Tuesday, September 3
As i lay there, trying to go to sleep, it occurred to me that i had not yet booked my passage to Vilnius, so i didn't know how much Riga time i would have. So i picked up my phone, opened the Eurail app, and searched for routes.
There's only one train from Riga to Vilnius every day this week. It departs at 15:28, gets arrives at 19:51, and requires a €5 seat reservation.
So i guess that's it then, that's the option. I have not had any luck finding night trains on this trip so far.
I clicked to book the seat reservation, and Eurail told me that it couldn't be made. There was an option to check the carrier's web site directly, so i clicked that, and received a vomit of improperly formatted text.
Screw it. I will deal with this in the morning. So i rolled over to go to sleep.
I woke up several times during the night, having the dreaded thought, the train is sold out. That's why it needs a reservation, it's very popular. I'm gonna get fucked. I'll have to stay in Riga one more night, maybe have to cut Vilnius entirely to make it to Berlin on time. This sucks.
But every time, i told myself, deal with it in the morning. I'll figure it out. It's fine.
So when i did finally awaken at 8:00, a perfectly reasonable time to get up, the first thing i did was roll over and go back to sleep.
And again at 8:15. And 8:30.
When i finally woke up for real just before 9, the first thing i did was grab my phone and try to book that ticket again. Reservations need to be made at least three hours before the train departs, i've got a little over six right now, but if i don't do it, i WILL forget.
I got the same results.
So i went back and tried clicking on the same train for tomorrow...and got the same results.
And every day this week.
Okay so either every train to Vilnius is fully booked this week, or i'm missing something.
I followed through to the LTG Link website again, and managed to get the page refreshed into a useable form. Now, i was able to search for my train, put in my Eurail pass number, and get some actual results. I had the reservation booked in no time.
Once again, all of my worrying had been for nothing. Every inconvenience that has come up on this trip has been easily solved by calming down, clearing my mind, and-
Oh, right, my glasses are still broken.
I got ready for the day, packed all my stuff up, and headed down to reception, hoping the clerk from yesterday was there, so i could ask her about the range pictures. I also wanted to ask about leaving my stuff there while i was exploring for the day, and see if i could maybe get some glue or something. The lenses are still intact, fortunately, the only damage is that the bow on one side snapped clean off the front of the frame. If i could just get a dab of superglue in there, maybe it would hold together for a few more weeks. "A few" meaning six.
Today i am one-third of the way through the trip. Day 21 of 63. This trip has now lasted longer than our New Zealand excursion in 2008. This is the longest i've ever been out of the United States. And i still aim to triple that number.
It was someone else at the desk. She said there was no glue, she'd been looking for some superglue just a couple days ago and couldn't find any. Best she could do was packing tape. I accepted.
I went into the small kitchen adjacent to reception, mixed up my morning aminos, sat down at the table across from Tasha, and set to work trying to tape my glasses back together. It was clear that just trying to affix it to the spot it had snapped off of wasn't going to work, but i was able to pop the left lens out, wrap tape through the inside, and back out around the bow, and (with difficulty) get the lens back in. This should hold me for now.
Drew was the only person i'd told about my glasses last night. I woke up to multiple messages from him with Google Maps points to optical dispensaries nearby that offer repair services. I thanked him, but i wasn't going to wait around for someone to fix this. The kludge will do. It's adventure time. "Marge Simpson noises," he replied.
I asked Tasha about the photos and videos from the range. Turns out, she had saved them all on her phone, so she was happy to send them over to me.
Thanks, Tasha!
Okay! So i can see, i'm checked out of the hostel, and my bag is safely stowed for a few hours. Let's have a look at that 3,000 stall market built into the old zeppelin hangar!
It was just as big as i imagined, but not nearly as busy. I suppose i was expecting, like, Grand Central Market in Downtown Los Angeles numbers, but those numbers are probably, like, the actual population of Latvia. Let's see...Wikipedia says...1.8 million? Yeah i'll bet 1.8 million people go through Grand Central Market every day. That sounds correct.
