Again apologies for the fact that I haven’t wrote anything for what seems like forever. You get behind on this sort of thing and it really gets on top of you. I am hoping to be up to date by the time I finish in Cheltenham- three weeks from now to do three months worth of Blog. I certainly won’t run out of things to do hey!
So, another driving day from Moscow to the town of Velikie Luki. It was a long drive to a pretty town, only of note because it is nice and close to the Latvian border which we were heading to the next day. I may have already said this but I was getting pretty sick of the bus and annoyed at Russian toilet facilities (or lack there of). We got to the town in the afternoon but as we were still quite northerly, there was still lots of daylight left to go exploring.
I went for a walk with 2 of the guys (Josiah the spy from Singapore-well I thought he was a spy, he seemed to take the most pointless photos! And Matty- the Canadian Bridget Jones like reporter) Nice guys both of them. I really enjoyed the town. It has a lovely river you can walk along, little paddle boat things you can hire, some pub like places where they play really nice music and you can sit outside them along the river, a funfair type place with rides that look like they are about 1000 years old (I wasn’t game to test their safety- I’m not that much of a thrill seeker! There is also this big monument war memorial thing with too many steps to climb (but I did climb them!) From the top you had a really pretty view down the river and over some of the town.
I think the thing I enjoyed the most about the town though was how generally friendly and laid back it was. People were smiling and relaxed, it was a Sunday afternoon and families were out with their kiddies riding bikes, people were having a hoot of a time on the paddle bikes, the cafes and pubs were packed with people just generally enjoying themselves. It was a side of Russia that I had not experienced up until that stage and I am very glad that I did.
Tomorrow- Latvia
