Poland and Moving

It has literally been months since I have written anything, and so much is going on in the world that I feel inspired to make a little blog post.

Halloween just ended, but the scariest few days are yet to come. With 2 days until the U.S. election, no one knows what is going to happen. Both sides believe that this is the end times no matter who wins. How did it come to this? (To quote Theodin of Rohan).

I just wanted to mention that briefly without going too deep into it. This isn’t a political blog.

Instead of focusing on the doom and gloom that is November in Latvia and the upcoming winter that will be long and dark, I will instead look to the past and highlight some small adventures that I  have been on, since this is mostly a travel blog of experiences and philosophies.

Poland

In June, I had the chance to drive across a bit of Europe with my friend Landon as we crossed Lithuania into Poland to visit Krakow and Zakopane. It was great to be on a road trip with a fellow Nebraskan native just taking in the culture and mystique of the world around us.

Krakow

Our first stop was Krakow, and one thing I need to point out is that the Polish have done an impressive job with INFRASTRUCTURE. This became a running theme as soon as we crossed the border from Lithuania (which is a step above Latvia in terms of roads and such) to Poland which has a road system that rivals the U.S. Interstates.

We navigated our way through Warsaw without really seeing any of it and drove 13 hours straight to Krakow where we spent a lovely evening and morning before heading to our final destination. Krakow is well-known as a city that was spared the horrors of World War II in terms of bombing and complete decimation. It still has an intact historic Old Town center with lots of beautiful buildings and a large market square rife with tourists.

We preferred the smaller neighborhood near our hotel with a Bohemian vibe. We walked around at about midnight, and people were still out on a weeknight eating and drinking and enjoying life. We were both surprised at how so many people were walking around NOT on their cell phones. They seemed to actually be interested in what their companions were saying and doing.

I was a bit disappointed that Polish food is pretty close to Latvian food. I was hoping for something more exotic, but everything was tasty and the portions were large.

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Zakopane

Our final destination was Zakopane which is a mountain resort town. I was expecting something akin to a Colorado ski town like Aspen or Estes Park, but this was a real city with lots and lots of Infrastructure. The most impressive infrastructure is the famous (albeit difficult to say) Kasprowy Wierch. This is a cable car that takes you to the highest peak where there are magnificent views of Poland and neighboring Slovakia.

We decided to ride up and then hike down. The hike down was supposed to take a couple of hours, but somehow we took a wrong turn, and it took us over 4 hours to reach the bottom. By the time we got down, we were many kilometers from Zakopane, and had to bribe a taxi service to give us a ride back. We were sore and spent, so instead of seeing a mountain lake as we had planned, we just wandered around the city.

There is a huge center with dozens of tourist traps and restaurants where we observed how there are basically two tribes of people who visit this resort: Polish natives and Arabs. The Arabian people clustered together in family units, usually with a few women, children and led by men. We were a bit surprised when we ran into a Polish-American couple who were pretty overtly racist about these tourists. It kind of poisoned the trip a bit for me, but it was eye-opening. We weren’t surprised to hear that they were Trump supporters from some New York suburb.

The town was beautiful surrounded by gorgeous scenery, and the weather was absolutely perfect for our hike. It started raining the next day, so we had timed it perfectly.

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Kaunas, Lithuania

The next day, I did another 12 hour drive to Kaunas, Lithuania which was our final stop before returning to Riga.

Kaunas is the former capital of Lithuania with a gorgeous city center that has been made into a pedestrian paradise with bars, restaurants and shops all along the manicured walkway. Landon did a fantastic job booking our lodging because in each place, were within walking distance of all the coolest things.

Here we had an American pizza place across the street, which, after a 12-hour drive, was a perfect way to unwind.

We wandered around the city, and watched a bit of a soccer match at a beer bar chatting with drunk Lithuanians. The whole experience was again, too short, but lovely.

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Ligo in Latvia

Once we got back to Latvia, I sent Landon to celebrate Ligo with some friends so he could experience the Latvian countryside while I went to celebrate with some of Baiba’s people near Ventspils.

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Moving

The other big trip that I took this summer was across town from Ķīpsala to the Center of the City. In August, I moved in with Baiba.

Side note:

I wrote most of this before the election happened, so I will just ignore the fact that this is a week later, and we all know the results. There just isn’t enough time or energy in the world to go into all of that right now. I am just thankful for what I have and I hope that everything will be okay. I am appreciating the optimism of the Latvians I speak to about the election. I guess we just have to be hopeful.

Keep breathing. Keep talking. Stay mindful and alert. Do what you can and no more. Expect the same of others. Enjoy the life you have. Breathe. Look around. Open your eyes. Breathe.