Day 96-97 – 4.-5. August 2013

After we slept a few hours I went a little bit shopping in the vicinity.

I decided to change my plans in order to make it to Croatia till the end of September to go sailing with some of my friends. To gain some time I will take the bus to Vilnius and to Bialystock and then cycle through Ukraine, Romania and Hungary to Croatia. My rule not to use motorized vehicles will not be affected, because I already made it to Bialystock and now I will start from there again. So the trip to St. Petersburg was just like a little extra tour and will not count for the world trip.

I packt my stuff for the bus to Vilnius and at 6:30 pm we started to cycle to the bus station. The bus was leaving at 9 pm but I wanted to be there early to maybe have a chance to talk to the driver in order to get all my stuff and the bike in the bus.

First the drivers said the bus is full and you are only allowed one pice of luggage. After a while they showed me a extra compartment and offered it to me for an extra 30€. So what could I do but accept it?

At least I was on my way back to Vilnius.

At the border to Estonia we all had to get out of the bus and take all of our luggage and go through the baggage control. Crossing the border took about one hour and 30 minutes.

At 7 am we reached Riga and I had to change buses. The bus to Vilnius started at 10:30 am so I had to kill some time.

At the beginning the bus driver had the same problem with my luggage but then I could put everything in the cargo area with no extra charge.

In the early afternoon I reached Vilnius and Dainius my host from my first visit to Vilnius  came and took my stuff to their apartment. I cycled the 3 km to their place.

Day 96: 14 km  all: 3424 km

Day 81 – 20. July 2013

It was almost a week since I had to pack all my things onto the bike. It felt very heavy again.

After a short breakfast with Marcin we shot some short movie clips and finally it was time to say Goodbye.

Marcin was a great help and became a good friend. And I know he will try to help me in any way.

The border to Estonia was only about 10 km away and I crossed it at 1 pm.

I tried to find a typical sign with the country name and the european stars. But I could only find this:

I dont know if it means something?

The weather was nice but the wind was very strong and was coming from the left side. I left the main road and proceeded close to the ocean. The wooded area helped to shield the wind. But after 40 km I had no energy any more and found a small camping ground.

After I set up my camp, I had to cycle 10 km to the next town to get some money and to by some food.

At midnight I woke up from a loud bang. I first thought somebody is shooting, but it was fireworks just 100 meters away. After 5 minutes it was over and I went back to sleep.

Day 81: 39.06 km  all: 2799 km

Day 80 – 19. July 2013

In the morning we first ate the rest of the birthday-cake.

We packt everything and finally a 11 am we first had to go to a big bike-shop only 1 km away.

I did not go to far, because a heavy rain started and I found cover at a filling station. After a few minutes I could go to the bike shop.

I was looking for some spare Tires, but they did not have the exact size. I asked if I could leave the bike for about one hour, because we had to return the keys to Inna´s  appartment.

So we drove to town and gave the key to Inna´s mother.

When we got back to the bike shop the rain stopped and I finally started my trip to a campi ng place about 100km north of Riga.

I was again very fast without my luggage. Maybe too fast. I slid and fell to the left side. I was not hurt but my bike had some bruises.

My mirror was broke and the left pedal was not usable any more.

After 3 supermarkets I found a small Tool-shop and had to by a wrench to remove the old pedal. I showed the owner my old pedal an asked where I would find a new one. He took me two shops further to a pet supply shop.  Luckily they also had some bicycles and spare parts. I bought 2 new pedals for 7,99€ and everything was OK again.

The weather was getting better and the wind was also getting stronger.

5 km from the camping ground Marcin came with a rented bike to intercept me. He also had some food form me.

Together we reached the nice camping ground.

After I setup my tent and took a shower Marcin wanted to go to the border of Estonia to drink a coffee.

We coud not find a coffe, but we ate something and went back to our tents.

Marcin invited me to his tent for a little birthday-party and some vodka-tasting.

Day 80: 95,62 km  all: 2760 km

Day 79 – 18. July 2013

In the morning Marcin and I drove to the Riga Yacht-habour to see some sailboats.

We had lunch at the restaurant belonging to the habour.

We wanted to buy some food and a cake for the next day. We found one of the manny shopping-centers in Riga and also bought a nice cake.

We got back to Inna´s place and packed some stuff to go to the beach.

In the afternoon there was a big thunderstorm over Riga with very heavy rain.

It took us 1,5 hours for 15 km to the beach. Some roads were flooded and closed and on the other road was a traffic jam.

We finally reached the beach, but had only 1 hour there. We wanted to meet with Inna at 10 pm in old town.

Marcin went into the wather but for me it was to cold.

After we hurried back to the car we had another problem. The car would not start. It was pretty obvious that the battery was the problem. Finally I pusched the car and it started.

We went to a nearby filling station and bought an new Battery, and changed it.

Everything was perfect again, only we were late for our meeting.

We found a parking place near old town and meet Inna.

After a drink and afterwards a very good dumpling fast food restaurant we got back to the car.

The lock from the drivers side was completely gone. There was only a hole.

We checked if something was missing but luckily they did not open the door. Either they were very stupid or they were interrupted, because I could open the door by pulling a lever in the hole.

So I was very lucky, because my trailer and most of my equipment was in the car.

When we were back at Inna´s apartment we opened a bottle of champaign and got the cake out, Inna even played a birthday song for Marcin. It was his 45th birthday.

Riga, Latvia