Latvia: former communist shit hole.
the trip started out entirely on the wrong foot. i missed the last bus to the airport and ended up having to take a taxi. after flying to berlin and spending the most comfortable and fun 6 hours in the airport, i finally got to latvia at about 10 in the morning. i found my hostel with only minimal confusion. running on only about 4 hours of sleep, i was a little disapointed to find out that i had to wait a few hours for my room to become open. so i wandered about town. at first it was really beautiful, nice buildings and winding little streets. then i started to drift towards the former soviet part of town. wow. a perfect example of 'the wrong side of the tracks'. ugly, dirty old communist buildings on the virge of fall apart. people wandering around aimlessly with vacant looks in their eyes, and an overly ripe stench that wouldn't go away. by the time i made it back to my hostel, i thought to myself 'wow, i really fucked up on choosing to come here.' after taking a nap a grabbing something to eat, i sat in the common room at my hostel and wrote a little and read some.
the next day i went to sigulda, the switzerland of latvia. i took a train there, about an hour and a half east, and stepped out into this tiny little town that was just slightly less podunk than the last one. shit, another bad choice. so i decided i'd wander around town a bit and catch the next train coming back. so i started walking and found what i was looking for: the gauja river valley nature park. i started wandering around it, found an old ruined castle, but not much else. i was thinking of just calling it quits and heading back, firmly in the mindset that my entire trip there had been a bad idea. but then i came across the bridge across the river, and thought, well, i'll just head over it and see if it's any nicer. after crossing it, i just kept walking, finding a nice cave and some really nice little lakes. my spirits started to pick up. after hiking up a hill a ways, i found another old castle that also had a scupture garden which was very cool. i took the train back in a much better mood that i had been the entire time since i got to latvia. one minor little mishap was getting off at the wrong train station in riga and getting lost for about an hour in the run down commie part of town. not fun, but i made it back okay.
went to the art musuem and a russian orthodox church the next day. wandered around the nice art-noir architecture place and took pictures in the evening. more reading, writting, drinking, and watching mtv2. really, it was more interesting than i'm making it sound. i'm just not trying to over B.S. it with discription.
the next day i took a nice long one and a half hour hike to the brothers cemetary on the edge of riga. without a doubt the most beautiful cemetary i have ever seen. it was like a forest that had a cemetary worked into its landscape. if i had the ability to upload pictures i would. i went back to rest and read a bit before i went to eat at a latvian restaraunt. i came back and met a really nice swedish girl. pretty much everyone else was out partying, so we just sat around and talked for hours. i was getting ready to go to bed and gave her a hug...then a kiss...and then we ended up back in my room as no one else was there. of all the time for me not to have a condom. still, it was really nice just kissing and touching her. she made it a little hard to control myself at times, seeing as how she kept saying and doing things that made it really difficult because they were so flattering. very frustrating but still very enjoyable. it feels so nice to be beautiful to another person, especially someone who you yourself find beautiful. i really wish moments like that were not so fleeting.
i left in the morning. after a good 12 hours of airports and airplanes, i'm back in maastricht. yay.
i'm feeling strangly invincible at times now. it seems like something about going there really made me change in some way. i hope i can keep it up and it's not just a passing phase. i really do feel like i'm not quite the same as before i left.
list of things i want to do before i leave maastricht in a month:
-ask to share a bed and cuddle with a girl in my program one night. have nothing to lose, just want to wait until a good time to ask.
-dress in drag and hit the bars with friends.
-going to scotland and brussels. still need to look into berlin if i have the money.
-go to jenze (a REALLY cool, though sometimes a little too crazy bar) more and be crazy social because i realize i have nothing to lose.
the trip started out entirely on the wrong foot. i missed the last bus to the airport and ended up having to take a taxi. after flying to berlin and spending the most comfortable and fun 6 hours in the airport, i finally got to latvia at about 10 in the morning. i found my hostel with only minimal confusion. running on only about 4 hours of sleep, i was a little disapointed to find out that i had to wait a few hours for my room to become open. so i wandered about town. at first it was really beautiful, nice buildings and winding little streets. then i started to drift towards the former soviet part of town. wow. a perfect example of 'the wrong side of the tracks'. ugly, dirty old communist buildings on the virge of fall apart. people wandering around aimlessly with vacant looks in their eyes, and an overly ripe stench that wouldn't go away. by the time i made it back to my hostel, i thought to myself 'wow, i really fucked up on choosing to come here.' after taking a nap a grabbing something to eat, i sat in the common room at my hostel and wrote a little and read some.
the next day i went to sigulda, the switzerland of latvia. i took a train there, about an hour and a half east, and stepped out into this tiny little town that was just slightly less podunk than the last one. shit, another bad choice. so i decided i'd wander around town a bit and catch the next train coming back. so i started walking and found what i was looking for: the gauja river valley nature park. i started wandering around it, found an old ruined castle, but not much else. i was thinking of just calling it quits and heading back, firmly in the mindset that my entire trip there had been a bad idea. but then i came across the bridge across the river, and thought, well, i'll just head over it and see if it's any nicer. after crossing it, i just kept walking, finding a nice cave and some really nice little lakes. my spirits started to pick up. after hiking up a hill a ways, i found another old castle that also had a scupture garden which was very cool. i took the train back in a much better mood that i had been the entire time since i got to latvia. one minor little mishap was getting off at the wrong train station in riga and getting lost for about an hour in the run down commie part of town. not fun, but i made it back okay.
went to the art musuem and a russian orthodox church the next day. wandered around the nice art-noir architecture place and took pictures in the evening. more reading, writting, drinking, and watching mtv2. really, it was more interesting than i'm making it sound. i'm just not trying to over B.S. it with discription.
the next day i took a nice long one and a half hour hike to the brothers cemetary on the edge of riga. without a doubt the most beautiful cemetary i have ever seen. it was like a forest that had a cemetary worked into its landscape. if i had the ability to upload pictures i would. i went back to rest and read a bit before i went to eat at a latvian restaraunt. i came back and met a really nice swedish girl. pretty much everyone else was out partying, so we just sat around and talked for hours. i was getting ready to go to bed and gave her a hug...then a kiss...and then we ended up back in my room as no one else was there. of all the time for me not to have a condom. still, it was really nice just kissing and touching her. she made it a little hard to control myself at times, seeing as how she kept saying and doing things that made it really difficult because they were so flattering. very frustrating but still very enjoyable. it feels so nice to be beautiful to another person, especially someone who you yourself find beautiful. i really wish moments like that were not so fleeting.
i left in the morning. after a good 12 hours of airports and airplanes, i'm back in maastricht. yay.
i'm feeling strangly invincible at times now. it seems like something about going there really made me change in some way. i hope i can keep it up and it's not just a passing phase. i really do feel like i'm not quite the same as before i left.
list of things i want to do before i leave maastricht in a month:
-ask to share a bed and cuddle with a girl in my program one night. have nothing to lose, just want to wait until a good time to ask.
-dress in drag and hit the bars with friends.
-going to scotland and brussels. still need to look into berlin if i have the money.
-go to jenze (a REALLY cool, though sometimes a little too crazy bar) more and be crazy social because i realize i have nothing to lose.
Go to Berlin, and let the games begin!
oxo