Day 68: Lost in transit...

As I mentioned yesterday, today I took a day off from the summer school to visit a fellow Buddhist lady from Lithuania in Riga, the capital city of Latvia. Via text messages, we informed each other of our expected arrival time. I left in good time. As soon as I got to the bus station in Valmiera, the rain started pouring down. This was the first time going to Riga by myself and by bus, but I was sure nothing would go wrong...

I asked the lady behind the counter for a ticket to Riga. She wrote something down on a piece of paper and showed it to me. It was the bus time. Was it that top secret? When I got on the bus, I couldn't help but fall asleep when I heard the rain pattering on the windows. I'm not very good at sleeping on public transport - the slightest noise wakes me up - but I gave it a go.

Two hours and thirty minutes later, I opened my eyes and began to recognise some buildings. I was definitely in Riga. We were on the main road and I presumed the bus would carry out driving straight along the road towards the bus station. That didn't happen. The bus just kept turning corners, to the point when I had not idea where I was. 

My inner voice was going crazy:

"Does anyone speak English on this bus?!"

*sees sign for the airport* "I'm not ready to go home yet!"

"Why isn't this bus turning back to the centre?

"Oh my god, there's a taxi!" *writes down phone number on the side of the car just in case*

"Okay, am I actually still in Riga?"

"I think I'll just keep quiet until I start seeing countryside again - then I'll cry..."

I kept seeing road signs and maps for every town but Riga. That meant I was either still in Riga, or was going away from it. Luckily, I started to see church towers from the old town. Panic over!

I texted her saying that I had arrived and she replied with her location in the bus station and the easiest way to identify her: "I'm Japanese". I spotted her, we introduced ourselves and went to find somewhere to eat. Pizza - perfect!

We had the most amazing conversations about everything... Buddhist practice, life, Lithuania, Japan - everything! Thinking that she was staying in Riga for a couple of days, I asked when her flight back to Lithuania was, assuming that she flew here by plane. She told me that she had come to Riga by bus for one day just to see me - wow! Time started to get on a bit (the last bus back to Lithuania was at 6pm) so we decided to head to the room she had booked for us to pray in together. We tried to explain to the hotel manager that we were leaving in an hour and not staying overnight and he was very confused. He even brought out his English-speaking colleague to translate what we were saying, but she didn't understand either! My friend had to resort to speaking in Russian. Just so they didn't get the wrong idea, we figured that we had to tell them what we needed the room for - problem solved. 

On our way out, he offered us a Latvian liqueur. Thanks, but no thanks mate. We somehow took the longest route back to the bus station. We had to take a few risks to make it there on time, like nearly getting ran over for example, but sometimes it is necessary to be unorthodox. Before we went our separate ways, I managed to get a photo with her.

This will go down in history.

"Friendship is not a matter of the amount of time you spend with someone. Rather, it is a measure of the strength and depth of the spiritual resonance that arises between you" - Daisaku Ikeda