Kermeri National Park, Latvia

Okay, so I had a very good day after such a dreadful start with one of the worst hangovers ever, since my college trip to Belgium a few years ago. Still thinking why I was so stupid from the previous night, but I had a text from Olga this morning. I was thinking the worse. I honestly thought it was a text going to say "I don't want to ever see you again!" But no, it was completey different. The text had nothing to do with my actions at the very end of the night, but was saying what a great time she had with me in Cesis yesterday and wanted to know if we could meet up again after she had finished work? Of course, I jumped at the chance and told her I would meet her in Teika, Northern Riga.

By now, the weather we were getting this week was great.

So me and decided to do some exploring, and headed to the Kermeri National Park, just west of Jurmala, which was only formed in 1997.

Now, we wern't sure what to expect there, but some of the pictures on the tourist leafets in the hotel seemed good. Now, the problem was getting there. The train service is not brilliant the further away you go from Riga, and we wern't sure about bus routes. So, me and the Rikstar went to Dubalti station, and caught the first train heading west, but the train terminated at Sloka. So after a few minutes wondering around looking at timetables, and bucked up the courage to ask the ticket office, I found out the next direct train was not leaving for another 90 minutes. So after a great discussion with Rik and the weather wasso nice, we decided to walk it.

From Sloka to Kermeri was around 6 miles away I guess.

Now, the walk was nice, and after 4 miles and an hour later of walking down this really long straight road which seemed to go on for miles, with so few buildings and attractions to look at, apart from trees, we came up to a little shop on the turning for Kudra. In around this area, we found out there were so many little pests in the air and some mosqutios. Great. So we hope to get some spray, but was not in luck. This was also a great time to stock up on food and drink supplies..i.e water and ice cream. yummy. We walked into Kudra, because I looked on the map, and I thought it would be quicker to walk along side the railway line into Kermeri instead of making a few extra steps on the main road.

How wrong I was! After 5 minutes walking down the railway line, the little pests grew in number.

I looked at the time, and shouted at Rik, that if I got my calcuations right, the train which we should catch at Sloka would be in Kudra in a few minutes. So we both ran back towards the station on the uneven ground, and just made it in time for the train which was just pulling in. After buying new tickets on board for 0.20lvl each, and a few minutes later, we arrived at Kermeri.

Now, I thought Cesis was quiet yesterday, this small town in the national park seemed even quieter. We walked out of the station and headed north. After walking along these long wide streets with nice fancy buildings, and taking photos of the parks, ponds, the local library and even the water tower we arrived in the main park of Kermeri, which had a number of delightful pavilions in classical style and around 12 bridges across the Versupuite.

This also had one of the best (and one of a few) Russian Orthodox churches I have seen. Built in 1893 and named after the SS Peter and Paul, this was built in the style of the wooden churches of northern Russia. I also found out later that day that a number of Russian soliders killed in World War 1 are buried here.

After a while, and now getting hungary, as it was lunchtime, we decided to head back to the train station. There was one food shop there, but I did not fancy eating a choclate bar for lunch. I wanted a proper meal. So we arrived at the train station, and had to wait for a couple of hours for the next train from Tukams to Riga. So we crossed the road to the main bus stop (and only bus stop I thought!) and found out we had 40 minutes to wait.

Fair enough.

Rik walked around the station and local area for some good photographs and I decided to hang around the bus stop in case the bus came early. You never know out in the sticks.

The bus came on time, and a few people jumped on. Even the old lady who was a gypsy a few minutes earlier who was trying to sell me some white flowers for good luck jumped on. I don't think she understood me. Good, as I didn't want to buy some flowers which were nicked from the local fields. I get enough of that in Stevenage, England.

After a 30 minute ride around the Kemeri national park, we terminated at Sloka. We walked down the main road back towards the station, and found out where my friend's Marina apartment was. But she was not in, as she was at university.

Anyway, we had a quick drink in the station bar (and still no food) and jumped on the train.

We had tickets to go back to Dubulti, but we both wanted food now, so decided to fare invade for one stop to Majori. The ticket examiner did not notice and we walked off into the main centre of Disneyland and back to Cafe 53 for another steak meal outside and taking in the local delights of the high street. Dam, these girls are good looking, and Rik seemed to lose concertation for some time by birdwatching.

After lunch (a very late lunch) it was time to head back to Dubulti for the hostel via the beach. I got ready and headed back into Riga by train. Dam, these train journeys are getting really boring for me now as they are so slow compared to England, but at least they came on time, had no faults and they get you to your destination.

I made my way up to Teika, and found Olga waiting for me.

We could not really do much that evening so we decided to walk to Domina shopping centre, 15 minutes away. God, my legs are feeling tired after all todays walking. must of walked around 14 miles so far. We did a little bit of shopping and had a drink in some coffee bar. We walked back to Teika, where we had a good talk, and found out that I had forgotten something which was said in a e-mail a few weeks early. I won't discuss it, but it made me feel like a proper fool, as I did the previous night. We hugged each other, and off I went on tram no.6 to Riga, and managed to catch the last train back to Dubulti again. At least on the text message on the way home, that she said we did not want to lose me as a friend and wanted to see me again. Well, at least it is something, we will see when I next come to Riga that we will see if we meet up. As in England, if they said that, it means, "go away, I never want to see you again".

Well, we will see. Good night folks.