Very alive. We know!

We had two ideas where we might end up today. The more far one did not work out.
No, it is not like it would be a tragedy. Oooooooh, far from that. (Lauma is twice as sure about that as Ilze is.)
So, we will see Āraiši tomorrow and reach Cēsis too. If we go along the plan. Today we got stuck with:
1. Awesomely superbly deliciously tasty soup made by Ilze's grandma
2. Tons of fun and historical stories by Ilze's granpa
3. Pond-sized bath full of cold water for feet and warmer water for everything else
4. Landscapes and views full of essence of Latvianness, because this place has history Ilze can tell starting from 1852
To sum it all up, we decided not to make the intended extra kilometres after having a rest at Ilze's grandparents at countryside and stay the night here, so Lauma can get "full experience" of countryside, sleeping in freshly brought in hay too.
(we think we forgot to mention the freshly picked strawberries....)

But before it took our almost last breaths to get here (because believe it or not, it was really hot out here...), we also had some hearthwarming moments.

For example, a guy stopped his car to offer us a lift (we start getting used to saying "no" and slowly are developing a standard story to explain why). Around that time we started to run out of water, so we decided to jokingly add "but if you had some water...". He did not, so we said our farewells. Few minutes later a car stopped by us again. we noticed it is the same guy. He got out, handed us a bottle of water and said "here you go, good luck on your way!"
That increased our faith in good people existing in random places of the world quite a lot.

And then the other guy stopped.
We said him no too, we did not need any water, but he said he had seen us already on his way to Riga, now he was coming back and was determined to take us where we need.

A new rule that we have developed since today is "if we see water, we do not ask, if we get to it but HOW we get to it". It was after we had noticed a water, and we thought there was a pathway to it. When we started getting to it, it turned out there is no pathway. But we had our long skirt on and no fear. So we broke through hundred walls of sticky herbs and all the other green stuff to sink in a mudbath (for our pleasant surprise) and then (with no surprise) sank our legs as far as we could still preseving at least some civilized human appearance in a cold, cold, cold water.
If that is not a paradise, we have serious arguments to discuss with any religion that has the idea of paradise in it.

The main idea: we are VERY alive. Two people besides us actually know exactly where we are (pile of hay, barn). And we just were asked to confirm that the rustic, but perfect menu planned for our breakfast fits our sophisticated tastes.