So it was pretty easy to move around and see everything they had to offer. I entered the hangar furthest to the left, which seemed to be mostly clothing, accessories, and souvenirs. I was surprised to see that all of the stands are permanent, actually. I guess i'd been picturing a large farmer's market, with tables that are used by different vendors from day to day. Kind of like what i saw outside, in the back, yesterday.
The second hangar, or "Gastro Pavilion," is all food, both restaurants and stalls selling things like produce and bakery items. One stand was all spices, and smelled incredible. I thought about starting my day with a doughnut, then looking for a more substantial meal, but i wanted to see everything and get a feel for all my options before i committed to anything.
Coming into the third hangar, the sign read, "Vegetable Pavilion," but every stand i saw in there was meat. I walked through the aisles of various freshly-butchered cuts of every kind of edible meat i could think of, and. Well. I have some feelings.
I know that, in the grand scheme of how long i've been alive, i haven't been vegan/vegetarian for very long, and i know i've been eating a lot of meat on this trip, mostly for cultural experience reasons but also because it's just easier. I've found a couple good vegetarian options, but when i have the choice, i always go for the thing i've never heard of or that looks the least American. To have culinary experiences.
But overall, i don't really crave meat much anymore. Very rarely. Being around people eating meat or seeing cuts of meat doesn't usually bother me though, as long as it doesn't still look like the animal it came from. I'm able to compartmentalize that. For better or worse. You may have your own opinions. But this much meat all together in one place, just meat after meat after meat...kinda started squicking me out.
Then i got to the back, where it was almost entirely fish. A lot of these fish were being sold whole, fully intact, heads, eyes, and everything. Which does get to me a little. Like, they have entire fish at Costco sometimes and i don't like walking past them.
I got to one booth where there was a whole fish just sitting on ice, not packaged up at all. Just lying there. As i approached...i saw its gills moving.
That fish is still alive.
They. They are torturing that fish.
...
I am uncomfortable.
I know that the concept of animal rights is not widely accepted in all cultures. Hell, it's not even anywhere near universal in the United States. In many places the idea is considered downright laughable.
So i'm not gonna start a revolution or anything here by saying anything. I'm not gonna be able to save that fish's life unless i buy the whole thing and have a habitat to transplant it to. Like, what am i gonna do? Carry it outside and throw it in the river? Is this river even a suitable environment for it? How many more living fish are in this room right now, on ice, gasping for oxygen that they can't parse from the air???
Just kill this fish already and let someone eat it. Fucking hell.
I turned around and left the "Vegetable Pavilion" with urgency.
I'm about to eat more meat here in just a minute, which i'm gonna try very hard not to think much about, but once i get back to the states, yeah. I'm definitely gonna get more focused on keeping vegan again. That gasping fish image is staying with me.
I'm a fucking hypocrite. But a cultured one, i guess.
Back in the Gastro Pavilion, i went to the doughnut stand, only to find that they require payment in cash, which i still do not have. I spent it all on guns yesterday.
There was another bakery stall very close, in fact the first stall i had noticed when i originally came in, so i went back there and got a very nice fist-sized cherry pie. Perfect breakfast! Alright, lunch time.
The stall right next to the bakery was selling a "Traditional Latvian Lunch Special," so i wanted to try that. Yesterday, i talked about Hesburger, saying that i wanted to try a cheap, fast meal in each country in addition to something signature, but so far, all i've had in Latvia has been cheap, fast meals. Time for some genuine Latvian cuisine.
I had a pork šašlik, which they say is their best seller. It consisted of several small chunks of marinated pork chops arranged neatly on a half a tortilla, with sliced tomato, cucumber, and red onion served on the side, plus a cup of some kind of sauce. Looked like ketchup, had the consistency of ketchup, tasted a little like ketchup, but with something added that gave it just the tiniest bit of a zing. There was far too much pork in there to roll the tortilla like a burrito, so i took the fork and knife i was given, ate most of it, and when it was at a reasonable size, rolled it up and finished it by hand.
It was delightful! Would recommend. If you eat meat.
