Into festival mood (Riga)

 Leaving work.

Despite (or perhaps because of) my careless attitude, the departure from Helsinki did not run quite as smoothly as I was hoping. After finishing my shift at the cafe, I loaded the bike, bid my farewells and started riding towards the harbour in the loveliest summer weather that Finland can give. The skies were clear, the soft wind warm and every person on the street smiling, almost incredulous that the summer seems to continue.

However, only a hundred meters after my smiling departure I ran into trouble: upon changing into the smallest (so-called baby) front ring, the new chain got completely jammed and I barely managed to keep from crashing into the roadside. Damn, I thought, will need to be more careful! Climbed off the bike, disentangled the chain that had come derailed from the ring, and carried on. However, when a km later, upon starting the steep climb into the boat the same thing happened, I realised something is not right with the bike. This is more than slightly annoying as it was only checked and fixed this week and it was perfectly fine then, but hey, these thing happen. Managed to speak to the guy who had done the job and he suggested that I buy a small file and try to smoothen any possible dents in the ring that might derail the chain. Will have to see how that works, the good news is that I wont really be needing the baby ring until much much later in the trip (say in Western Poland)!!

As was the plan,  I left the bike in Tallinn in my Friend Kaaris apartment, and made it just on time for the bus headed for Riga. While rushing to it, it did occur to me that once again, my relationship to tango is showing all the signs of an addiction. Instead of spending a nice, leisurely evening with Kaari and carrying on tomorrow, I just had to go dancing...

After today`s sweaty day milonga, I went for a swim with fellow ''addicts". 

Incidentally, this reminds me of the letra of a well-known tango Mala suerte (Bad luck):  

Yo no pude prometerte
cambiar la vida que llevo,
porque nací calavera
y así me habré de morir.
A mi me tira la farra,
el café, la muchachada,
y donde haya una milonga
yo no puedo estar sin ir.

I could not promise you
to change the life I lead
I was born a player
and this is how I`ll die.
The party is drawing me,
the bar, the flirting,
and where there is a milonga
I just have to go. 

Truly, it seems that this was written with me (and a few other tango maniacs) in mind!


 With Kaya, a tango friend

Am now in Riga, having danced in two milongas, and although the festival mood is certainly very different from the almost religious devotion of the marathon goers, I am very happy to be here. Just heading out again, as tonight`s milonga in Jurmala is already going on.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paris, finally!

Image
Paris. Here I am, after all those weeks on the road, at the End of this Road. And I Love It: The city is lovely, the weather is beautiful, the people are friendly and the dancing is good. Most importantly, though, I feel really good about the achievement that took most effort in the very beginning and the last few days. As a matter of fact, I did get here already Friday evening, but time has just passed in such a blur that I simply have not had the time to sit down and write about it. Even as I write this (at 4 am on Sunday morning, having just returned from a milonga), I am about to fall asleep while seated, so I will need to be brief. On Friday morning, I had an early start from Peronne, and despite the minor (?) logistical problem of a 40-km stretch missing from my maps (funny, considering that they were the neighbouring pages of a series of maps) managed to cover most of the remaining distance without getting lost. This changed, however, the moment I got into the...
Read more

Getting into the swing of it (Pärnu)

Well, after two days of cycling I have both good and bad news. The good news is that very little seems to have changed for me in terms of travelling this way. Yesterday, although getting out of Tallinn was as stressful as leaving a strange city on a fully-loaded touring bike always is, I quickly noticed that indeed, I had not forgotten how to do this. Nor did the little over 100 km I covered both yesterday and today seem impossible to do, although the last 20 km certainly took some willpower. One thing that has greatly eased my settling into the right mindset is the fact that my Dad is accompanying me for a few days in his camper van. This means that not only do I have a soft mattress to sleep on and someone to pay my meals (;-), most importantly, there is someone to encourage me on (in his case, this means trying to get me to put the bike on the van and driving with him instead of cycling, something that I obviously wont do :-). All this works in my favour, as does being able to get...
Read more

The charm of the Danube (Vác)

And so, after 10 days of cycling, I am now almost within shouting distance of Budapest. What remains is 35 km of winding bike track, hugging the side of the now slowly, almost dreamily flowing river. The sky has a few scattered clouds that at this hour (11am) still offer some shelter from the heat that is set to climbing up to 40 degrees as the day progresses. Knowing there would be little escape from the sun, I set off from the campsite at 7, stopping in the centre of Esztergom only long enough to get some groceries for breakfast. A minor problem arose at the campsite reception, when the same guy who had refused to charge me when I arrived last night, saying I would have to wait until the morning, now said the reception would only open at 9. Now this was Far too late for me, as it would mean I would have to cycle the whole 80 kms in the already merciless heat. So, what to do? I simply put on my tour leader mode, the one that was once needed to keep my safari staff operational, ...
Read more