Liva Liepaja

8:30 AM bus leaving from the station right outside the hostel. Very convenient. My back is still in pain but I manage my huge pack OK. Raining day so not a beach day when I arrive at 10:30. As the bus passes the border from Lithuania to Latvia, the roads become much rougher.

I stay at Travellers' Hostel, a 5 minute walk from the center. It is raining so I have my mini-umbrella up while ...

North up the coast we crossed the border into Latvia. A couple of km over the border we found this old woman's house by the sea, who is an obsessive compulsive beachcomber. Everything in the garden and adorning the house has been washed up on the beach, which she has then made into statues or just decoration (couple of photos above). She makes a side living off the amber she finds on the ...

... she told me "just for fun" cause that part of history, he has to know. Undėrstand if you want to, i'm still wonderring.... Anyway!, that was the most amazing experience ever! And here now i'm just coming back to normal life......some people will get it :) For the beggining of my trip, it was in Riga, and i had the chance to meet Liga, the girl who host me for 3 nights. We didn't had too much time to talk , cause she was working early in the morning and so she had to ...

... etc. Not everybody treats us like complete freaks! We got off the tram and continued walking to the hostel - the city centre is fairly nice, but it gets pretty run down as you head towards the beach. There are many abandoned and burned out houses. The hostel was pretty scary looking from the outside - until you go inside. Brand new and renovated. Until ... they took us to our room in another building ...

... looking over my shoulder I look around and marvel. At the end of the beach what is a rocky outcrop which as I approach it appears distinctly man made. As I turn the headland I can see more structures of man made origin collapsing into the see for a stretch of a Km or so. These appear to have been part of the imperial fortifications with a few German/soviet addition, all off which have been pounded and destroyed by the sea. Again deserted and sign posted I ...

Our short stay in Liepaja just wasn't long enough. Our hostel was about 2 blocks away from the beach and it bloody rained. That didn't stop us from going to the beach though. We went out one night with some people from the hostel, but mainly just chilled out playing air hockey, wathing DVD's and drinking.

... deserted and windswept. Not really good for just lazing around and forgetting about the world like Neringa, but they made for a very pleasant day walking up and down, searching for amber and exploring the ruined forts gradually being swallowed by the sea. What drove me out of Liepaja wasn't the lack of anything interesting in town; I just couldn't take the infestation of mormons there.

... dinner we went to a local supermarket, deep in the bowels of what looked to be a war torn Latvian housing estate, and picked up some bits and bobs. After dinner we had a few rounds of cards before retiring to our comfy beds. However, Paul and I didn't realise that the bed split into two and it was only the top cover that was a double. Otherwise we wouldn't have spent the night worrying about staying as far away from each other in the night...

... snow-covered beach. All white. We wanted to see and feel the water. Hence, we decided to walk a bit over the ice and sit down. Smoke a cigarette. We enjoyed the warm sunlight on our cold faces. We sat there and smoked, like two old and rusty friends. This wonderful feeling of friendship, what would the world be without it. Thank you, all ...

... time or you will become sick. At least I will. I am sick at this point. Visiting Petersburg as a tourist in summer must be an entirely different expercience. In daily life you have to fight a lot. Fight with the authorities, fight with the teachers, fight with the administration. There is always some superfluous rule that needs to be obeyed. You can ask an administrator for half an hour why something is being done a ...