We were flying out on Sunday night, meaning somewhere around 1:45 AM. We were driven to the Riga airport by a former Soviet military guy, a tough dude whom, for the sake of conspiracy, we'll call Rambo. He had a firm desire to see every centimeter of the island of Crete. Fortunately for us, instead of a knife and a machine gun, he had a Canon DSLR camera and lenses, plus a wife and son to boot. By the way, on the day of our departure, there happened to be a lunar eclipse. That's when the earth blocks the moon from the sun. I never really thought about it when looking at the Moon, even though I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that such things happen. That's what distinguishes scientists from everyone else — they are not just observant, but also curious to the point of abstraction.
Photo by Rambo, aka https://www.vreshch.com/
I dragged an awesome American suitcase with me to Crete, which, however, was almost empty. Lonely inside it lay Salomon sneakers, bought in the USA and never worn once (was saving them), and snuggled next to them were 6 T-shirts, one for each day of the week (I could travel back in a not-so-fresh one). If I had thought about the fact that it's hooooot in Crete, and a person, especially of my build, tends to bloom and smell, I would have taken my entire stash of T-shirts, like 15 of them. Since I had gone to Medumi right before the flight, I was packing in a hurry, but I did manage to throw in my cycling kit. And not for nothing, as it turned out later.
While driving, we saw a classic radioactive sun, which then changed its mind about exploding and started resting on the clouds, just like in a picture from a children's book. By nightfall we made it to Riga, which is quite beautiful whether by day or night, and really at any time of the year. Come visit, I don't know who you'd have to be to regret it. True, there isn't much to do for more than a few days, but those days are worth it.
At the airport at 1 AM, there was only check-in for our LatCharter flight at two counters, no one else. Having successfully passed the face control of the ferocious border guards (kinda joking) we discovered a vending machine for drinks, clearly installed by people who understand banking. Why did I decide that? The machine accepted both lats and euros, but the latter at an exchange rate of 2 euros per lat, whereas the official rate is 0.7 lats per euro. Fortunately with this setup, the ones losing out weren't us, but the genuine Europeans. And it serves them right, the wealthy folks. On the other hand, I didn't have any lats, so I would have had to endure the thirst if Tanya hadn't informed us that on tourist charter flights they always feed you and give you drinks for free, even if they're short. And so it turned out to be, but anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Tanya is the person who invited us to Crete in the first place. She was with her boyfriend Sergey. He is Latvian, even though you wouldn't guess it from his name. It goes without saying that Sergey knows Russian just as normally as the majority of the residents of our republic. After all, do you know what the US ambassador to Latvia said recently?
"The greatness of Latvia lies in its diversity. In this it is similar to America, which also prides itself on its diversity," the ambassador stated.
One might think, well, he said it and he said it, except maybe he overdid it with the epithet about greatness. But do you know what thought this phrase served as the finale for?
US Ambassador to Latvia Charles Larson is convinced that veterans of the anti-Hitler coalition must be treated with special respect. He stated this in an interview with the newspaper "Chas".
"It was a great war in which Russia, the United States, Great Britain, and other countries made great sacrifices to defeat Nazi Germany. We must treat the memory of the common victory over the totalitarian monster with respect. We must be grateful to those who won this victory. To those who died, and to those who lived to our time," the diplomat noted.
An unexpected passage, isn't it? However, my exhausted brain, poisoned by Goblin, immediately seeks out NLP tricks, even though there are enough fans of looking for them in the comments on the Delfi portal without me. Nevertheless, pay attention: Russia, not the Soviet Union. "Over the totalitarian monster," exactly this wording, with such an expression. And yet the Soviet Union was also a "totalitarian monster," so it's very convenient to equate them, from the point of view of our nationalists. Although, they'll still say that all of the above slipped out of Larson out of naivety.
In any case, I don't really care. It's just that, being half-immersed in the Russian-speaking infosphere, I'm somehow subjected to pro-Russian brainwashing anyway . Luckily, I have enough of that very gray matter to realize at least this fact itself.
Hm, let's leave the national question alone, since it has never really bothered normal people. Let's better tell how, despite the impressive size of Rambo's car, you could stretch your legs more comfortably on the plane, even though overall there isn't an abundance of space there. So, Tanya was flying with Sergey, and I — with my old buddy Andrey, who is now my colleague. This was the cause of tireless jokes from the gay community at work. Well, people always talk about what aches them.
As for the topic I am occasionally reproached for abusing, that is, food, it was surprisingly not bad on board LatCharter. For instance, aside from the main dish, there were vegetables, fruits, and a bran crispbread. As a mega-bonus — my favorite yogurt Gefilus, about which I could never figure out the country of origin — sometimes I thought Lithuania, sometimes Estonia. As it turned out, it's actually Finland. But it's interesting that, judging by the site, the lingonberry yogurt I was crazy about was invented in Latvia specifically for the local market, and is produced in Estonia. If that's the case, respect to our guys.
If you suddenly, for some strange reasons, started wondering why I'm always digressing from the topic and not writing to the point, then I will answer you anyway. Is it really interesting for you to read how some dude bought two vodkas in duty-free, drank one, broke the other, was barely allowed on the plane, stood there in the aisle waving his arms, and upon arrival was escorted to the police? No, unlikely. That's why I dilute my posts with all sorts of amusing info, especially since my sister writes that it's just my style. Since it's a style, we will live up to it.
And as for that dude — it's a typical story. Only one detail is interesting — he was released from the Cretan holding cell right away, they didn't even take a fine. It's interesting because it confirms a certain trait of the Cretan character. Which one — you will find out in the next episodes. Stay with us.