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One thing I didn’t mentionned yesterday is that Tartu is the Easternmost point of the trip so far, and will stay as such for a good while, until Romania in about a month. Tartu hostel was a little hippie cocoon, quite pleasant I must say. But I’m on the move! Onto the station and the train, and zoop we go South. Just as we were leaving Tartu, I saw a beautiful fox running along the tracks, seemingly a bit lost and confused, poor guy!

Snow gets rarer although there is still icy lakes here and there. The scenery definitely looks slightly warmer though, as we approach the twin cities of Valga [Valga, Estonia]/Valka. Those two used to form only one city back a century ago, and one of the most important text leading to Latvian independance was even written here, in Valga. However, when Estonia and Latvia got split up, the border was drawn so that it cut the city in two. However, in practice the cities seem to work virtually as one. Everywhere is advertised « ValgaValka, 1 city 2 states ». They seem very proud of that unique aspect and it’s pretty cool.

For example, I’ve read only plenty of time that to take the train from Estonia to Latvia, you had to change station between Valga and Valka. However, and it’s probably a very recent thing, it is not the case (anymore). The Latvian train leaves directly from the Estonian station, which means one more train border crossing for me. Hooray!

But I didn’t stop there. As I had three hours to spend, I wandered through the streets of Valga, and eventually, saw a cute touristy pedestrian border crossing, and decided to, well, cross it.

Sveika Latvija!

… At which point I realized I commited the unforgiven sin to forget to activate the GPS trace this morning. Fuck!

I took a few pictures at the old border post and with the flags, then ventured further into Latvian territory. However, except for a nice Lutheran church that would need a bit of painting, there was not much to report from Valka. I was starting to get hungry so I walked back to Estonia, this time crossing over a bridge some meters away.

Tere Eesti!

You got scared I’d leave without saying goodbye, don’t you?

After a quick Hesburger (don’t judge me), I kept walking along the Latvian border, until a vast park, pleasant to stroll around. The sun is bright and ice is melting, what a lovely day. After quite some time walking, my backpack started to wear me out, so I sat on a bench in another park, watching a guy playing disc golf.

Finally back at the station, I climb aboard the train, and I feel like going back in time. It’s an old one for sure, and the ride wasn’t too smooth. But whatever, it was great fun nonetheless!

After just a couple minutes, we crossed back into Latvia, while I was getting my Interrail pass controlled. It was definitely the first time the controller was seeing one.

Sveika Latvija!

Again! The further South we went, the denser the forests and ground vegetation. This train route goes through Gauja NP (spoiler alert, that’s where I plan to go tomorrow). As the sun was declining, it gave the yellow grass and the redish-brown pine trees and glorious golden halo. A beautiful ride, and the first non-snowy one that beautiful since at least the Danish Realm.

In Rīga [Riga], the hostel is just across the boulevard from the station, great! I check-in and prepare my dirty laundry, but it was still too late to catch the sunset over the Daugava river. Still saw it from a promontory in one of the parks. I did a detour and arrived in front of the super tall Liberty Monument.

Laundry done (and a second Hesburger ingested, oops), I come back to the hostel. As I started writing this in the common area, two police officers came in, talked to someone, and went away with a woman. The guy from the hostel told me it was normal emergency procedures, and was now wearing some thick sweater with hardened shoulders and cliché cop sunglasses. Ok.