Takes about a week to get there

I usually have to go back and read over my most recent blog post before starting a new one because I have a hard time remembering exactly where I left off. Right now I feel like a farce of media depictions of Catholic confession… It has been eleven days and ~750 kilometers since my last blog post. It’s been an up and down week - figuratively, not literally. I have yet to see any real hills in any of the Baltic countries. I’ll get to the cycling portion, but first the World Cup game. It was a really cool experience, but I almost prefer just watching the game on the screen at the fan zone. I was happily surprised at how good the visibility from my seat was, even though it was in the upper bowl. I was less than impressed with the conduct of other fans. I get it, everyone is excited, but at times it felt that half the crowd wasn’t all that interested in the match, but would rather be making obnoxious noises while trying to start “the wave” around the stadium. I did my best to tune them out, but that turned out to be quite the task! I was rooting for Nigeria, but they fell 2-0 to Croatia off of a flukey first goal and a well struck penalty. My bicycle ride to Klaipeda was relatively pleasant, there were a fair number of other cyclists out of the Curonian Spit. I didn’t stop to chat with anyone - no-one else really stops to talk to me anymore, so I’ve kinda given up on slowing my own pace when approaching another tourer. I was restricted to a less-than-smooth cycle path for the last 60km to Klaipeda. Normally I don’t get all that saddle sore from riding anymore, but I do when I encounter kilometer after kilometer of bumpy paths. My one day in Klaipeda wasn’t terribly exciting - it was mostly an opportunity to break up the full distance to cycle to Riga. Also, the majority of the Curonian Spit is protected park land that I’m not legally supposed to be wild camping in. I’ve camped in more than my fair share of places where it isn’t exactly legal, but in places with very liberal land access laws I’m doing my best to be respectful of the places they don’t want you to camp in. I cycled up to Riga in time for this past weekend’s midsummer festivities. I probably could have done the distance in two days of cycling rather than three - that is, if I had good road conditions. On several occasions the secondary highways that I was cycling on dissolved into washboard gravel roads that slowed me to below 15km/h. When the road wasn’t washboard it was covered in at least two inches of loose gravel that my loaded bike would sink into and eliminate any momentum I had hopes of building on. In Latvia I had to contend with the occasional gravel section in addition to secondary highways with more patches than original pavement. Not the best ~300km section I’ve had on this trip, but I made it! I explored Riga’s old town a little but saved the majority of my energy for Jani, the midsummer festival. I believe the actual solstice was the day before, but it’s always better to save the party for Saturday night! As I understand it, the majority of people leave the city for the countryside to celebrate midsummer, but there is still a large number of tourists and locals that stay in the city for a festival that takes over a main street down by the riverside. In preparation I joined others at my hostel in crafting our own headwear for the night. Men wear crowns made of oak branches, while women make crowns out of grasses and flowers. We spent the first part of the evening on the hostel patio before heading out to the riverside around 11. It’s a little crazy to me how it can still be light out after 11pm, and that people were able to hold conversation with me while I looked like a complete fool with oak branches coming out of my head. Sunday was a very relaxed day - I spent the majority of the night with two women from New Zealand at the Jani festivities - we only got back to the hostel at 2am. Tradition suggests that you must stay out until the sun comes up again - but I’m a little too old to be doing that! I set off from Riga in the rain on Monday on my most ambitious trip yet! My goal was to make the trip from Riga to Tallinn in two days of cycling. Normally I would take three days to do the ~310km journey, but if I shortened it to two days, I would definitely be able to make it to St. Petersburg before the Round of 16 Match they’re hosting - not that I have tickets, it would just be really cool to be at the FanZone for the game! The distance also gave me the chance to one-up my personal bests.. I ended up surpassing my original goal of 200 kilometers to make it to 150 miles, or 241 kilometers in one day! It took me over nine hours in the saddle, but it was so worth it! It’s really satisfying to know how much you’re capable of. It also makes the world feel a little smaller. Normally those distances are relegated in my mind to motorized travel - a distance that requires combustion - but now I know I can do it under my own power! (with ~25kilos of gear, food, and water). I only had 70 kilometers to cycle yesterday to reach the fairy-tale-like city of Tallinn! I was feeling pretty exhausted last night, but feel ready for a day of exploring today! I have to wrap this up because I want to try to catch a free walking tour in 30 minutes!