Latvia Archives - Plug Me In

2 September 20168 September 2016 by Wiebe

Day 170 – 171 | Latvia to Lithuania

Day 170 | Wednesday August 31

My host Dennis gave me a tour through his town Ludza. It’s a very old town surrounded by lakes. Dennis hasn’t seen much outside of his town, the border with Russia is only 10km away but he prefers to stay in Ludza, so he knows it pretty well. With his sports car we drove off-road into a forrest, some kings from hundreds of years ago and even mummies were buried here.

Around noon I left Ludza. I wanted to go to Vilnius but that was impossible to reach in one day. So I stopped halfway down, in Daugavpils. In search of a place to stay I entered some hotels and found my luck at Park Hotel Latgola, a beautiful looking hotel located probably in the tallest building of the city. My room was located on the 9th floor and had a great view over the ‘skyline’.
Minor problem was that there was no opportunity to charge the car at the hotel. In Latvia there are some public chargers but they are found in and around Riga. I started to drive around and looked for a socket. There are not many here. I was lucky to find a carwash with a nice guy who offered me to park and charge overnight, problem solved.

Day 171 | Thursday September 1

Funny thing to discover on this trip is how breakfasts are totally different in each country. Today I had the opportunity to discover it at the hotel. In Latvia they eat very strong: eggs, salads, fish and and soups for breakfast. Less bread, no croissants at all.

Vilnius was now only 173km away. When I had been driving for 50km or so I noticed the country seemed to change. The roads were better and the houses looked different. Without knowing I already entered Lithuania. Last night I didn’t had any offers yet for places to stay in Vilnius so I send out a request on Facebook. In the morning I had 3 people who replied to it, including two Dutchmans. In the afternoon I arrived in Vilnius and stopped at a shopping mall to pick up free wifi and check my messages. The malls are huge here, in the middle of the mall even was an ice-skating ring! Impressive.
They also had some superchargers installed at the parking. Long time ago I saw one. Some cars were charging there and I made a short talk. Apparently it where taxi drivers and they felt pretty satisfied with the EV’s.

Bernie, my Dutch host invited me to come to one of his restaurants. In 2001 Bernie got the opportunity to start a houseclub here in the city, loved it and stayed ever since. He now owns 6 different establishments in Vilnius including a tapas bar, rum bar and burger restaurant. Bernie is original from the same city as me, Haarlem. It’s a small world.

After dinner at his restaurants (really good beef steak by the way) we drove to his house. It was only 2km and I had 4% battery left. For the first time this trip the battery ran completely out! Luckily I was in the middle of the city with electricity everywhere so right where it ran out there was a hotel and it was ok to plug it in there. After 15 minutes we got home.

Bernie lives with his girlfriend and 2 cats in a nice house only few minutes from the center. We talked a bit, did some work and than Bernie took me to a concert in town and we finished it off with some rums at one of his bars.

Pictures

Ludza

Latgola Hotel

View from the room

Emergency charge in Vilnius

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31 August 20168 September 2016 by Wiebe

Day 167 – 169|Moscow to Latvia

Day 167 | Sunday August 28

After some thrilling days in Moscow it was time to leave. Latvia is the country where I want to go next. I tried to look for possibilities to travel to Asia via Moscow but it was impossible because I couldn’t make that within the 30 days of my visa and it was to short time to arrange visas for the countries.

The M9 is the highway to Latvia and the nearest city from Moscow Rhzev, so I aimed to get there today, a 225km drive. In a small town of which I even don’t know the name of I found a gasstation with a 32A socket where I recharged. With my translation document I explained my situation and they allowed me to charge there.

In Rhzev I didn’t have a place to stay and after a lot of days with people around me all day I was up for a bit more privacy, so I tried to get into an hotel again. With Google I found 3 hotels in the city, the first 2 didn’t exist anymore but the last one, Hotel Rhzev, was still there. It was a challenge to explain what I was doing and what I needed but the document and the newspaper article helped a lot. They were willing to offer me a room. Some Russians came to me and had big interest in the car. With translators in iPhones I explained most details of the car.

Day 168 | Monday August 29

Andrei my host in Moscow found a friend of a friend in Veliki Luki who was willing to host me. The city was 250km away so I knew it was going to be a long day. I needed 3 gasstations with electricity supply to eventually reach the city around 9pm. I met my host Sergey at his office and we drove to his apartment. A very modern one, more than any other I saw before in Russia. Sergeys English was not so good but still he did everything to make me feel comfortable, making me shaslicks and more delicious food. After some food and drinks he went back to work, apparently he is a night owl and he left me alone to do some work.

Day 169 | Tuesday August 30

It was time to leave Russia for good. My time in Russia was unbelievable interesting and pleasant. I love the Russian mentality and their hospitality. Also the country is something else and I love how things work here, it’s not so smooth as the countries I’ve been before and I like that.

I reached the border with Latvia around 3. I was a bit nervous because I was afraid for problems with the late registration but fortunately I could pass without problems! And way quicker then when entering Russia.

After the border my battery was nearly empty, rain reduced the range a lot. There was a town called Ludza but I stranded a couple of miles before that and actually had 1% left. Normally I am a bit more cautious but today I just wanted to go. I stopped the car and started walking and look for electricity. It was on the country side and was hoping to find my luck at a farm but no-one was home. After a kilometer there was a street with more normal houses and some people were working in the garden. I approached them and asked if the spoke English. One of the guys started talking in a perfect British accent. He was a Latvian but moved to England 10 years ago and was here now for holidays. What a gift. It was ok to charge the car there so I picked up the car, drove back and plugged it in. He and his dad offered me some tea, cookies and we had some interesting talks. After 2 hours I had enough range to reach Ludza.

In Ludza I had no plan too and when the darkness started to fall I needed to hurry up. The woman at the local gasstation didn’t speak English so I thought to ask somewhere else first. I walked around and some young people where smoking outside. I asked them for help and they thought the gasstation was the best option. He wanted to help me as an translator. At the gasstation they explained it was not possible as she had only one socket and than she needed to unplug to ice cream fridge, not an option. But the guy had an solution, he told me to wait a few minutes. Than a friend of his stopped by with the car and he told me “he you are from the Netherlands” in almost fluent Dutch, huh? Apparently this guy, Dennis is working in Holland and learned the language. Such coincidence. His friend stopped by who just picked up an extension cord and we drove to another house where we plugged in.

He offered to come to his house to have some food. I was constantly switching between English, Dutch and Russian to explain what I was doing. They were very impressed and thought I was a bit crazy. They don’t travel much, they like to stay around their house. The guys, 22 and 23 already had children so life here is a bit different.

When I told them I had no place to stay for the night I could crash on one of their beds. Latvia so far pretty awesome!

Pictures