I'd like to single out the cucumber for a second, though. I've never particularly liked cucumbers, unless they're pickled. These were served with salt and pepper, which i have never considered putting on a cucumber, and possibly (?) a light oil of some kind? I still wouldn't go out of my way for them, but it was probably the best-served cucumber i've ever had.
My thoughts for the rest of the day were to do the KGB museum, and then the Latvian Popular Front museum. The KGB museum is a huge draw in Riga, one of their most popular tourist spots. It was suggested to me when the clerk was drawing on the map, and it comes up on all the lists of things to do in Riga. I found the Popular Front museum on Google Maps, and was intrigued by it; several of the reviews say it's better than the KGB museum, but a few people suggested doing the KGB one first, so you have a proper perspective on the Popular Front when you get there.
I have already done one small KGB museum, the holding cells in Tallinn. According to my host at the hostel, Riga was "like, the main KGB headquarters in the Baltic states" during the occupation, so i'm sure that this museum is just like the holding cells, but more horrific, by a factor of ten or a hundred. Just. Just so many atrocities.
I was already disturbed enough by the holding cells museum, and since it was past noon, i didn't think i had enough time to do two museums in the next three hours. Given the choice, one or the other, i thought it would be more relevant to my interests to see the one that focuses on the resistance, not the oppressors.
The Museum of the Popular Front of Latvia is, conveniently, just two streets over from the Naughty Squirrel Hostel. Five minute walk. Absolutely perfect, the hostel is five minutes away from the museum, and it's on the way to the train station. Also, the museum is free.
I entered, and was met by a bespectacled man who explained the museum's mission, and how to move around its many rooms and three floors. He said to feel free to explore.
I was the only visitor.
A lot of the museum is walls of text on walls of plaster. Lots of graphics, lots of historical photos, in what are essentially informational murals. It tells the story of how the Popular Front of Latvia came to form in 1989 after documents were made public that, fifty years prior, the fledgling Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had made a pact on how to divide up Europe, which gave the Baltic states to Russia against their will. On a world stage, this is illegal, which seems really obvious, but i guess for fifty years people had gone along with it like there had been some kind of formal treaty? Turned out, the USSR "could not find" the original draft of said treaty.
The Popular Front of Latvia is considered to have gained Latvian independence through a nonviolent revolution, having won political offices through fair elections, and voting the fascist out, which...i don't know, man. It's a nice feel-good story, but i think there's a lot more at play here. I don't know enough about this to make any grand statements, but i think the Soviet Union was already falling apart, the Chernobyl disaster had already happened, corruption was eating away at their government...i do not think peaceful methods would have worked if the wind wasn't already blowing that way. But i kind of want to do a lot more research on this and fully understand it, the museums and historical sites and firsthand accounts i've gotten about the collapse of the USSR while i've been here have been absolutely fascinating. And i think there are a lot of lessons in there that we can apply right now to current world events to try and prevent and reverse the growing specter of global fascism. I never learned about the Baltic Way in school, and that happened during my lifetime. i was in first grade when the USSR fell. You'd think we'd have covered that a little more than we did.
I grabbed a Popular Front of Latvia lapel pin from a bowl of them that was sitting on a table. There were also baskets of authentic late 80s-early 90s Latvian newspapers with signs reading, "Please take me home!," and that would have made a lovely souvenir, but i'm sure it would get destroyed in my backpack over the next few weeks. There were other things sitting out that i wasn't sure were free, but seemed available? But without prices on them? I was planning to snag a postcard on the way out, but forgot.
The pin's nice, though.
Alright, so that was all my afternoon plans, time to go to the hostel and to the train station, and...
Oh. It's only 1:00. That museum was a lot shorter than i expected. I still have two and a half hours.
Maybe i could have done the KGB museum also.
Eh, hell. Let's see what's left on the Atlas Obscura.
-The Old Oak Tree: a petrified tree trunk on display along an indoor street in a shopping district. The plaque reads, "Found during excavation work for Riga new Town Hall. It grew on the shore of Daugava 3500 years ago, at about the time when Pharaoh Tutankhamen was the ruler of Egypt." This is near several spots i visited yesterday, i had looked for it but could not find the entrance to the indoor street.
