Rob and Dunny's Tour around Latvia and Riga Stag Do

Stew had left us to go and meet his girlfriend, gay. Me and Dunny had a few days to kill before meeting the Brockworth lot in Riga for Dewi's stag do. We took the recommendation from Juris and Liga and headed northwest along the coast.

We drove through the same national park we had cycled through the day before. First stop was Roja, a small town with a big fishing port. We drove to the coast and did a bit of training on the beach. We got our rod out and did some fishing in a river. We were unsuccessful, our tackle was too big, the hook was too big too.

We packed the rod up and headed North to Kolka national park. Kolka is on a headland where the Gulf of Riga meets the Baltic sea. We found a perfect parking spot, see aerial photo below. We went for a run through the forest then out onto the beach. Its an unusual situation where pine trees grow thick over the dunes. The forest stops then the beach starts. There was a tall wooden observation tower near where we parked. We sent off Dunny's actionman figure with parachute he got for his birthday.

Then we drove south towards Ventpills. The roads we straight, good surface, thick forests either side and no other cars for miles and miles. With the tunes blaring we cracked on. Ventspills was nice, there was a massive 'Baltic Coal Terminal'. We stopped for a train arriving at a level crossing and lost count of the amount of wagons, there was some serious industry around here. Dunny climbed onto one of the many cow statues around the town for a photo.  We had a nice pint in a restaurant in the basement of the castle.

We continued down the coast to find a place to park for the night. Jurkalane it was. Again a perfect spot next to a forest just off the main road. We woke up the following day and went out on the bikes through the forest. We came across some WW2 bunkers, we had a good look around them, they were linked to each other with underground tunnels. Then we found a motocross track, we had a mess about on the bikes on it.

Next stop was Liepaja. We had heard reports of a cracking beach bar so we set about trying to find it. It was good but dead, we had a pint but decided to crack on back to Jurmala. On the way back we stopped at the longest waterfall in Europe, it was really nice. We took a photo then cracked on.

We arrived back in Jurmala and contacted Juris to see if he wanted to meet for a pint. We should of known by now, Juris never turns down the offer of a pint. We went to his favourite pub for a few. We woke up the next morning to the sound of machinery. Juris' road was being resurfaced and our van was surrounded by diggers, dumpers and workmen.

We spent the day doing boring chores. Had a wash in the river. That night we had arranged to meet Stew at the train station then go to the Red Bus for a pizza with Juris' workmates. I agree with Dunny, the hot pork pizza is probably the best pizza I have ever had. We had a few beers then went to a pub, things got a bit out of hand, we ended up singing with some Swedes, Russians and Latvians, about 30 of us in total!

All in all it was a good few days.

We woke up with sore heads. We were very grateful of Juris' mother for letting us put a couple of loads of washing on. Our clothes were pretty minging. We bought some gifts for Juris' family and said our farewells.

We headed to Riga to meet the stag do boys. Being on a budget we decided to have a few predrinks in the van. We parked about 100m from the main square in an area we thought was free parking. We headed into town to meet the boys. Stew spotted the group in an outside bar. They were all sound and said we could have drinks from the money they put behind the bar. This didn't turn out well, mixed with the predrinks we had we were well and truly drunk.

We spent the following afternoon cycling around Riga to see the sites.
Then we headed to a national park North of Riga.

Rob

Latvia- jūrmala with juris

We awoke bright and early Saturday morning to travel to Latvia. One last look at the the hill of crosses and we were off! Expecting to arrive at juris (a friend we met in Lithuania early in the week) house at midday. Little did we know there was horrific roadworks on the way, we ended arriving at about 1.30. 

We arrived into jūrmala a lovely city next to Riga. First thing was to stop of for supply's, bottle of vodka and a load of beers later we were set. Juris came and met us at the market and we followed in convoy to his house. As we approached it seemed there was a lot of wealth from the scale of houses and appartments. Juris informed us that a lot of this was rich Russians (sneaky fucking Russians). Juris showed us around, very nice house indeed. We met his sister liga and then tucked into some beer!!!

After ploughing through the BBQ, beer and juris homemade wine the beer festival was upon us. Firstly we went with liga so she could vote, then caught the train to Riga to get loose. €2 to get in, not bad at all. Great atmosphere inside live bands, loads of good beer and loads of hot chicks. Spot on!!!! All of juris friends were top people as we'll, he introduced us and we all got on! Most of the night after here was a bit of a blur. 

