A smiling face is half the meal (Latvian proverb)

We're on the road to nowhere!

I have been looking at routes again today - this time from Poland to Russia. We have decided to go via the Baltics rather than across Belarus - this is longer but still in the EU so reduces bureaucracy, visas and border crossings. A large area of Latvia is covered by forests, and (in a nice contrast to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia!) the country has over 12,000 small rivers and 3,000 lakes. Most of the country is low-lying and although there are some hills in the east it initially didn't seem to be anything that Hatsu (our chariot) will be overly intimidated by.



However, choice of route and roads will be important as ever so I got in touch with Inese, a Latvian friend of mine in Riga, to get some advice.

After some discussion the best route would appear to be up the from Kaunas (in Lithuania) to Daugavils (Latvia), then along the M12 via Ludza & Zilupe before hitting the M9 and the border crossing into Russia leading towards Velikiye Luki.

Two potentially useful additional travel facts came out of this conversation
1) Estonia apparently has the best roads in the Baltics and 2) the route into Russia via Latvia has more terrible pot-holed roads...bad news as we thought the EU would generally be okay. Extra cushion order to Ikea I think! The other disappointment here though is that we won't actually get to go to Riga at all unless we take a detour ... will have to consult with the rest of the team and see what they think.

Half a meal


Inese displaying her charms. Apparently, Latvia spent a fortune on the beautiful but cheesy promotional tourism video they created for the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest in Riga.


I think they probably could have saved themselves a fortune by just using a few more photos of her! Hmm, probably just as well we are not visiting Riga now as I suspect she will now be mad at me :)


Latvians like botany

Sadly, I learn from Inese that we are also going to miss one of the biggest parties of the year too. This is the mid-summer festival of Ligo or Jāņi - a celebration of the summer solstice and the feast day of St. John the Baptist. It is supposed to be a Christian festival but that is a bit tenuous. Ligo takes place every year on the night between June 23rd and 24th, the shortest night of the year. It is customary for people to go to the countryside for Ligo, traditionally wreaths of leaves and flowers are worn on the head. If a man is named Jānis (John) the wreath will be made of oak leaves. In the early evening of the 23rd, fires are lit around which people will chat, sing and dance until the early hours of the following day. It is considered lucky to jump over these fires. Cheese flavoured with caraway and a drink made from birch sap are traditional fare at Ligo firesides.

Throughout the night it is allegedly not unusual to see young couples slip quietly off into the woods in search of a non-existent "fern flower"- these liaisons are not considered unseemly nor are they generally remarked upon the next day. When questioned on this last point Inese just laughed. Further questioning led to the joking comment that the bushes are indeed full (though sadly no-one has found the fern yet). Once again, I think the Latvian Tourist Board missed out on a selling point :)


They also like ice... (I gave him a 6 for artistic merit)

The 2006 Football World Cup is on at present in Germany. Sadly, the Latvians are not there but they did host the 2006 Ice-Hockey World Championship earlier this year. If people think there is too much diving in football just check out the dramatic reaction / attempted double-axle of this Czech player in the Czech vs Latvia game. The Latvians managed a credible 1:1 draw with the eventual silver medallists but went on to get smacked 11-0 by Canada and finished 10th overall.




Lastly, they also (see Kazakhstan blog) can't drive

Hopefully, our insurance company doesn't read this... Hmm, actually, did anyone even sort out insurance yet!