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Slippery slopes
Entry 51 of 57 | show all | print this entry |
You may or may not remember the crazy Banana bender, Ben, from my last entry. He actually stayed with me at Zane's house on the night before I went to Sigulda. He was heading north to Tallinn and he suggested that he might be interested in hitchhiking - he didn't know that this would be taken seriously by Zane, a veteran of the thumb. She printed him off a sheet of paper with TALLINN on it and then we started driving towards Sigulda, approximately 50km north-east of Riga. We were going there so Zane could go snow boarding. So anyway Ben thought he was coming with us and then he would catch the night bus. To his suprise, halfway to Sigulda, Zane stops the car and tells him to get out and stand on the road with the sign and his thumb out. He was so suprised that she was serious, but he got out to give it a go - all the time I was laughing at the look on his face...
So we left Ben on the side of the road in the middle of snowy Latvia and we continued on our way to Sigulda. By the time we got there it was dark, as tends to happen in this part of the world at 5:00pm. Zane was hungry so we stopped and went into this road house restaurant thing and sat down to a hot Latvian meal - the food isn't so different to other Eastern European food, but thoroughly yummy. What was really suprising and annoying was that in this room with 20 people in it, I could hear eight other people with distinct Australian accents - and they weren't even together! WHAT THE HELL ARE NINE AUSTRALIANS ALL DOING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LATVIAN COUNTRYSIDE IN NOVEMBER IN A SMALL ROADSIDE DINER!!!?!?!? I want to know if there is anywhere where I can escape my countrymen...
So we got to the end of our route and we got lost as always. We went to a log cabin restaurant at the base of a hill for directions and they told us where to go. (that is not Aussie slang, they actually gave us directions! haha) This restaurant had a MASSIVE carpark and it was covered in snow, so I asked Zane if I could try driving the car here for my first experience in cold conditions. She said yes and we changed positions. I was being egged on the whole time to do doughnuts and burnouts and everything by my Latvian counterpart, which I found hilarious. I didn't try any of these manouvers because it wasn't my car and I don't know about this snow business. I was however suprised how much traction you get on snow when you have the suitable tyres for cold weather.
After discovering that snow boarding wasn't going to happen due to lack of good snow, we went for a walk through the moonlit forrest - quite nice and tranquil. My shoes are not made for snow and when walking down this hill I slipped and went arse up for about 10m, hurting my back in the process - oh what fun! I stood up and found myself slipping again so I did the 'smart' thing and started running down the hill - how can I lose traction if I am going in that direction!? I managed not to fall down by running about 50m down the hill and finally clasping onto a tree branch - what an adventure. Zane followed me down laughing the whole way all smug in her snow-suitable shoes. When we got to the bottom of this hill we realised that there was nothing there of interest so we went back up. Half way we diverged from our route and went onto a bridge where we ate snow off the handrails. I was surprised to notice the taste of snow - perhaps it had come from the arsenic-treated wood or the pollution from cars, but it was quite a pleasant taste. We made our way back to the car and then to the castle.
The castle left a little to be desired having seen the ones in Belgium and Germany, but it was still vaguely interesting when you combine it with the history of the region. It was here that I made my first snow angel. The lens on my camera broke soon after that - I have to get the bastard fixed soon or I will have no more photos! I can't work out why the lens broke, but I might have damaged it when I fell over down the hill - god bless warranties and insurance! Following the castle we made our way home to Riga.
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