-Riga Cathedral: I didn't go in, because it had an entrance fee and i had very little time, but i walked around the grounds and saw a few strange metal statues. A large armadillo (do they have armadillos in Latvia?), a small dragon, and a medium-sized unicorn. All three statues are about the same size, so i'm just giving them adjectives relative to the scale of the things represent. Wait. Dragon, unicorn, and...armadillo? Do Latvians think armadillos are fictional?
The cathedral is not on the Atlas Obscura, i just happened past it, but there is a weird sculpture inside it that is. Unfortunately, since i didn't pay to enter, i did not get to see The Stone Head of Salaspils.
-Kopā pie Doma: Also not on the Atlas, just a weird-looking area i saw outside the Cathedral. From afar, it looks like a McDonald's Playplace-like area for kids, but up close, it's actually a bunch of strangely-shaped sitting areas bolted together in a wooden frame, inspired by nearby ancient architecture, for adults to sit and take a load off.
-Big Christopher: Um. Not sure about this one. Replica of a statue to a local legend about a giant who helped carry people across the river. One day he carried the baby Jesus Christ. The statue has a naked baby with its whole cock and balls out slung over his shoulder.
-Three Brothers: A trio of buildings set next to each other, sharing walls, that were built in three different time periods, allegedly by descendants of the same family line. From right to left, they showcase the different architecture styles prevalent in Riga from the mid-1500s, mid-1600s, and late 1600s. The oldest is still a residential building, the oldest in Riga currently serving that function, and the newest is now the Latvian Museum of Architecture.
It was 2:30 by this point, so i returned to the hostel to grab my bag.
I filled my water bottles while i was waiting for the clerk to help some other people, who were just checking in. I overheard her say, "...and at check-in, you get a free welcome shot!"
I poked my head out of the kitchen. "Hey, i didn't get my welcome shot," i said. "Because i checked in after close."
"Oh, you can still get it!" she said. I was thinking i would take my shot with these newcomers, but they both declined theirs, saying they'd come back later.
After they'd gone to their bunks, the clerk asked me if i wanted the sweet cherry liqueur, or the Riga Black Balsam. "It's very strong, it's like...45%."
I considered the cherry for a hot second, because i hadn't had it yet, but nah. I felt it appropriate that my parting shot from Latvia be the Riga Black Balsam.
She took the shot with me. We were still chatting for a minute or two when the original clerk, the one who'd checked me in yesterday morning and took me shooting, came in. She was just dropping her things off, and then she walked out and disappeared.
"This is my last shot of the day," the current clerk said. "I'm done in 10 minutes."
Man. This job sounds pretty nice. I could probably sit at a desk and check people into a hostel all day if i was taking shots with them throughout.
The original clerk was outside smoking when i left. "Where are you off to?" she asked.
"Vilnius," i replied.
"Ah, have a good time then!"
"I hope so. Hey, i never did catch your name."
"Dārta," she replied. "Like 'dart," with an A."
Then it clicked. "Oh, like the Dārta Special. Did you create that, then?"
"I did!"
"I had two of them last night when we were playing beer pong. It's delicious!"
"Ah, thank you!!"
During the brisk 8-minute walk to the train station, i couldn't figure out how to get across the highway at the intersection i needed, at first. This is the same highway i've mentioned having a difficult time crossing from nearer to the hostel over the last few days. But here, at this intersection, there are fences around the sidewalk on all ends, protruding far into the distance.
There are staircases going underground, though. They have these at the other intersection as well, but i had assumed they were to a subway, and i'd need a ticket to pass through them. That's why i always avoided them, and just went around the fence at the other intersection, since it breaks close enough to there.
I cautiously headed down. And what i found was just a brutalist-looking concrete cavern, extending in all four directions underneath the intersection.
No subway. No, this is literally just so you can get across the highway without getting run over by a truck or a tram.
Goddamn. So convenient. Should've been using this every time.