Stew had to go meet his girlfriend the next day so he caught the train there. Me and rob got a guided tour of jūrmala by juris. Quality tour at that. We went out on the bikes, he took us through a forest trail that ended at the river mouth. As we walked around the corner it turned out to be a nudist beach. Next stop was a park with a massive observation tower. The views were unbelievable. Juris was keen to take us for a pizza. What a great idea this was, possibly the best pizza I have ever tried. It was on a old London bus. Red bus pizza, if your ever in Latvia get yourself to this place. You won't be disappointed. We spent the rest of the day/night riding around seeing all the sights and meting a couple of his friends Daniel and Eriks. What a top day this turned out to be!!!!! 

The next day me and rob woke up and got out on the bikes again. We chated to juris about where he worked the night before and we were keen to have a look. The company was called JMP and they made children's playgrounds. We arrived there he showed us around and we met his bosses. Very tidy process going on, making top notch equipment. Pottential in business when we are back from traveling maybe. 

Me and rob set of from here for Kemeru national park. We arrived into the town, it was like a ghost town. Lots of derelict buildings and burnt down houses a bit creepy to be fair!!!! There was still some nice sights here though. A Natural sulphur spring that came out of a lizard and a old water tower which were pretty cool. We noticed a cycle track through the park so decided to investigate. What a treat it was it winded through the forest until we reached a massive series of lakes and marsh land. Here stood a bird watching tower which we went up. This was a result as we managed to see a white tailed eagle and many other rare birds. We cycled the 20+ km back to juris to crash for the night

We settled down outside juris in the van he joined us for a few beers/vodkas. He let us use his shower. Made my day, (we haven't had a warm shower in the van since day 1!!!!). By the end of the night we were both pretty pissed

I would like to thank juris for his hospitality it has been spot on.

Rave safe 

Dunny 

Lithuania Part 2 - Baltic Coast with Callum

So it was our last night out in Vilnius, we decided to stay at the same hostel again and that was a good shout because it opened some more doors. We met a couple of guys from Latvia, Juris and Ericks, they were in Vilnius to celebrate Ericks' name day. We stayed up with Juris until about 2am, he invited us to stay at his house the following weekend, and surprise surprise, it was Riga beer festival! We exchanged numbers and agreed to meet the following week.

We went straight to the nightclub, where we bumped into a guy from Wales who we met on a previous night. We invited him to come up to the coast for a few days whilst we were waiting for our Russian visas to be completed. He agreed. What seemed like a drunken promise turned into a good few days. As promised Callum met us at our hostel and jumped in the back of the van. The sun was shining, it was roasting hot and we were bound for the coast.

About 50km out of Vilnius we stopped to pick up three hippy hitch hikers. So now it was me and Dunny in the front and Stew in the back with 4 extras! The hitch hikers invited us back to their place, it was a mobile home with a nice garden. They invited more of their friends for a party. We stayed there all evening having a BBQ and beers. We met his neighbours and did some fishing in the pond in his garden.

We continued up to the coast stopping at Kaunas for a sleep and a mooch about. Next stop Palanga, a seaside resort on the Baltic coast. We played cricket, badminton and volleyball on the beach and waited till dusk to see the sunset, it was epic! The next 'Where's Willy?' Was due and it was my turn. We got a good one in the fountain on the promenade!

We parked up in a forest to have a BBQ, first the police came to tell us to move our van then an hour later the fire brigade turned up to tell us to put our BBQ out, luckily we had eaten by then so was all good!

We were having a look around an old Soviet union military base on the coast, we climbed an old machine gun tower. We left my tablet and Stew's iPad on the floor at the base of the tower. We didn't realise and headed for the next town, Klapeda. It was then we realised we didn't have the ipads, we drove back to the Soviet base and luckily they were still there in the long grass 3 hours later. Big relief!

We went out for beers in Klapeda and met a group of locals down by the old docks. We drank with them for a while which was fun. We went skinny dipping in the dock which was fun.

