http://www.pdsnoki.org/
Fundraising Goal: $9,000, or $9 per kilometer!!!
--
OK, this entry breaks a long e-silence. It turns out they were correct when they said Estonia is a very connected country (at least to the Internet), because in 2.5 days in Latvia, I am just now getting my first Internet access. So there are many blog entries to write all at once!
So in what is now becoming a theme, I woke in Pärnu, Estonia, to discover that, lo and behold, it was raining again. I had been sore when I went to bed and expected to be so when I woke, but I felt good enough to ride. I decided to wait out the rain if possible and had a lazy morning in town. By about noon, the rain had stopped and I quickly packed my bag, exchanged most of my Estonian crowns for Latvian lats and left town.
The ride promised to be pretty uninspiring, both because of the gray skies and rain, and because this was the section of Estonia where I had no choice but to ride the Via Baltica, the main highway. The kind people at City Bikes in Tallinn had explained this to me -- that there was a section where there was no alternative. Worse, it was colder and there was still a strong headwind blowing due north, so the first half of the ride from Pärnu was cold, slow and wet.I stopped early on for lunch in a town called Uulu (again, wish I could make these names up), where the lady behind the counter frowned at the thought of letting me bring my bike into her restaurant. When I spoke Russian to her, though, she perked up (this is becoming a theme, I'm noticing). The Finnish couple at the next table also spoke Russian to me to ask me what I was doing, etc. They were fascinated by the trip and then they realized I was American, we switched to English. They were very intrigued and very nice. We chatted for a while and they suggested I try what they were eating (fried cheese for her, fish for him).
After lunch, I checked the map and thought I had found a reasonable, non-dirt-or-gravel non-highway to take instead of the Via Baltica. I went to the gas station across the street and asked Marina behind the counter (again, a Russian) and she gave me a horrified look. In perfect English, she said it was an awful dirt road and I would never make it through. I was SO glad she told me that! Meanwhile, the Finns were filling up their car and were about to head back to Finland. I noticed they had a Polish plate and he explained that they bought their car in Poland and saved a lot of money that way. This reminded me of the scams I had heard of in Sweden where people buy a car in Eastern Europe, pay someone to drive it back for them and then a few days later the driver comes back in the middle of the night with the spare set of keys and drives the car away.
So back to the Via Baltica. Fortunately, by the town of Rannametsa, I was able to get on a 30 km Gulf-side road that had nobody on it. It was getting colder and windier, but there were a few stunning views of the surging gulf waters. There were also several very nice-looking bed and breakfasts ("talu"s) all in a row, and the road was totally empty. At the end of these 30 km, I hit the Latvian border...with little fanfare. There was no border check -- just each flag side by side
with a sign on one side that said "Eesti" and on the other saying "Latvija". In the town of Ainaži on the Latvian side I stopped in a cafe for some mint tea, got some more lats and got myself a phone card for Latvia: new number in Latvia: +371 271 589 13.One quick digression about the lat: I head read in the Rough Guide that the lat and sterling were at parity. There were other numbers that were clearly wrong if that was true (they
had $1 - 1.90 lats, for example). So I didn't know what to expect. It turns out they had reversed the numbers: a lat is worth $2 and equal to a little more than 1 pound, which means you get quite a lot for a lat (sorry!)...I guess the actual number means nothing (hooray for monetary neutrality/the classical dichotomy, for those who took Prof. Klein's International Finance class at Fletcher)), but I do find it interesting.So I guess it was a little bit of shock when I had booked my rural homestay that morning in a town called Salacgrīva and they planned to charge me 9 lats for the stay, dinner and breakfast. Even at about $20, what a deal! Anyway, when I got to Ainaži, my host told me that their farm was about 12 km into the countryside from Salacgrīva, off of a long stretch of dirt road, in a little town called Kuikule. He offered to pick me and the bike up in town and I said that would be great!
I arrived around 6:30 and he was right -- it was another road I never would have wanted to cycle and I was exhuasted anyway. We spoke a combination of Russian and English and he told me that he had visited the US in 2000 -- New York, Boston and then Colorado and New Mexico. The house was a pretty, country house with a small, man-made lake. They had a Siberian husky named Alex and a very nice, hot sauna. The hot water for the sauna made for a nice hot shower and afterwards there was a dinner big enough for two on the table, just for me: fried pike from the local river in a mushroom and smetana sauce, home-grown cucumbers, tomatoes and about
8 boiled potatoes, as well as that great Latvian dark rye bread, apples, plums and one of the most refreshing juices I've ever tasted. The hostess said she made it from berries and apples she picked in her yard and I probably drank a liter of it.I was curious what these homestays would be like and this one reminded me of the nicer, newer Russian dachas I had seen. The decor was very much like I remember from Moscow days, and the bed was simple and creaky; though it was comfortable, I was worried it wouldn't hold my weight. This place helped solidify my growing impression of the region: Estonia is really a 50-50 mix of Scandinavia and Russia, while Latvia looks and feels decidedly more like Russia to me.
The family kept to themselves that night and I did the same, just reading my book (Bellow's _The Adventures of Augie March_, which is growing on me quickly). I realized I was VERY far away from any Internet connection, and I realized I hadn't warned Leslie or my folks that I might have some days of total radio (Internet?) silence. And my cell phone got no reception here, so I tried a few text messages to Leslie to no avail and then gave up.
Vitals on today's ride:
Distance: 52 miles (total ride at 155 miles)
Today's Map: http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=21134
Soundtrack: Howard Levy and Anthony Molinaro Live (thanks Mom -- great album!); Nina Simone, Little Girl Blue.
Appropriate Music Line of the Day: Nina Simone: "The only thing you can count on are the raindrops."
No comments:
Post a Comment