Hanging out hungover in Riga

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I haven't written anything for a while now, I guess now that I am in Vilnius I should do a quick update on the rest of the organic farm stay as well as my three nights in Riga.

Well the rest of the farm stay was interesting and relaxing. It was so interesting staying with a family and observing cultural differences which were more prominent than I expected. Marju was really busy the first day I was there and then the next few days was sick with an infection so she was pretty quiet towards me which I understood but after a few days I kind of felt a little unwelcome. At mealtimes conversations were pretty minimal and mostly in Estonian then when people finished their meal they would just leave the table and go watch television or something while you still sitting there. I found I was always asking what they wanted me to and usually it was seabuckthorn berry picking which was very repetitive as you can imagine and it made as feel a little useless. The other thing I found a bit strange was, at times, the lack of gratitude shown for helping. I would wash up after mealtimes and clean the kitchen and it was like it went unnoticed. I certainly wasn't doing it so they would thank me but it was just a bit odd. After a little while though I started to understand that this was just how they were. I think they really did appreciate the work we were doing for them and once I was comfortable with the fact they were quite warm it made the tasks much more rewarding. The other two helpers were very introverted and I found them quite awkward and I think they felt very uncomfortable there but I just relaxed and made myself at home really. When I left Marju and Olev thanked me sincerely and both gave me a big hug and waved me off as I got the bus to Parnu. I really think I would have enjoyed staying a bit longer but I had a plan with a reasonable tight schedule so I really did have to leave.

Once I got to Parnu I tried buying a ticket to Riga from the ticket office but all the buses were sold out. I had expected this because it said that online so I had made a sign saying 'Riga' and planned a spot out of town to hitchhike. So I bought a local bus ticket and went and stood at the right platform. Then 5 minutes before the local bus arrives there is a bus from a different company going to Riga. It had said it was also sold out online and it looked pretty packed but I decided to ask the driver if there was a seat for me. He didn't really speak English and just kind of shushed me and walked off. He went to the bathroom, came back and started shutting the bus up. I figured there were no seats so I started walking over to the local bus I was getting to my hitching position when the drivers assistant guy waved me onto the bus. So I get on the bus, walk to the back and sit in the one available seat. I figured this must be a sign from the universe so I was feeling pretty awesome. I bought my ticket with the photocopy of my passport that I using as ID at the moment, which also made me feel kind of lucky that that had worked, and I was headed to Riga. To continue my awesome luck that day I found the hostel within like 5 minutes had my first beer in six days and joined the walking tour.

That night was a big one. At 8pm I have my first beer then join the hostel pub crawl where we get 5 free beers (way more than I can handle) nek minute I'm smoking a joint with a 16 year old emo kid and chanting some weird song with some Russian girls- strange. I got back to the hostel in time for the 7am breakfast which was a bonus. I was feeling pretty rough when I woke up that afternoon and I must have looked it, one of the girls in the dorm was trying to convince me to go the doctors and insisted I take my temperature with her thermometer. Pretty funny since I didn't feel I looked that bad. I wasn't really up to any sightseeing that day so instead I went to this amazing cinema called the splendid palace which was in a beautiful building! I'm not sure how to describe but I videoed myself there so I will upload that. They mostly view non mainstream films there which mad me feel I could justify it as a cultural experience, they were only showing an American film called 'Bling Ring' which was not to bad.

I had dinner in this cave restaurant with two guys I met that afternoon and bickered constantly with the overly proud pommy whom I loved to hate and was convinced to join the pub crawl again. I didn't make it to the last bar because I made some nice Latvian friends who took me to a cheap bar which one guy said was the most hipster bar in Riga. A combination of too much beer, too much weed and drinking with a hangover cause me to be so incredibly sick for the next 12 hours and I didn't really recover for two days- heavy stuff. So I didn't really see that much more of Riga. Me and an Aussie guy went for a little adventure in the afternoon where we went to the markets and then got on a random tram that took us to the other side of the city then we wandered into a tea house. I thought this would be the miraculous cure to my deathly hangover, it wasn't really but the tea was AMAZING! the tea house was called Kama and it was a very chilled atmosphere and had so many different teas!!

After an early night I checked out, went to a couple of art galleries that I think were just a little too arty for me, 'Kim?' was a small gallery with displays such a a single rock and a blank canvas... yeah too arty. Then I got the bus to Vilnius (without being questioned about not having a passport) which is where I have just arrived 😊

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