Kuldiga to Liepaja

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Rainy Times

In the morning we headed into town for some more pastry loving and to make the trip to the tourist information office to get some idea of how to reach Liepaja. With the next bus at 3pm we had a bit of time to waste and inventively did so by drinking copious amounts of coffee and a lunchtime beer. Cautious of the fact we had no idea where the bus station was we headed off early and eventually found it hidden down a side road next to a field.

The bus arrived and after the drivers obligatory cigarette break we left for Liepaja on the rural country roads. Unfortunately not long after it began to pour with rain which continued into Liepaja and pretty much for the rest of the day and night.

Upon our arrival at the bus station one of the first things we spotted, rather bizarrely, was a wheelie bin welcoming us to north devon... how that ended up on the Latvian coast who knows, maybe north devon council has a profit making scheme selling off its old bins.

After sheltering in the bus station for a bit and realising the rain was not going to stop in the near future we unwillingly stepped outside in our unsuitable clothing to wait for a tram towards the town centre. Although all this didnt really seem to matter when we arrived at our amazing accomodation... For once we are staying in a hotel and not a hostel as there arent really any in Liepaja for some reason. We were given the recommendation of the Fontaine Hotel and are definitely glad we took it up!!

The Fontaine

Each room in the hotel is decorated differently and we were in room number four: Uncle Tom's Cabin. For 30 pound for the night we just couldn't have got better. Its all old wooden furniture and a plush granddad style chair with a beautifully tiled bathroom, its such a luxury to have free soap and shampoo! Adam is becoming obsessed with the place in general due to the fact that the reception is in a shop full of an assortment of old, generally cool objects - old jackets, hats, trinkets from the soviet era etc... And on the bottom floor of the hotel is a record player with a collection of 80s vinyls including such classics as Rick Astley.

Due to the torrential rain and the general greatness of the hotel, we decided not to venture far... We even got dinner from the nearby Fontaine Delisnack (the fontaine seems to have overtaken this whole area in various ways) from which we got such delicious fresh burgers (actual meat not some processed crap)... It was about as fresh as fast food can get really. We also loaded up on sides of fries and onion rings and it still only came to about three pound each, not bad... although extremely garlicky.

Nevertheless with the rain looking set to stay, we are hoping that the Lithuanian coast is faring somewhat better as it is further south as we aim to move on to Klaipeda.

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