Walking out of the hostel room facing the Riga police made me rub my tired eyes twice – did I get into trouble last night? Surprisingly enough they weren’t looking for me but for the victims that were robbed last night, judging the police officer’s statement “I understand that you have been robbed” to one of the girls in the room next to ours. Feeling sorry for her I continued with my plans: picking up my freshly washed clothes from the dry cleaner’s. Also feeling sorry for her to have to wash our heavily used underwear I keep the 6 days out in the wild in very good memory.
Before camping, Simon and I started off our stay in Riga with a couple of nights out in the heart of the city. We experienced the city as very friendly and quite cheap – a long island ice tea only cost us 6€. Since we are both very keen on keeping the financial stability that Latvia has we didn’t hold back on spending money. But naturally not all the money went on the mildly alcoholic beverage. We also paid a lot for a hostel that housed homeless people in their entrance. After a couple of late nights we were ready for some time out in nature.
We chose our destination by looking at satellite images from areas that were recommended to us by fishermen, hunters and fellow adventurers. The two hour bus ride turned out to be quite a struggle, but with the help of the extremely friendly and German speaking locals we arrived at our stop. Fully packed we hiked to the first spot we had in mind. Unfortunately, it was a very swampy area so we soon decided to see what the second spot further away had to offer. There we were lucky, we found a perfectly located place in the forest next to a lake which seemed to be sparkling with life. Promising for fishing. We set up our camp and quite soon it was like a home to us. We got familiar with the surroundings and lit our first fire. Our morals were high!
The first time fishing the next day ended quite suddenly and early for one of us. It took all my previously acquired fishing expertise to lose the little glittery fish we used as bait with the second throw. This minor incident was followed by the aforementioned specialist breaking his fishing rod after about the 10th throw trying to free an entangled fishing line. Facing back I’m happy with our decision not to rely on freshly caught fish for our dinners, we wouldn’t have eaten very much. Despite Simon’s tireless effort we caught a total of 0 fish. But we brought more than enough food for us. Did you really think I was going to risk not eating dinner for 6 or even 1 day?!
The rest of the 6 days were exhausting but at the same time soothing due to all the peace and quiet. We really needed some time away from all the urban buzz. After having one last night out back in Riga Simon has sadly already left me, his holiday’s come to an end. As a goodbye present he took half of my clothes back to Zurich. I guess I’ll have to ration my clothes well for the next couple of months.
Meanwhile I have reached Moscow and have experienced a sensory overflow. What a massive city! I’m already excited to take the Transsiberian Express to Yekaterinburg on Friday. I’ll keep you posted soon, hope you’re all enjoying summer.