If one thing remains universal, it is the fact that weather forecasting sucks everywhere!! I stayed in old town Tallinn an extra day so I could surf the sunny weather forecast for several days. That's why to my surprise, I woke up to pouring rain. Lovely, just lovely. Suit up, get wet, I might as well travel the world in scuba gear the way it's been lately.
Anyhow, the destination today was southward with the first stop being Riga, Latvia. Actually, that wasn't the first stop. That came when I was waved over at the Latvian boarder by two Finnish motorcyclists who had been behind me. They saw the stickers from all over on my bike and wanted a photo with me:-) I've begun to get used to the fact that either I or the bike photographed many times during the day, but it's still kind of interesting when it happens, especially when I'm waved over while riding. Seems I am living what many consider their dream of traveling the world.
I made it to Riga and got the familiar deja vu I've been getting lately. This time it wasn't reminding me of N. Michigan though, it was very similar to many of the cities I visited in Russia. As I pulled into town the apartment buildings looked the same, as did the bus stops, and the crowds of people standing at the bus stops. The old Soviet look was alive and well. Even more like Russia was the large number of people who waved to me or pulled up to me in their cars giving me the thumbs up or yelling out good luck. I hadn't seen that kind of enthusiasm since Tom and Stuart and I would pull into remote Russian towns where people would do all kinds of crazy things when they saw us. That's the one thing I like about these parts of the world, they certainly make you feel like your doing something special.
I didn't stay in Riga, but to get through it I pretty much had to tour the town. It was a pretty old city and I wish I would have had an extra day to explore it. My real interest though was to make it to the coast of Lithuania so I could explore it's dunes the next morning. I made it to Palanga, Lithuania for the night. This is a sea side resort that reminds of a one street version of Daytona Beach or Anapa, Russia but on the Baltic sea and a bit more compact. It's definitely a party town, but since summer is over it was more of less a ghost town. I was able to secure a hotel room quite cheaply, but unable find anyone around who spoke English. The guy running the hotel spoke Russian, and while we couldn't communicate the did a great job. After checking in he even brought me a water boiler and some tea bags, knowing that I had been rather cold on the bike. This is a type of Russian hospitality I've missed for a while.
