much I couldn’t walk far anyway, so I decided to sit down and check my e-mail.

Much to my surprise I found a host, Lauris, willing to host me for my remaining time in Riga! I sent him a message saying that I would wait for him at 14:00 at the ground floor restaurant of the department store next to central station. I couldn’t actually wait for an answer since someone else wanted to use the computer. Now there was only one problem: I actually had to walk there with a 20Kg backpack!

I walked there really slowly and it was extremely painful. I sat down and bought some breakfast and a magazine to kill the time as it was only 13:00 and this was not a place I felt secure taking the laptop out (besides the fact that that was physically impossible ). When Lauris arrived at 14:00 he was like a whirlwind: talking and talking, asking questions, telling me all kinds of things, talking travel stories and asking for some in return. I told him about my back but he had apparently forgotten after 5 minutes which forced me to keep up with him almost running through the city. I guess it was good for me because it made me forget about my back and it actually hurt a bit less.

We walked for 20 minutes to his house which was an old sovjet-style apartment building. The apartment he and his friends were living in had no hot water, no shower and central heating hadn’t been turned on yet. He and his friends were extremely friendly though, so I immediately felt very comfortable. One thing that bothered me were my own thoughts: elitist westernized thoughts kept shooting through my mind, thoughts that I didn’t want to have and was actually ashamed of thinking. Actually this was food for more thought about my own thoughts :).

Lauris and his friends are freegans, which means that basically they live as cheap as possible enjoying everything free in this world: dumpster diving, hitchhiking etc. Luckily for me this was not my first encounter to this lifestyle, so it was easier to get used to. It is actually a lifestyle that I could see myself doing if I wasn’t so damn brainwashed by western societies

Lauris had to deliver some posters for an upcoming event to the hostel he worked for (not the one I was staying in ), so we decided to go there by bike. Yippiee, I hadn’t been riding a bicycle since I left Holland and it felt very good, even despite the fact that the thing had no breaks, my back was still hurting and riding a bike in Riga is a ‘bit’ more dangerous than in Holland :). We were driving fast through the streets of Riga, delivering the posters to the hostel. Then I was hungry and Lauris took me to a place to eat. Some nice domestic food and I treated him to some of it. An example of Freegan lifestyle: when we sat down, he walked over to the next table and took the leftovers from that table. Something that when you think of it, is not strange at all. We saw the people leave and their food was as good as fresh. Still, in western society this is completely not done for reasons unknown to me. Anyway, I didn’t mind at all and it just meant we had a little more food

After dinner we went to the top floor of one of the highest hotels in the city to enjoy the view. We were up there for half an hour just enjoying the view and talking. Then we had to get back down as our bicycles were locked but unattended. Lauris decided we would visit a friend’s house toi climb her rooftop and see what they were up to. We went there, made tea and climbed up to the rooftop. It was beautiful, as most rooftops have just about the same height you can see quite far in every direction. We watched a beautiful sunset and when it started raining and we got cold we went back down.

We took a quick bicycle ride to an area in the harbor where there was a cultural area that was used by the young people of Riga for all kinds of cultural events. Lauris told me about a film festival that would take place here the next day and kind of convinced me to stay for the weekend to go there. Anyway, the area was really nice, almost like a squat except for the fact that it was legal.

We drove back home to cook dinner as we had most of the pots and pans with us that Lauris had taken to his friends’ apartment a few days earlier for a big picknick there. Before we could cook dinner we had to go shopping first. We went to buy some food and when we came back, I helped preparing dinner. Everyone in the house was vegetarian but I don’t mind as long as it’s only for a couple of days

We all ate together: the guys living there and all guests, it was really nice. After dinner two of Lauris’ friends came over and we looked at the pictures of my travels up to then and I told some of my travel stories. After that we watched a few episodes of Green Wing, another British comedy show that I had never heard of but it is pretty funny actually. After that it was late already and we fell asleep. One of the girls stayed over as well.

The next morning we got up at 7:00. We had a quick breakfast and I packed my bag. I notice that I am getting faster and faster at packing that thing. I know exactly what goes where and how. Actually, I woke up a little later than 7, so I had to skip shower which was not a real problem since I wouldn’t feel comfortable in taking a shower in a bathroom without a door anyway. Instead I just figured I would take one later that day in Riga.

I left the apartment together with Krista. We got on a bus as her school was in the same direction as my bus stop at the end of town. We said goodbye on the bus and she told me where to go for a good hitchhiking spot. I was so grateful for her saving me from sleeping in a hostel this night!

As it was still halfdark I figured it might be a bit early to start hitchhiking, so I looked to see if the same coffee place from last night was still open so I could sit there and look for a place to sleep in Riga (I still had no couch). Unfortunately it was closed so I decided to start hitchhiking anyway.

I took the bus she had told me to get and looked for the football stadium she had told me to look for. It took a long time before I saw a football field with some benches next to it and figured this would be my stop. The name of the stop also sounded like the name she had told me. When I got off the bus I saw that this was indeed the right place to be. As it was still dark, I walked a little and made my sign for Riga. After a while it started to rain, which if it doesn’t come in too large portions can be a good thing for a hitchhiker.

After a while I was picked up by a Latvian truck driver driving from Finland all the way to Kaunas in Lithuania. This was exactly the direction I was going in a few days later and for a moment I was tempted to stay in this truck all the way there. Then I however realized that I was not doing some race to get as far as possible as quickly as possible, I am here to actually see the countries I am in

When we neared the border to Latvia I was a little confused as communicating with the driver was hard and he stopped at a place before the border. I had never crossed a guarded border before, and definitely not while hitchhiking in a truck. Confused I got out and followed the truck driver who entered a building. I couldn’t find him inside so I quickly went to the toilet (I thought that might be where he was) but he wasn’t there. I waited back outside and when he returned it turned out that he had just been exchanging money at the exchange office (the building didn’t have sign on it indicating it was here and from the inside it was just a bunch of corridors, very strange).

