Life is beautiful...
howdy! Well it is now 9pm in Riga and it is showing absolutely no signs of getting dark - bright blue sky out there! Last night on the bus from Warsaw it was like forever twilight, a permanent sunset in the horizon that was very pretty. Altho it wasnt as bad as I was expecting, I didnt get much sleep on the bus so am pretty shattered now. They even had a movie on the bus - babys big day out or something like that not a brilliant movie but was pretty funny as it had been dubbed over in polish - but the guy just spoke monotone (yep just one guy talking for everyone!) - was bizarre...
Oh - that is right - on my way to catch the night bus - feeling nice and fresh as just had my shower, new skirt as well (!!!) and my bus turns up... Choosing between the doors (it was a banana bus) went for the last ones (people were taking ages to get off and on) - and I am getting on and without warning (no beeping like on the trams) the doors close! There am I with my big backpack hanging half out of the door - I couldn't budge (it reminded me of the roman umbrella scenario)... - I give it a couple of goes and start laughing cos I cant move. 2 people end up trying to prise the doors apart and yanking me thru (the driver is completely oblivious) - I am glad they did cos it was a good 5minutes at least before the next stop - so would've been a while letting my backpack catch the breeze! - All ok - backpack and I are both unscathed!
I just took it easy today after my bus ride and went to Jurmala - the Latvian seaside. It was nice - brownish water, but nice white sand and calm waters and very popular local hangout! They have these little aluminium type change rooms every 50m or so - at first I thought they were big on beach advertising til i saw a few people do the superman routine.
And I do like Riga - reminds me of Russia - has heaps of their yummy foods - including my favouritist cookies ever (that I first tried from om a stall in russia) - altho it is all pending their hot chocolate - so long as they have it 'russian style' so that it is thick enough your spoon stands upright - then it'll be all good! I haven't had that much of a look round Riga yet as went straight to the beach. It was just when i was going trying to find a restaurant that was open (not sure how i picked the ones that all happened to be closed) that I wandered the streets - some of which were very desolute but had some brilliant buildings. Dont completely feel safe when going down the backstreets etc - but not sure whether it is really cos it is, or if it is just a bad rep preceding it...
Anyway back to Poland... I liked Warsaw better than Krakow - it felt more 'real,' more historical (altho most of it was rebuilt after the war)... and it had a gorgeous park with the palace on the water which was nice... - and red squirrels!!! I thought the best thing about Krakow was Auschwitz (can you say it was 'good'??) - Auschwitz was really interesting... I did a tour (3.5hrs long!!) which was worthwhile as you found out a couple of bits you wouldn't have read or might've missed from the exhibits. I also got time to go round a bit by myself which was good as you can take your time and appreciate it all a bit more... it was incredible the things that happened, what people thought, and the risks people took to make documents and take photos just to be able to let people know what was going on in the camps... When you went into the courtyard with 'Death wall' you didnt need to be told that that was one of the worse areas - the air felt heavier there, as if the dispair was lingering... You saw the 90x90cm standing cells where 4 men used to have to stand for 3 nights (work as normal during the day) as punishment - which could have even been sharing their bread with someone that was sick... and of course i thought of the movie Life is beautiful - particularly when going thru the barracks...
Am going to go to Sigulda tomorrow - "the switzerland of Lativa" - and then do a bit of Riga touring and hopefully finding a good cup of hot chocolate! And that is all for now folks!
Later gators!