A few days earlier we left some games at the hitch hikers caravan, they were a dominoes set which belonged to Stews grandmother and chess set Kieran gave Stew as a leaving present. Understandably Stew was upset about this, we didn't manage to contact the guy to collect them on the way back. Based on the luck we've had on this tour so far surely something would happen. And it did, we saw the same hitch hikers thumbing down a lift. We picked them up, drove the short distance to their house. We got the games back, Stew was chuffed.

The following day we collected our passports and Russian visas from the travel agent, boom! At one point we thought we wouldn't be able to get into Russia.

Callum was working as a tour guide in a national park North of Vilnius. We drove him back home and he showed us arround the lakes where he works. We went for a swim and diving from a diving platform.

We said our farewells to Callum. He is a sound guy and we all got on really well. Callum keep in touch, maybe we will see you in India? Callum wrote a few words for our blog which are below this.

We left the lakes and drove through miles and miles of national park, the views were awesome. We were heading to Jurmala, to meet Juris. On the way we stopped at the 'Hill of Crosses'. I small hill covered in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of wooden crosses. We arrived at dusk which was quite sureal. A perfect opportunity for another 'Where's Willy?' photo, good work Stew.

We stayed at the Hill of Crosses then set off in the morning to our next country, Latvia here we come!

Rob.

The joining of the dream trip and meeting well safe lads :-)

Well it all started as usual in a boozey state. Salentoes was the place I met them, it was nice to here my native tounge and be able to speak not at one mile per hour. The second night we met in a club was absolutely smashed and was talking loud about this amazing idea of going to the coast of Lithuania! Which is bang tidy :-). Next morning I woke at some Germans place and found I had been invaded, I scrounged round to find FB on her iPad and link up with the three musketeers to set sail on the adventre!

Siiiiiiiiiiccccccckkkkkkk weather!!!!!! On the road picked up some hitchikers then on. Mission to find booze half way to Kaunas then stoped at this kids gaff. Was lush had beers and BBQ. Was mad there nice sunset cracking company then we went to Kaunas had a bang tidy burger, slept night then went to the beeeeeecccch. Went swimming, had food, felt at one with scenery and all that lol! Fair play to the boys, fucking legends, wicked idea and loads of bottle! We did bare water game's and British anttics. Wheres willy is funny as fuck! We have done loads of activities. I feel more excited than an ant finding a wedding cake! Would love to meet again in India when I finish working here :-):-):-):-) partyyyyyy, pad work, beer, exercise, larfs, great company, lifers pugga ya'll my niggaz. Safety no I didn't fart !!!! X

Callum.

Pissed in Lithuania

Well Lithuania is a cracking place, nice countryside with lakes and rivers. The cities are awesome too, castles and old cobbled streets. But more importantly vodka is £4 for 70cl, result!

Our first stop was a town called Trakai It was a tourist top spot, a massive red brick castle built on a small island surrounded by a lake. We saw some people setting up for an event, we asked what it was, they said a half marathon the next morning. 10 minutes later we were signed up and had our race packs.

Then we headed to Vilnius, the capital for a beer and a mooch about. We parked the van up right in the posh centre and headed out. What was going to be a couple of beers turned into us leaving the Buddha club in perfect daylight, we got back to the van at 6.30am, this didn't bode well for the run starting at 10am! I drove the van to the start line with Stew and Dunny still asleep in the back. We were late so we had to run to the start line. We set off a few minutes late, stinking of alcohol, a spewey feeling in the backs of our throats and sweating last nights alcohol. Hanging didn't begin to describe the feeling. Dunny ran past some ladies who said in Lithuanian 'blah blah alcohol blah blah' she could smell it on Dunny's breath!

We found a good place to park the van. In the area of town with all the embassy's. Some serious money around that area. We went to the Russian embassy to try and get our visa. After being fobbed of three times by the Russians we were a bit stumped, we were considering changing our route to avoid Russia. Stews mum suggested trying the British embassy and what a good shout that was. They rang the Russian embassy nd a travel agent the they use for Russian visas.

Our passports are now with the agent until next Wednesday. Oh well we will have to spend a few days in Vilnius. Vilnius is awesome, highly recommended for a weekend away. Not too many drunk brits abroad, well until we turned up.

We have been out for 7 days in a row, getting in boloxed every time.

Last night out tonight, its national street party day today, shed loads of live bands all over the city, this trip couldn't of been better timed.