It was just a little after three when i got to Riga Central Station. As i entered, there were a bunch of people with both legit cameras and phones out taking photos of a woman standing in the middle of the walkway. There was also a man with her, but she was talking, and i got the impression that's who people were focused on. People from 10-15 feet away had their phones out too, obviously trying to get stealth shots. Must be a celebrity.
I had enough time to stop in at a convenience kiosk and grab an energy drink that looks like a bottle of Pepto-Bismol (it's called "Pink Star Dynami:t," yes, with the colon) and a hot dog in a cone, like i got in Copenhagen.
The clerk's English wasn't the best, so when he asked me what condiments i wanted in the cone, he said the Latvian names for them. Two were clearly ketchup and mustard, i wasn't sure what the third was, so naturally, i asked for that.
"Just this?" he inquired.
"Um. Yeah."
"Okay," he said, shrugging, acting like that was weird. After it was in, he said, "Just this? Any others?"
"Um. Sure, put them all in," i said.
"All?"
"Yeah, all."
"Okay," he said, shrugging again, acting again as if that, too, was very weird.
Look man, i don't know what the right answer is. Just sauce me up.
Took my bounty up to the train platform, and found my assigned seat. Window again. By complete accident, i've managed to get a window seat on every single plane, train, and bus i've taken during this trip. It's been nice. Now that i've said something about it, i don't expect that to continue to hold.
I'm about halfway through my train trip now, and so far, no one has taken the seat next to me. Also very nice.
And look! The bulk of my log is written before midnight. Also very nice!
Mayonnaise. The third thing was mayonnaise.
---
I guess the first red flag was when the confirmation email started with, "Dear Gabriel."
This hostel is absolute trash.
Actually, wait. The FIRST red flag was probably that the name is a horrible pun.
From the train station, i had a nice 2-mile walk to get here. This took me through Vilnius's Old Town, and over to the banks of the Neris River, at the border of Šnipiškės. I saw a lot of beautiful city. Also a lot of run-down city. Pretty much the whole gamut of city, as you get walking two continuous miles through any city, really.
Even Vilnius's Old Town seems more modern than Riga and Tallinn. The streets and sidewalks, at least the parts that i walked through, are not rough, ancient cobblestones or loose brick, but within-the-last-century concrete. Not much of what i've seen gives the medieval feeling of the other two Baltic capitols.
Since it's such a long walk, i figured i'd do a cursory glance at the Atlas Obscura before i went, in case anything was in my path. Because of the way the maps work on that web site, it was difficult to tell if i would come across anything, so i just scanned the list quick, and got on with it. As it happened, i did accidentally come across one, a giant egg of some renown, the Margutis Easter Egg.
I also found a statue of five eels popping out of the ground menacingly. Two meters high!
Getting close to my destination, i saw a huge, brightly lit line of buildings. It looked like a shopping center. Between myself and the lights, there seemed to be a valley, with walking paths leading down into it, and a lot of green space. I looked right, and in the distance i could see the valley curve; it was a river. Cool. Bet that looks gorgeous during the day, i'll have to check it out tomorrow.
I got to the hostel after the sun had set. It is in an old building. At the left front corner of the building, there's a glass box that looks like an elongated phone booth, covering a staircase. It has the logo for the hostel emblazoned across the top, on both the front and the side; on the front, it also has the name with the words reversed.
The hostel is called BAR-celona. Or, Celona-BAR. See. Because there is a bar in it.
I don't know what the connection to Spain is. I...i don't think there is one. This is a pun that only barely functions on one level, and fails on all the others.
The hours are printed on a sheet of paper stuck to the glass. They closed at 17:00. It was now 21:30.
Okay, so that explains why i got an email with after hours entry instructions. I was confused, i was sure the reception hours listed on HostelWorld said check-in until 10. No matter. At least i have the instructions.
They are, as one of the worst co-workers i ever had in an office used to say, "as clear as mud." They came with several photos, which have arrows drawn on them, but they don't seem to explain shit. Also, they're photos of the building during the day, so everything looks a little different.
You know what would have been helpful? An actual fucking map.
