Nii... We start thinking this trip is actually about finding paradises. We started off from one yesterday morning and we are in another again. But as wonderful as the destinations are, the road has been too.
Yesterday started off with excellent breakfast made by Ilze's grandparents. Having left some stuff that at least at that point seemed unnecesary for this trip, we said our goodbyes and left for Āraiši.
It did not take long to get out on the big road, and taking the first rest in a bus stop where we were joined by an elderly couple. When they heard our plan, the man just said "trokas buobas" - for Estonians to understand this we suggest choosing a very local wording for "crazy ladies" and then read it in the most Southern-Estonian dialect you can produce. Anyway, they wished us luck.
We took the luck and brought it to Āraiši where we had a plan for early lunch at its lake-castle. And so we did. As we are not history reconstructors then we consider any bread with water to be a very ancient menu for lunch, so, having one of the houses of the lake castle taken over and our rye bread taken out, we were havin our 9-10th century meal in our 9-10th century dining room. As there was no sun, it was fantastic.
Afterwards Ilze had a wish to pay a visit to her roots, as a strong branch of her family tree is related to Āraiši parish. The church was right on our way, so we decided to go there and suddenly, as Lauma put it, it felt like time travel two centuries back. It was Sunday, we had walked to a church for two hours and when we arrived, there was this pastor wearing a white ruffled collar like Tudor people did and holding a service in German.
Later, talking to the absolutely awesome pastor of Āraiši church, we discovered that it was a part of annual tour for Baltic-German descendant organization. We kept talking with him about the church itself (being built in 1225 it is among oldest churches in Latvia), its history and eventually received permission to go up the tower. Which we did (and almost ran wih our heads into the largest of the church bells - he forgot to tell us it will be there).
Our next goal was to pass Cēsis, as everything we might need from there Lauma's friend promised to bring us when visiting later in the evening. Which he did. And he understood well the direction that he should wait for us in the next shadow and that no, we will not get into the car.
Then we had this heroic thought to try to reach Liepa, that we worked hard to succeed with. Did not happen. Although we celebrated our first hundred on our way, at some point when it was already quite dark, we understood from our reactions to each others songs (not normal, believe us) that even if we did not feel it, we were overly tired. That discovery reduced our target to "that big railway bridge between Jāņmuiža and Liepa" at first and it went down to "this meadow here, right now" a bit later. It turned out though that it was one roadturn before he bridge anyway.
Today we settled off with one clear goal - E.Veidenbaums' memorial museum "Kalāči". For obvious reasons. We were hosted here in this amazing place by an amazing hostess Ilma - Ilze's academic daughter in sorority Dzintra. We got a good glimpse at Eduards' home and life full wih wonderful stories and anecdotes Ilma told with such a sparkle in her eyes that we liste ed and felt that our mission at least in our minds gets to another level.
If you have a day with nothing to do that is not Monday, come here. The peace and harmony here is undescribable.
We discovered that both of our dear guys have one more thing in common - they both look waaaaaaay better in their monuments than in pictures.
And yes, to all who predicted rain - we are watching it. Under a roof of one of Kalāči buildings. At some point we will start going. So those who predicted it will be thunder - you better get your predictions right, as thundery rains usually end faster than the one we watch.
Anyway. Still alive and at the end of this day hopefully with less than 150 kilometres remaining on our way.
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