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After my night of luxury, sleeping in a normal bed, I got up for my pre-booked breakfast at 08:30. Way too much food (omlette, salad incl. wierd little chillis, fried salami, bread, cakes, morello cherries, etc) but I wasn't complaining. The clothes I washed were not 100% dry, but they were good enough to wear / strap to the bike to dry in the wind.
Can't get over the weather. Forgot that something called rain even exists! Looked over my paper maps and concluded that all the white 'roads' were in fact dirt tracks so I set a route to hopefully avoid these... Checked the rear tyre again, it hadn't got much worse so I banked on taking it steady to see if I can make back to Poland. The front tyre isn't as bad but has odd wear on it that causes a horrible vibration, but it's ok if I keep the speed down.
The radio in Latvia is funny, it all sounds like Eurovision to me - they should win it every year. Getting bored of the music on my phone so have been sampling local radio on my headset....
The scenery was interesting / boring. Very pretty but it's all the same with endless dead-straight roads. Oh how I miss corners! Lots of lovely wooden farm-houses, but many appear to have been abandoned as youngsters have moved to the cities / abroad and with the ender generation dying, it seems that their homes have too. Flat, straight bumpy roads, fields, trees, the odd lake, pretty wooden houses - repeat. I would say thay Estonia has slightly more variety, but I think I have a taste of what Siberia must be like.
Kept getting stuck with rural roadworks. It was a nightmare. Ride 2 minutes, stop for 10 minutes at a red light. Ride over busted-up roads for 2 minutes, stop again. It was really annoying, but for once it was a little cloudy today which kept the heat away when stopped. When I eventually made it to civilisation, in the form of Daugavpils, I thought it prudent to get tyres as the rear one had dark patches appearing in places which I know means the wires are just about to start showing. I did the sensible thing and googled motorcycle garages. Amazingly, one came up so I followed the directions and arrived in some run-down industrial area where everything was shut.
Some unbelievably helpful women (4 in total) started giving me directions to a nearby garage where they reckoned bike tyres can be replaced. After much gesticulation and Russian words, I figured-out where to go and 2 minutes up the road was indeed a bunch of auto repair garages. I pointed at my tyre and there was much head shaking. They had the kit to remove / replace the tyre but no tyre and no balancing machine. They made a number of calls and told me that there is a garage with all the correct kit in the very centre of town. They gave me the address but none of my gadgets could find it when I entered it into my searches. Then one drunk bloke who spoke a bit of English told me to follow him. Here we go I thought.....
Not 5 minutes away we found the garage with all the right gear. Unfortunately they had no tyres but after much phoning around the drunk guy, Waldis, drove off promising to be back in 15 minutes. He was back as promised with a rear tyre for my bike. It's a track-oriented Pirelli Diablo Corsa Pro tyre, but he said it's the only tyre in the city of that size.... and it was €178 for which I could almost get 2 new tyres back home. I suspect he made some good money on the deal, but beggars can't be choosers and I could have had real issues with my tyre within a couple of hundred miles. The bloke in the garage reckoned I could have eeked out another 500km which wouldn't have got me to Poland. Another €15 for a very professional fitting job and I was back on my way. The front will be fine and will get me home without issues but the back will be shot again by the time I get home as it's a soft compound....
I ended-up riding on into Lithuania and I'm now camped-up in Kaunas City camping. It's not right in the city and is next to a motorway so I won't get much sleep. I should really go and see the old city of Kaunas and it's medeival fortifications designed to keep out the Teutonic Knights (they failed) but I reckon that I mighy just go for it and head toward my inlaws place in Poland tomorrow. It's probably a 12hr effort but I don't reckon there is much more I want to see here.
Couldn't be asked cooking my crappy food so went to a nice hotel / restaurant to eat and drink properly and to enjoy my last night in what are new countries to me. There is a reason that the tourists stick to the Baltic coast and a couple of the national parks - there isn't a huge amount to do and see on the Eastern side. That said, I met some interesting people and had some great conversations. I would say that there are a lot of ethnic Russians in the East of all three coutries - part of the USSR legacy I guess. You won't find this in Poland as whilst it was behind the oron curtain, it was never part of the USSR.
Anyway, it's been interested. Best biking roads, no. An adventure - yes!
Mileage: 3084
Country count: 9 (GB, F, B, NL, D, PL, LT, LV, EST)
Beers: 30
Fines: 0
Bribes: 0
Ass pain: 3/10
Mechanical issues: 0 (1 new tyre)
Accidents: 0 (well 1 that didn't involve me)
Mileage: 3084
Country count: 9 (GB, F, B, NL, D, PL, LT, LV, EST)
Beers: 30
Fines: 0
Bribes: 0
Ass pain: 3/10
Mechanical issues: 0 (1 new tyre)
Accidents: 0 (well 1 that didn't involve me)
Coldness: 0/10 
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