We proceeded to the real border and the driver gave the border guard my passport along with all the papers for him and his truck. Everything was fine and we were let into Latvia, yay! This is the 16^th country I have visited in my life. The counter is going up!

The driver took me almost all the way to Riga but dropped me about 15 km before as he wasn’t going all the way there. I got out and realized I was staning along the Baltic highway where cars drive really fast and there is no goo spot to start hitchhiking. Luckily there was a bus stop, so I started there. I actually wanted to take a bus, but I didn’t have any Latvian money. Before starting to hitchhike again I went into a small shop on the other side of the highway but as I had no Latvian money on me and they didn’t accept Estonian money, I couldn’t buy anything. It was only 10:50 and I was already almost in Riga. I love hitchhiking in these countries!

I got a ride pretty fast from a nice woman who turned out to be a film director. She was not working at the moment however as she had just had a baby 5 months ago. She was on her way to see her old colleagues for a few hours in Riga. She told me some general things about Latvia and when we got to the place she worked at (right in the center of the city!) she showed me where to find an ATM and told me some general directions for the city center. I got some money (again, I guessed the amount as I had forgotten to check the exchange rate again ) from the ATM and then went looking for a place with wireless internet.

Within minutes I saw a double coffee (this is a chain of coffee places in the Baltics) and hoped there would be wifi there. Unfortunately there was only paid wifi, but there was no way to pay by credit card and my Estonian phone number did not allow me to send a message to a special number like this one. I got a bite to eat and a glass of milk as I had only little breakfast. While waiting I wrote some blog posts. After eating I left the place as the pressure of finding a couch for the night was getting bigger and bigger and time was running out.

I walked around a bit more in the beautiful Riga and after a while I found another double coffee. I checked for wifi connections on my phone and found a couple outside, so I went inside. Unfortunately the walls of the building were apparently blocking the signal, since there was none inside. Because I had already gotten the laptop out, I had to order something and decided a cup of tea would be cheap. Unfortunately the waitress brought me a whole pot of tea (selling tactics?), so I drank a few cups and then left that place.

I walked around some more looking for a wireless connection, now getting pretty anxious to find one soon. I walked past an irish pub and noticed the wifi sticker on the window. I went inside and ordered a Latvian beer. Then I set up my laptop only to find out that it was the same paid network that I had run into in the first double coffee. This time, I asked the guy at the next table if he would send the text message for me and I would give him one lat for it. He agreed and I finally had a connection. I immediately started sending out text messages through skype and from my Estonian sim, not knowing yet that I could not receive messages on this number. A lot of people contacted for nothing as would turn out later!

I also added one guy on skype as his profile showed him to be online and just as my hour of access was finishing, he responded. I quickly asked the bartender to do the same for me as the other guy had done and got another hour of access. I talked for a bit with the skype guy and he gave me the number for a friend of his who would be able to help me. I called the guy and he asked me to call back after six and he would help me. I was very happy as I thought I had a place to sleep.

I wrapped things up at the Irish pub and walked around the city for another hour before sitting down at stockmann’s (a big expensive department store) in the restaurant on the top floor, figuring that would be a safe place to take out my laptop. I took it out and pretended I was working while actually falling asleep. I dozed until it was six (almost 45 minutes without ordering or being bothered, yay ) and called the guy back. He now told me that he was too busy and that I would have to find a place to sleep by myself. Fuck! I didn’t see that one coming! I was frustrated, depressed and felt sick (had been feeling sick for a few days now, probably traveling catching up with me).

I was absolutely in no mood for people or much hassle anymore, so I decided to go to the hostel at the back of the central train station. My first night in a hostel had finally arrived! As I was walking to the hostel I felt insecure because of the dark area with dark alleys that were almost deserted (during the day this was a busy market place, now it was just creepy). I found the hostel and when I entered I saw only shabby people who were drunk and quarreling. It turned out this was not the hostel but the public cheap restaurant below it. I went up one floor and there it was much nicer.

I sat down at the desk and booked a room. It turned out to be 13€ per person per night and because I felt so sick I booked a double room (no single rooms available) paying for both the beds to make sure I had the room for myself. It felt a bit posh (as far as you can be posh in a hostel ), but I really needed some privacy and was not up for anyone stumbling into my room in the middle of the night.

I went up to the room and unexpectedly it looked very clean and nice! I dropped my bags and fell into the bed. I tried to sleep but was too depressed still. I decided to take a nice hour long shower and just sit down, thinking about things as they were going right now. After an hour I felt a lot better (although still pretty sick) and got out of the shower. I did some things that had to be done: I prepared my laundry (figuring there had to be some laundry room in the hostel), I looked for a wifi network (found one but it was secured) and I reorganized my backpack. I went downstairs to the restaurant but it was already closed. I didn’t really mind as I felt like shit anyway. I bought some drinks at the front desk of the hostel and asked the guy for the wireless passcode. He gave me one that he said might be the one I needed.

I went back to my room and tried the password. It didn’t work. I decided to watch some shows on my laptop and after that I went to bed. I was very tired form an eventful day. For the first time I felt a little bit happy to not be couchsurfing as that means you have to stay up and pay attention to people. That is usually fine, but tonight I was more happy here in the hostel.