I followed the arrows down the side of the building to where i thought the door might be. There were two dudes standing out there smoking. I thought they might be from the hostel, but then i looked around and nothing really matched the photos, so i passed them and kept walking. Soon i came to the back of the building, which...was the entrance for a large hotel.
Uhhh. Okay.
I went back to the smokers. "Hey, is this BAR-celona?"
"What?" said one of them.
"The hostel?" said the other.
"Yeah, the hostel."
"No," said the second.
"Oh, yeah, you have to go, like, around the building, and keep turning right..." he went on to a long explanation which included "going downstairs" and just kept gesturing. I didn't really understand what he was saying, but i nodded like i did.
The second guy said, "Wait, no no, here, let me show you, this will be easier," and pulled out his phone, loading Google Maps with the terrain turned on. He showed me exactly where we were on the map, and exactly where i needed to be. Essentially, we were standing in front of a gate, and i needed to be on the other side of that gate. But it wouldn't open, so i needed to walk all the way around a couple of buildings to get there. Then, the ground would slope down, because i was coming into a loading dock, and the door to the hostel would be in the corner of the loading dock.
See? Makes perfect sense. Who doesn't want to walk into a dark loading dock in the middle of the night in a country they don't know with all their worldly possessions on their backs? We're backpackers, dammit, someone said "it's dangerous" and all we heard was "dang" and took it as an expression of awe.
I'm definitely getting stabbed and robbed before i come home.
I made that circuit around the buildings, definitely got watched by one or two strange smoking figures lurking in the dark corners of the loading docks, punched in the door code from the email, and entered the hostel.
Vibes were immediately off. As i opened the door, one guy was rushing straight at me, like he was tearing ass out of a haunted house but trying to play cool like he didn't actually believe in ghosts. The corridor was so tight that he had to squeeze past me and my giant backpack to get to the exit.
Six lockboxes were screwed into the wall on my left. I found the one indicated by the email, put in the code, and got my door key.
The hallways to the rest of the hostel were completely devoid of human life. A low mechanical hum was constant throughout, but not from any source i could positively identify. It's not, like, an air conditioner or furnace, it's not plumbing, it's just...an inexplicable drone. It's probably coming from the three glass-door refrigerators set up in the next hallway. Which. Um. This whole hostel is just hallways.
I found room number 5, where i'm supposed to be, and stuck the key in the door, only to find that i was locking it. It had already been unlocked. I turned it back and forth several times before i could get the door to open. You know, like how you always get the USB plugged in right on the third try. Doesn't make sense.
The room was dark when i entered. It's about the same size as my bedroom was in high school. There's one bunk bed and three single beds, so it sleeps a total of five. The top bunk and one of the ground-level beds looked like they were made, with fresh towels. I took the top bunk.
There was one guy on the middle-most ground floor bed, just staring at his phone in the dark. After i had tossed my bag up on the top bunk and rummaged through my shit for a moment, he reached over and turned on a lamp. He sat up like a hinge, like The Undertaker, very unsettling. Shirtless. Chest hair like a rug. Looks like Vladmir Putin. Didn't say a word. Kept scrolling on his phone.
I didn't see any lockers in the room. There were exactly eight (8) lockers in the hallway, all but two of which were hanging open. They all have key locks. I wasn't assigned a locker in the email. Do these cost extra?
Everyone else in my room, who was not currently there, seems to have just left their bags lying around, so they seem comfortable with that. I've never had any trouble in hostels with my stuff getting messed with, so i decided to roll those dice and just leave my things here for a moment, including the R6m2 and my vest.
I went looking for a bathroom, and found it at the end of the third adjoining hallway, which also led to the closed door for the bar.
There's no toilet seat in the mens' room.
How. How the fuck. Are we supposed to poop.
Also, there's a sign on the wall that makes it seem like maybe you are being monitored by a camera in there?? I don't know what this sign is actually trying to say.
I went back to the room. Dude was lying back down now, with the lamp still on.
It was 9:15, so it felt silly to go to bed. I put the vest back on and hung the R6m2 from my neck, and headed out. Gonna go check out that river.