Rob

Basically I would quite happily move to Lithuania. The women here are absoloutely drop dead gorgeous. The beer is good and there is a general good buzz in and around the city. Also most people speak English so quite easy to commmunicate and function. We spent most of the time absoloutely battered getting seriously loose. Get loose get loose 

One of the rules we have is if you fall asleep with your shoes on your free to get anything done to you. Second night we split as a group. Me and rob got back to the van to find stew asleep with his shoes on. JACKPOT!!!! Rob grabbed the shaver and we gave stew a little haircut. One eyebrow and half his hair later we decided that was enough. Fourth night in to are 7 day bender I feel asleep in a bar . Luckily I woke up to a full set of hair both my eyebrows still there and a full beard. Lucky escape. After this I got in a mood with stew threw a chair at him and stormed out the pub. Stew and rob found me later that night in the van asleep on the floor, with half the vans contents over me 

We our trying to stick to a budget but this goes out the window when we drink. Always starts with a couple of quiet drinks in the day then three words arise. FUCK THE BUDGET!!!! Hahaha. Then we get absoloutely steaming. In general though we are doing quite well with it. We know Europe was going to be the most expensive part of our journey. So why the hell not let's go out tonight, the city is buzzing looks like its going to be a promising night. 

Peace out 

Dunny 

Poland part 2

The van was in need of some repairs, so as we were unable to obtain visas we decided to try and sort this problem. We came up with the bright idea to contact stews polish friend Patrick to see if he could help. After a few phone calls we were on our way to grudziadz

We set off to grudziadz about 300 km North of Warsaw. Patrick arranged for us to meet his parents as his brother Dan was a mechanic and could fix the van for us. Result!!!! We met up with them and they took us to Dan's house. This was tough going to start as neither of them spoke English and none of us could speak polish. Luckily Patrick helped by being on the phone arranging and translating. We were greeted with breakfast and beer. Absolutely spot on.

Patrick's dad was keen to show us his town. He took us to the citadel, a world war 1 German camp. Luckily it was a bank holiday which meant we got in for free. (Timings on this trip so far have been perfect). How good was this place, got to see all the bunkers, guns and General war stuff. Top bit of viewing to be fair! Next on the agenda was the old town gates sat on the banks of the river wisla. This was nice aswell.

We headed back to Dans house as they agreed to cook diner for us. The food was banging, of course washed down with more beers. Before you know it we were smashing vodka, absinthe and whisky into us. These guys know how to have a party. Next thing you know it was my bright idea to shave my hear Stew and Rob followed. By now we were that drunk it didn't matter!!

Translation got easier as one of Dan's mate spoke a bit of English. The BBQ got fired up later on and we tucked into that. A few minutes later Dan got a fire going. Stew decided to dive through burning himself all over I followed burning myself as well. Pair of doughnuts!! We stayed in the van on his drive that night.

Next morning when we woke up felling rough as fuck. Breakfast again made for us, loads of tea and the hangover was bearable. During breakfast we were asked if we would like to go and watch speedway with them. Fucking right!! As we arrived at the stadium it was obvious the whole city got behind this. What a great day out it turned out to be. On the whole this was a quality few days. Patrick's family were great hosts and made us feel welcome. Thanks guys

Dunny

Poland part 3

After the speedway, covered in dust and still hungover pats dad drove us the 50km to beata's mum's holiday caravans. Three blokes in the back of a polo, Pats dad racing through the lanes (not quite as fast with the wife in the car), we got there feeling a lot less than fresh! This all changed when we got there, a massive clear lake with our own jetty and a breeze to straighten us out, banging! Met Beata's mum and sister over a cup of tea, they where keen to make sure we had everything we needed, which included a canoe, pedalo and bottle of vodka! Awesome! After a brief discussion... 'Well I'm drinking it!' (Dunny) we did the vodka and went for a wander. The caravan is massive compared to the van so we slept in luxury! Woke up in -3 with little blankets fully clothed and all slept round the fire.

