We had arrived in Eesti 3 days before midsummer. We stayed 2 days there and then journeyed south from Estonia to Latvia. We traveled by Euro Lines, taking the Bus south to Riga, taking the coast highway that runs from Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius, Lithuania, now called Via Baltica. There is no longer a train between the two countries and one must go by bus or plane. We elected to take Euro Lines, the choice of locals, so that we would have a toilet on the bus for our 5 hour journey. We earned the toilet, having for over twenty years traveled on the regular busses without toilets, which would pull into an official toilet stop and everyone would run for what ever facility existed: out-houses, tiled stalls, wood cupboards, and/ or the forest. I must say that more often than not the forest was preferable. There, the bus driver would have 2 quick cigarettes with about 20 other people who were more desperate to smoke rather than use the facilities, and when done, he would get into the bus, start the engines, and drive away. Regardless of where ever you were in what ever process.
If one has the opportunity, take a train. A four hour journey within Latvija costs 9 dollars, whereas a bus with a toilet, if available, will cost 30. Bear in mind that this year it costs about 80 dollars to fill the tank of a medium size car and the price of gas is going up.
As we drove down the beautiful highway, with the great pines rising from the sand dunes, the cities and larger towns were starting to become deserted. The field flowers and tall grasses that had fill the market places and the temporary road side stands that the farmers had erected were almost sold out. Cars were parked along public stretches of forests or fields while their inhabitants gathered gentle gifts freely given from the wealth of the green world. Everywhere, every one who could, was going to the country. Going to the country to eat, to drink, to sing, and to join in fellowship on the days when great nature is at its height. Being at its height and power, nature graciously blesses and heals in spirit all who will let themselves be truly taken by the harmony of her beauty… who will let go of the worry laden “now” and become more.
We would go as well, Ingrida and I, first by bus, then by driving a yellow Skoda deep into the country, to a “seta,” a homestead with cranes, among wet forest and tilled fields, with a “pirts,” the holy sauna of the Latvian People, taking grandfather and grandmother, going together to be whole, joined once again with the family outspread.
If one has the opportunity, take a train. A four hour journey within Latvija costs 9 dollars, whereas a bus with a toilet, if available, will cost 30. Bear in mind that this year it costs about 80 dollars to fill the tank of a medium size car and the price of gas is going up.
As we drove down the beautiful highway, with the great pines rising from the sand dunes, the cities and larger towns were starting to become deserted. The field flowers and tall grasses that had fill the market places and the temporary road side stands that the farmers had erected were almost sold out. Cars were parked along public stretches of forests or fields while their inhabitants gathered gentle gifts freely given from the wealth of the green world. Everywhere, every one who could, was going to the country. Going to the country to eat, to drink, to sing, and to join in fellowship on the days when great nature is at its height. Being at its height and power, nature graciously blesses and heals in spirit all who will let themselves be truly taken by the harmony of her beauty… who will let go of the worry laden “now” and become more.
We would go as well, Ingrida and I, first by bus, then by driving a yellow Skoda deep into the country, to a “seta,” a homestead with cranes, among wet forest and tilled fields, with a “pirts,” the holy sauna of the Latvian People, taking grandfather and grandmother, going together to be whole, joined once again with the family outspread.
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