I crossed the street, so i was right on the edge of the valley. The river was as gorgeous as i wanted it to be, in the dark. Reflecting the lighting from the shopping center magnificently, illuminating the footbridge to the other side. I crossed that too.
When i reached what i thought was the end of the bridge, there was a convenience store and a coffee shop there, as well as a stairway down to the bank of the river, where tables and chairs were set up.
But then, the bridge kept going; i hadn't reached the shopping center yet.
It went over a vast sports complex, open to the public for recreation. Directly beneath me was a large skate park, teeming with teenagers and kids doing tricks on their boards, bikes, and scooters. Beyond that was like three basketball courts, each with full games going, and past that, volleyball. There was so much life here at nearly 10pm.
As i watched the kids in the bowls, i saw someone do a full vertical 360 flip on a scooter. It was insane. I had a perfect view of it. And it happened right after i had stopped my camera recording. I missed the coolest fucking shot.
At the end of the bridge, i turned right, and kept following the skate park. I saw the same kid approaching the tallest edge of the bowl with his scooter again. I yanked my camera up, and he did the flip again! And i caught it! ...from a much worse angle, which is partially obscured by trees.
Damn it. Well, it's something.
I found my way into the shopping center. It looked like the lower level might be a huge food court. There's a Hesburger. And a Subway. And some other stuff.
None of it appealed to me.
I exited, and noticed a food truck between the mall and the sport courts. Sure, i'll eat whatever comes out of that truck, i thought. It was called OlyBet Sporto Baras.
And it was American food.
Literally, cheeseburger, hot dog, french fries. The ingredients list was all the basic things you'd see on burgers and dogs in America.
Pass. Hard pass. I'd rather go to Hesburger for the second consecutive day.
Returning to the halfway point of the bridge, i decided to go down the stairs to the riverbank. That was what i had intended to do anyway, before i got distracted by the skate park. There was another food hall down there, so i entered and walked around.
Oh yes, this is more what i was looking for. All the restaurants were unique and had amazing food on offer. Bao bun burgers? Interesting! Sushi? Yeah that's always a winner. I found one that had a tuna tartare, which looked incredible in the picture, and was only €12. That seems extremely reasonable.
I approached the counter. The clerk looked surprised.
"Hi, are you...open?"
"No," she said, shaking her head.
"Oh. Okay."
I looked around, and realized that all of these shops were in some stage of cleaning up for the day, except for the bar and the coffee shop. I needed neither of those things at this point.
I went outside and walked down to the water's edge. I had a seat on a bench, and just enjoyed the view for a few minutes. Then i headed back up.
Alright. Fine. What about this convenience store?
I walked up to the door, and...you need to tap your credit card to enter.
That's...weird, right? That's weird? I think that's weird.
Dejected, i just went back to the hostel. Three meals in the same day? I haven't done that since Oslo, i'll manage.
I still needed water, though, at least 32 more ounces to make my daily goal. I figured i'd just fill up my bottles and sit down to finish my log. Went into the room, all my stuff was still where i left it (and there was a guy on the bottom bunk now), grabbed one of my bottles, and turned to leave the room. Bottom bunk guy was already up and going through the door.
I walked right behind him as we passed through the hallways. I saw two pitchers of water sitting on top of a microwave, but passed them by. We ended up in the last hallway, by the bathroom, and then he turned and said to me, "Do you know if there's a place where we can get water?"
"I was looking for the same thing," i said, shaking my bottle for him to see. "There were two pitchers back there. Is that it?"
We walked back to the pitchers. He grabbed a cup from the table across the hall from them, and picked one up. He set it back down right away, and returned the cup. "Doesn't smell right," he said.
"What?"
"It doesn't smell right. I don't trust it."
He took off back toward the bathroom. I leaned in and sniffed the pitchers. I couldn't smell anything. But, that creeped me out enough that i let it go.
This hostel is absolute garbage. I'm thinking that i may just get up in the morning and leave before they open at 9, cancel my reservation, and find someplace else for tomorrow night. I can't even find a power outlet in the room that's reachable from my top bunk to charge my devices. Good thing i got everything up to full on the train.