Had a massive lie in, went to the shop and as bottles of vodka are £4 we brought 2 and sat round playing cards and chatting bollocks. When the bottles had gone we went to the shop to get more. To our horror the shop shut at 4pm gutted! We went for a wander and found a mechanics/garage, 'wouldn't it be great if they sold booze' we got there 10 minutes to closing time and they sold oil, spare parts for cars and of course... Vodka! Shit hot! Another bottle of vodka later and we where on a peer singing and using the peer and bars as drums, class views of the silhouette of the horizon where discussed and then as the drink started to end the conversation turned to how nice it would be if we had some more... A car pulled up and we looked at it for a while, being midnight we where giggling like kids...'they MUST be dogging!' After a while we realised they weren't, they where boozing! We went over to ask to buy some. After I spoke to the fellas sister on the phone (no idea why?!) they just gave us vodka! This tour is blessed!

After a late start, shock! We went out on the pedalo cruising round the lake, 3 burnt heads later we had a well deserved afternoon nap (life is hard). When we finally got up we had an epic 2hour training session; pads, circuits, running and sparring. Best training for ages! Shattered, we made a curry and played cards and dominoes. Tomorrow we go to collect our van.

Dan has outdone himself! The van is purring along! Second spare on board we headed for presents then said our goodbyes, top people! Back to the lake via a massive supermarket to buy stuff to sort out the inside of the van tomorrow. We started work early and after 4 hours work it's looking quality! Shelves made from a long straight timbre we found and stripped the bark off is the best bit. We put up a calendar from the speedway curtesy of dan along with a load of stickers, maps and other items collected en route. To celebrate we treated ourselves to vodka. Pissed, singing and for some reason chopping cabbage we headed to a spot round the lake for a fire. We took the music and the booze, burnt through all the wood we could find, then turned our attention to a 40ft dead tree, between us we managed to get it down and spent the next four hours burning it, swimming and discussing becoming tree surgions... Piece of piss!

Our final day at the lake was spent packing up. We said goodbye to beata's mum and headed to Lithuania, via a touristy town she had given us brochures about. Lovely town with cracking food! Having no polish we ordered '3 of what she's got please, with chips'.  A walk round the old town and church, very nice, the church was really spooky, we started again on our way to Lithuania.

We have thoroughly enjoyed Poland and would like to say a big thank you to Pat and Beata and their families!

Poland Part 1

We crossed the border from Germany to Poland late afternoon so we headed to a forest to find a place to park for the night. It was a cracking spot, all pine trees with the ground covered in grass and plenty of dry wood to have a fire.

We wrote a shopping list for the next day for hardware type things but most importantly a goulash pot and tripod.

The first garden type shop had exactly what we needed, a tripod with a hanging grill and a big saucepan.

We went back to the same place in the woods and set up camp again, did some laundry in a bucket and set the goulash pot up for tea. The goulash pot is awesome, we all sat around it at night and chucked a load of food in it, plus we get to play with the fire. We have cooked on it every night since we bought it using free wood. 

We did some weights and a bit of pad work. I stepped back and took a picture (see below). This was when we realised how much we are like gypsies!

We slept in the same spot again. In the morning an official looking car drove up the fire road to where we were set up, two angry looking park rangers got out and said we have 20 mins to pack up and f*%k off.  20 mins later we were off.

Summery so far, 7 nights sleeping rough and 3 of those we were moved on. We are defiantly getting better at it though, arriving in the dark and leaving early in the morning.

Because our plans were scuppered we decided to put some miles under us and head towards Warsaw. We got beckoned over by police as we left a toll booth, but when they heard we were British they sent us on our way. We parked up in a rural area just outside Warsaw.

We stopped at a McDonalds and pike'ed their wifi, we didn't buy anything just sat outside. We found a campsite, Camping Wok 10km outside the centre. It was a nice campsite with good facilities. Our aim in Warsaw was to try and sort a Russian and Kazakhstan visa. After chatting to the campsite receptionist we found out it was a national holiday with street entertainers and parties. Oh well, we would have to get on it again!

We still cycled to try and find the embassy anyway to find where it was even though it was probably closed, we used Google maps but it sent us down a random lane with wooden huts, when we finally found it it was more like Buckingham Palace! It was closed so we cycled into old town to see the festivities.

There were police everywhere, riot vans and loads of coppers walking around. Then we saw why, a massive protest, all mental looking Polish skin heads marching through the city. We cycled right next to them, they were chanting something to do with socialism and capatalism but we couldn't work out exactly what they were protesting.

We had a few beers in the main square then cycled back to the campsite and got on it.

Rob