Blogs from Kurzeme Region, Latvia, Europe - page 2

Liepaja, Latvia - 1 Sept.09 and leaving it - on 2 Sept. further in the moment moment (see below) now 11.30am - 2 Sept and I am on a bus writing this (cos I can - but no weefee here! altho some do I believe...). Just as well the bus had a relaxed time table otherwise I would have missed it - I was waiting in wrong place and ran towards tram waving but the driver just took off (typical all over that!). I was thinking taxi - if I could see one as had 5 mins to make bus, but made it anyway - only about 6 people on bus so I guess he was happy to wait a bit. The bus is going from Liepaja to Klaipeda in Lithuania where I will check out ... read more

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 ... read more

Those were some interesting days, I tell you. First of all, I was exploring Vilnius a bit further, especially its cafes, since it was raining for the next two or three days. Apart from that, I visited the Museum of Genocide Victims, also known as the KGB museum. It deals mostly with the KGB in Lithuania, but also pays tribute to the armed resistance against Soviet occupation from 1945-1953. The highlight of the museum was the former KGB prison in the cellar (where else?). A truly chilling place, all the cells were perfectly preserved, including the welcome cell, which was so small that prisoners could only stand inside, and which was used to break the will of the newly arrived, the water cell, where inmates had to stand for hours in freezingly cold water, and the ... read more

Geo: 56.4893, 21.0116In addition to the headache continuing, an earache has started. What's going on??? Perhaps it was Mary "accidentally" elbowing me in the head last night as we slept? Off to Liepaja. The bus stopped in a little town to pick up some more people. It looked like some kind of county fair was taking place, but none of the rides were active. There was cheesy dance music blaring loudly - so typical of Eastern Europe! Pat and Mary Asian Circus-Sideshow Freak in the Baltics Moment #9: Like in the Axe body spray commercials, we officially have our "Bow Chick a Wow Wow" back - people are checking us out like crazy still! We arrived in Liepaja - wow, a pretty run-down place. As we took the tram into the city centre, a local woman ... read more

We fiinally realised that we weren't going to get any sleep around ten. We got up and packed our bags. After paying for the hostel, we went to the bus station and bought our ticket to Liepaja. They were approximately £9 for both of us. The journey to Liepaja was very slow because we got stuck behind the worlds longest military convoy. This was interesting for a while as It had about 30 vehicles including artillery guns. However our driver became increasingly wreckless the more agitated he became. He was like a man on a suicide mission which was funny because a song we heard a few times was about someone being "suicidal he was suicidal". Liepaja was rather quiet and the tourist information was so far from the bus station. Some guy offered to show ... read more

arrived in the night...again. after some trouble we managed to find a "hostel". it was a students residence,that worked as a hostel during the summer!the recepcionist didnt speak english at all ( that happens quite a lot in here...i usually find it funny not to understand a word of what foreign people are saying. but this recepcionist lady wasnt being so receptive... ) , she was about to kick us out when too students came to the rescue - ENGLISH SPEAKING LATVIAN GIRLS!!somehow they could convince the lady. thats how we met Ruta ( sorry if i spelled it incorrectly...). She was surprisingly nice and showed us everything and made us feel at home...then we met Laura, another amazing girl, at her room. I borrowed her guitar and tryied to play something that Ruta would apreciate ... read more