01/05 DAY 18: Vilnius -> Riga, Misadventures in Riga
I awoke at 5:30 am and I called Kevin to see what the progress was on my house. He had spent 3 hours that evening moving things, investigating, etc. It’s still hard to say just how much damage there is. The biggest concern is the floors in the kitchen. Another concern is my new washer and drier.. Time will tell.

I hurried to pack and prepare my breakfast for the bus (as it turns out, this was a very smart idea. I could tell others on the bus were jealous of my forethought!)

My initial hope was to walk the “short 10 minute walk.” With all of my luggage. I got about 5 minutes and realized it was going to be a lot longer then 10 minutes. So I walked in hopes of finding a cab.

I had a religious moment. I prayed for a taxi and one appeared. I mumbled something like “autobusy stashon” and the driver wizzed off in the exact route I would have walked.

As I got out of the cab, it began to rain. That sure worked out well, I thought. I had scoped out the previous night exactly where platform “26” was. Additionally, I had also double checked the time. “7:00” am. I arrived at the platform at 6:45. Plenty of time to catch the bus.

Well. 7:00 came. At 7:15 on my watch, I began to get kind of worried as nobody else was waiting for this particular bus. Sure, some things run late, but it just didn’t feel right.

I walked back toward the modern bus station (serious, it was surprisingly modern and clean!) debated asking someone, then turned around. As I did, I looked up.

OMFG, I thought. It can’t be. The clock said 8:25 am. Naw, it’s too dark and my watch said 7:25 am.

After a couple of discussions with security, we came to the conclusion it was indeed 8:25 am.

OK. The intelligence of the entire Polish people just went down a couple of notches. When the plane arrived in Lithuania, I asked the stewardess what time it was in Vilnius as I thought it was one timezone East of Poland. She assured me that they were the same. Remember how I say you should trust people, they are local? Here’s an example where a local person was full of it.

So, I missed my bus.

I knew there was another at 10:00 am, so I went, with all of my luggage, back to the Eurobus office.

I explained to the polite woman what had happened. Unfortunately, my tickets were not transferable and I lost the $14.

OK. I’ll buy new ones. I think she felt a bit bad for me. She asked if I were a student. Sure.

It wasn’t so much that I wanted the $2 discount, it was that I liked the compliment. I handed her a color copy of my passport, which she took for my “student ID.”

I waited around for another hour or so, boarded, the bus. Besides the loud mouth Italians that were laughing incessantly, the trip was pretty easy. Well, I had noise reducing earphones and I slept most of the way through the Lithuanian countryside while listening to classical music.

I woke up and opened a beer and ate my sandwich that I had prepared. We, as Americans, need to have picnics more.

At the border, they stamped my passport and we were off into a new country. Soon enough, a huge block sculpture announced “RIGA.” I opened my remaining beer and enjoyed the ride.

RIGA

We arrived at the main bus station, which is not the prettiest part of town. Some nearby buildings were literally in rubles. It just wasn’t nice and tidy like Vilnius.

I hailed a taxi who raced toward my hotel. Oh yeah. This was the hotel that was farther away from downtown. It was across the river and through the woods, kinda. A bit farther than walking distance.

The hotel was nice. I was eager to see to test the internet connection in my room (which didn’t work because of a bad router, most likely) and I was also wanting to see the town.

The kind woman at the reception desk had told me which bus to take, 19 or 24 and pointed where to pick it up.

I found the bus stop. No places anywhere to buy a ticket. Next time, I thought, thinking back to my crazy days living on the edge, in France.

Then it happened, a bus “controller” was in front of me mumbling something about “billet.”

Busted. I imagined a $20 or $30 fine, which is normal in cities, such as Prague.

I played it cool. And fetched a 1 Lat coin out of my change purse and gave it to the old man. He gave me back some change and gave ripped me off a ticket from the roll. Hmm k. Now how do I stamp it. I asked him. He motioned that that was all I needed. Hmm k. I played it cool as the bus took us across the river to Riga.

Since the internet connection at my hotel was not working, I decided that I would go ahead and try to find a wifi hotspot downtown, as some previous queries had yielded 3 dozen or so such places.

CENTRAL RIGA: SEEDY MARKET

The woman at the reception desk of the hotel had specifically said to get off at the central station. Now, I’m not sure if you’ve ever been to the Russian Market in Warsaw, but this whole NEIGHBORHOOD was one big seedy “bazaar.” People selling everything from clothes, to illegal CDs to produce. You name it.

I was not comfortable with the surroundings and I was not comfortable with the fact that I had my laptop with me.

I reached into my bag for my trusted “Lonely Planet: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.” But it was gone. Had I left it in the hotel?

I had to pick a direction. And, as it turns out, I picked the wrong one, going further into the market, then backtracking through it again. I saw a church steeple and headed in a new direction through a private alley. I was so uncomfortable. Probably the most uncomfortable I’ve been in a very long time. But I had to keep my cool, keep my head up and just “go” and not look lost.

I eventually found a modern movie theater. Good sign, I thought. I moved into what became the old city. I was a bit tired and was hungry.

DINNER AT TGI FRIDAY’S and LESSONS OF RIGA

When I saw the sign for TGI Fridays, I jumped on it. Something that I recognized sounded really dang good. So, I sat and had some soup and a burger. Ula served me. I had asked her if she had a “Riga this week” and she offered to get me a copy of the complementary magazine. It had maps and so I tried to get my bearings while eating my soup.

She asked if I needed to find something. I told her that I needed help finding “bus route 19” on the map. She grabbed a seat and sat beside me and showed me, assuring me that the route through a plaza near a park was ok. (It’s well lit and there are many police, as I later saw.)

She also told me that you don’t have to buy bus tickets, it’s not like the “European system,” as she called it. You can pay the 20 santimus (or $.39 USD) on the train. In fact, just take a seat and the controller will come to you to ask you for the coin. Ah, so I WASN’T breaking the law after all.

While I felt bad keeping her from yet another cluster of obnoxious Italian tourists at the next table, I was glad she talked. We had a really nice conversation. As it turns out, her first language is Russian as that what her parents speak. She’s pretty much fluent in Latvian, though, which is not the case of her parents, who speak little Latvian.

She also tipped me off on where to find wifi. I paid, bid farewell and went to the wifi place. OK. I’ll admit I got turned around a bit, but I was easily in the “tourist areas” and I did enjoy the beautiful architecture. You’re not in Vilnius anymore, Toto.

It seemed like my whole impression of the city changed after the meal. I had food in my stomach, a brief orientation, a map and I could enjoy it a bit more. Indeed, the city has an amazing charm and sophistication that rivals Prague and her overly promiscuous prom queen cousin, Paris…

Anyway, I found the wifi café and I was as giddy as a little girl. I thought of Chris as I typed away and drank my overly delicious cappuccino. I was the only one in the place with a laptop.

I had no problems finding the bus and before I know it, I was heading back over the river. I got off three stops early and so I had another opportunity to see more of this mostly residential area-by foot.

Back at the hotel, they realized that the problem with the internet was not with my Powerbook (of course!!!) but rather with the connection in the room. They gave me a new room with free high speed access that goes up and down about every minute. I’ll take it. Better than nothing.

I put on jammies, blogged and went to bed early. Tired after a long day of misadventures.
- posted by Matt @ 12:23 PM