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Baltic Tour Volumen 1's Tour Diary (2003)
(Tour:Baltic) - toured with Josh Vanek, Andy Smetanka, Mike "Private Dick, Dirty Finn" Valentine - Toured Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania |
09/09/2003 Things get confusing on our welcome day off
Day ??? - Entry ???
It's been several days since I've even touched the zaurus. So, this entry is being written several days later. I had a chance, two days ago, in Riga, Latvia, to visit an Internet cafe, but I chose to get a haircut and visit The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. I think we were leaving Tartu when I last wrote? We made it to Janis' * parents country home outside of Riga (Salacgriva, to be exact) around late afternoon. It was another magical cottage situation. We had an early dinner of fresh and pickled mushrooms, some good dark bread and some gelled and pickled fish. It was our day off and we really took advantage of it.
The boys went into town to get some food and beer and Bryan and I stayed behind with our gracious hosts, Janis, Una and little Janis (their 2 year old son). I'm sort of messing their names up because the Zaurus can't do the lines over letters.
Anyway, while we were waiting around and relaxing, Janis showed us an old Russian jeep that he had on a corner of their property. Next thing I knew, I was behind the wheel, he was in the car in front of me with a tow rope and we were trying to pop the clutch. This was made more difficult by the fact that I only barely understand the principle of this operation and I've never done it myself. So, we sitched places and Janis was able to get the old jeep running.
Minutes later, Bryan and I are in the beast with Janis and we three were flying like madmen over forrest paths. We narrowly avoided large trees and plowed over their smaller brothers. I held onto the door handle (no seat belts) and tried to shift my weight when it seemed like we were going to tip the jeep. After a couple of laps around the house, we stopped by the Sauna and disembarked. Bryan and I were jubilantly high fiving each other. Bryan said something like, "That was one of those situations where if I knew what was happening, I wouldn't have agreed to it. But, I'm glad I did."
The boys got back and we roasted some sausages over the fire, sipped beer and bitter liquor and talked. Then Dombis (who had appeared magically from the second story of the cottage) and Janis took us to some sand caves. We found glow bugs on the way down and tried to frighten each other with tales of pagan sacrifice at the caves.
When we got back, it was time for a greatly appreciated sauna, cold water and birch branches across the back. A quick Happy Birthday to Bacon and then we went to bed early (for once) and prepared to rock Riga.
That was 3 days ago. I'll write about Riga next.
* - Janis is pronounced Yah-niss. |
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