Fuck it. I'm going back out. I'm just gonna go buy a liter of water somewhere.
I searched for convenience stores. A few popped up. When i clicked the "Open Now" filter, it came down to much fewer.
There was the weird one on the bridge that needs a credit card before you can open the door, or else the next closest one is a Circle K over two and a half miles away. A 53 minute walk, each direction.
So this convenience store was a unique experience. i think the sign on the wall says, "Europe's first autonomous convenience store." After you tap your card to get in, you just walk around and take whatever you want off the shelves. It is not staffed.
As you approach the register, the screen pops up with all the items you've selected, and asks if it's correct. I had grabbed a wrap, which i was sure would be disappointing; crunchy cheese snacks, which i had high hopes for; a liter of water; and a bottle of Pepsi Max. The screen knew all.
This feels like there's a weirdly high amount of surveillance technology being employed in this store, and i am not really comfortable with that.
I took my bounty down the stairs and ate at one of the tables overlooking the water, which was nice. The wrap was every bit as disappointing as i thought it would be. The cheese snacks were every bit as lovely as i hoped they would be; the package doesn't say what kind of cheese they are, it literally just says "cow milk cheese," but they are smoked, so the skin has a little snap when you bite through it, like a beef stick.
I had accidentally bought sparkling water again. I hate it. It tastes awful. But i need to get this last liter down before i sleep, and this is now the only way. At least it's only one liter this time, unlike when i bought three liters of the stuff as i was leaving Denmark, and had to guzzle it all on the train.
As i was finishing off the last of my food and about ready to pick up the drinks and move, a guy at the table next to mine started shouting at me in another language, presumably Lithuanian.
I didn't realize he was addressing me for a moment, but when i finally looked over at him, he had switched tactics, and said something like, "Do you speak any English?"
"Yes," i said. "I can only speak English, i'm sorry."
"No need to apologize! My wife left me here. How are you?"
He was incredibly drunk. We chatted for a bit.
"Where are you from?" he asked.
"United States," i answered.
"Oh, like...Manchester?"
"...no."
"Liverpool?"
"No, no. United States."
"Ohhh!! America!"
"Yeah!"
"Chicago?"
I was surprised that's what he led with. "A little north of Chicago, yeah. Wisconsin."
"Oh! Like...Illinois."
"No, north of Illinois. Wisconsin."
At this point, a woman much younger than him but just as drunk came bounding up between our tables, locked eyes with me, and yelled, "Hiiii!!!! HIGH FIVE!!!!" and rushed me with an outstretched palm. I was pleasantly surprised that her aim was good, and we slapped palms in the most satisfying way. Then she flitted off back the way she'd come from.
"Come over here!" the guy said, waving me to his table.
"Alright," i said, gathering up my garbage and my drinks, and migrating. As i was in the process, three women, including the high-fiver, came to his table and all started sitting in the chairs around him. He was trying to point out to them that i was coming over to join him.
There was a fifth chair that just had one of their purses on it. The woman in the next chair moved the purse for me.
He introduced himself as Adam, and these were his three sisters. I've already forgotten their names, but they were all very Eastern European-sounding. I did not get the impression that any of them were happy that he had invited a strange person over to their table.
"You two go ahead and talk," said the high-fiver. Ivana, maybe? I think it started with an I. "And us girls are gonna talk over here."
I chatted with Adam for just a couple minutes, but i don't think he was really processing anything that either of us were saying. The whole thing felt awkward, although for once i didn't feel like i was the one making it that way, so i just got up and left.
Back at the hostel, there were a lot more people gathered in the hallways now. One more person was in the room, so now all of the claimed beds had their person in them. I was originally planning to take my laptop and my drinks out to the hallway and sit in one of the chairs to finish writing this, but as i thought about it, i decided against it. It was already sort of crowded out there, you know, for a hallway. No one was being social, everyone was just in their own world on their separate devices, so fuck it. I'm just gonna sit on my bed and type.
It's about 12:15 now. I think i am gonna try and get out of here in the morning before they open, so i should get to sleep.
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