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Published: July 14th 2010
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July 11 - Crap day, all around. I couldn't sleep well last night at all, perhaps since I knew I had to get up early and leave and try to make the bus at 7am. Either way, I was checking the time all night, so the sleep wasn't good. I decided to get up at 5:30am, since I was up anyway. I packed up quietly, skipped eating, and hurried over to the other side of town to drop off my bags at the new hostel to try to make the bus. No real luck. I made a mistake as to where the hostel was, so from 6:15-6:30 I kept looking and looking. It was humid and hot as the sun had been up for hours and I was sweating with all of my gear on. I was already in a bad mood made worse by all the people in the streets still drinking and singing, after 6am on a Sunday morning. I finally spotted a cop car so I asked them for help. They looked up the address on their GPS and pointed me back where I had come from. It was so much closer than I think. I guess I
picked the wrong bridge to orient with. I kept going and found it at 6:40am. It didn't start off well - as soon as I got onto the right street, I saw a man feeling up a woman against a wall. Fantastic. Am I in the red light district? I rang the bell and she let me in. The first thing I saw was their 24 hour bar, which had the door open and a smoky smell, along with people still drinking it up. I knew right then that this was not my kind of hostel. Damn. I told her I had to go to make the bus so she my stuff to put in the luggage room, as well as a couple items for the safe and I dashed out to make the bus, all a sweaty mess.
I got to the bus station in time, and the line to buy a ticket was short. However, when I asked for the ticket, she said there were no 7am buses on Sunday. This bit of information would have been really helpful yesterday when the woman at information gave me the times. Damn. So I bought a ticket for the
8:10am bus. Not much difference except that the 7am bus takes 2.5 hours and the 8:10am bus takes 3.5. The return buses left at 2:30pm or 6pm. So I either had to stay for a short time or forever. The bus ride there was a haze of sleep and reading. I had someone next to me almost the whole way, so that was unpleasant. When I arrived in Kuldiga, I asked the bus ticket lady which way to walk in, and confirmed the departure times back to Riga. I went to the grocery store for a cold drink - the bus was hot - and then started waking. It was not really obvious to me which way to walk, but I saw a big church and thought that it must be in the center. I was walking down a dirt road and had trouble seeing how to get where I wanted. I circled the building a bit and then went through the grass to get there. It was not exactly where I wanted to be, so I continued on. It is supposed to be a cute little historic town, but instead all I was seeing was ugly and more like
a ghost town, with no one around. I did manage to find the town part, but it was still not that pretty and did not seem worthy of a special trip in any way. I saw the tourist info office so I went in to get a map. One redeeming feature is that this town has the widest waterfalls in Europe, but they are only about a six foot drop. I walked across them, and cooled my feet down, which was nice. Otherwise, I am still unimpressed with the town. My return trip was about 2.5 hours, so in the end I spent six hours in transit and only 2.5 hours in Kuldiga. Not the best use of my time. At least the second bus was cold.
I came back to the hostel to check in, which I was not looking forward to. When a new girl was writing down my passport information, the bartender was explaining features of the hostel to me. I told him I was worried and should I just find a new place, and he was very nice. He put me in the "apartment" room, which is quieter in the basement. It sleeps ten in
one room (including two mattresses on the floor) and two in a separate room with a glass door. He put me in the separate room, which was nice. Four other guys checked in at the same time and will be staying where I can see them, on the other side of the door. Two Mexicans, who inexplicably chose the floor mattresses, and two Swedish guys. They all seem fine. At least I have some space to spread out.
Something just went wonky with their circuits just after I checked in, so the internet isn't working, nor some of their lights upstairs. I'm not sure if the basement where I am staying gets internet anyway, frankly. To get down here I have to go down a twisty 800 year old stairway (I think). Pretty interesting anyway. I much preferred the atmosphere in the old place, but what can you do. Should make for a less fun birthday celebration tomorrow. Tomorrow will be my last night in Latvia, and I will do another, more ambitious day trip, lord have mercy. I'm going to Sigulda, where there is a beautiful castle (hopefully) and a national park. If there is time, I will
also go to Cesis, another nice town to visit. If I get really motivated and am back in town early enough, I will take myself to Friday's for my birthday dinner. Somewhat cheeky, but I did the same in Cairo four years ago, and I haven't seen an American non fast food restaurant since Christmas. We'll see how it goes.
I managed to have some dinner with a newly graduated high school kid before a bunch of people went to a bar to watch the world cup final. Tried to email from my room, but no, I have to come up to the (yay!) air conditioned beer guzzly (boo!) common room/bar. The game is on, but I can barely even see it or hear it. Did mention I don't like bars?
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