That’s mainly what my trip before Russia is all about. Getting used to travelling alone and to meeting people, hitchhiking and coping on my own.
So when I got dropped off in Riga, Latvia I had no clue where to go. It was rather late, so I arranged a stay at a hostel and went out to explore the evening city. Already then I grew to like this Baltic metropolis with its river flowing through it, the dense old city and the many parks and recreational areas.
Next day: the free Old City Tour after a slow start; then a stroll along the riverside and a visit of the Latvian War Museum. A five story building, crammed with firearms, uniforms and bomb shells – unlike anything I have seen before! Unfortunately there were no English translations…
In the afternoon I spontaneously took the bus to the Latvian Ethnographical Open Air Museum which was well worth the half hour ride from the center: More than a hundred old Latvian buildings were scattered all over a huge area and I felt like I had travelled back in time when I, after walking through a lush forest for some time, stumbled upon a big farm where an old woman was tending the beautiful flowers in front of the main building. There were also several wooden churches, workshops, windmills and a fishing town, all well preserved and extremely cozy looking.
Back in the city I walked several more kilometers, from one interesting place to the next, and found another hostel for the night, where I had a long conversation with two other travelers. I guess that is nothing special, but it’s still the beginning of my trip and what will probably become normal is still new to me.
Leaving Riga early in the morning I am surprised at how much I had been able to see in just one and a have days and how well I had gotten to know this place. But sure, there would have been plenty of other things to explore for many more days…
Hitching a ride to Tallinn proved to be rather difficult that day – it took three cars and more than two hours of standing at the highway shoulder with trucks passing by at full speed before I finally arrived in the afternoon. But it was worth it: One guy who picked me up wanted to show me the real Latvia, so we took of onto a dirt road which we followed for many kilometers. We passed run down farms and also a few mansions, until we finally arrived at a place in the middle of nowhere that he had wanted to show me: the Red Cliffs. Really unexpected in this landscape of forests and fields there were indeed bright red sandstone cliffs lining a small river. After that excursion the nice Latvian product designer dropped me off at the Estonian border where I got picked up by an American entrepreneur soon afterwards.
Some photos from the museum:
