Jurmala, LatviaMonday, June 15, 2009
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Trip Across Eastern Europe DAY #1
Well, our car made it all the way to Cheryl’s house, although it is still making that new noise, not that diesel motors aren’t noisy enough. But we were so thankful to have made it without breaking down. Latvia is a Baltic language, like Lithuanian, so we continued to not be able to understand the signs, except that as we crossed into Latvia, we began to notice some things in English, which we at least mostly understand. =)
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As we were traveling through Latvia, we were texting Cheryl to let her know our ETA. She mentioned that we would need to stop and get some Latvian currency, especially a “one Lat coin” to pay the toll in order to drive into Jurmala. We couldn’t find one gas station on the main road to Jurmala, but were happy to see that where you actually pay the toll, there was a booth with an ATM machine, as well as a machine that made change. The problem is, the ATM machine didn’t work, so I couldn’t get the coin I needed to pay the toll. I finally got the guts to walk up to another car that was paying the toll. The poor lady didn’t speak any English, but was very nice, and gave me a “one Lat coin” (about $2.00 US) so that I could pay the toll. I gave her 10 Polish złotych (about $3.00 US) as a token of my thanks, which she probably won’t know what to do with. Oh well. We paid the toll and drive made it to Cheryl’s house by 10:00 pm. Jurmala is right on the Baltic Sea. The beach is actually only a ten or fifteen minute walk from Cheryl’s house, so we may attempt to go there tomorrow, after a good night sleep. In fact, I am exhausted and will write more tomorrow.
.
As we were traveling through Latvia, we were texting Cheryl to let her know our ETA. She mentioned that we would need to stop and get some Latvian currency, especially a “one Lat coin” to pay the toll in order to drive into Jurmala. We couldn’t find one gas station on the main road to Jurmala, but were happy to see that where you actually pay the toll, there was a booth with an ATM machine, as well as a machine that made change. The problem is, the ATM machine didn’t work, so I couldn’t get the coin I needed to pay the toll. I finally got the guts to walk up to another car that was paying the toll. The poor lady didn’t speak any English, but was very nice, and gave me a “one Lat coin” (about $2.00 US) so that I could pay the toll. I gave her 10 Polish złotych (about $3.00 US) as a token of my thanks, which she probably won’t know what to do with. Oh well. We paid the toll and drive made it to Cheryl’s house by 10:00 pm. Jurmala is right on the Baltic Sea. The beach is actually only a ten or fifteen minute walk from Cheryl’s house, so we may attempt to go there tomorrow, after a good night sleep. In fact, I am exhausted and will write more tomorrow.
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Christian Young
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