Celtic Rover
Observations of road travel in the Baltic countries….
Not driving allows plenty of time for drifting and thinking about whatever comes to mind. Types of trees..generally pine with some silver birch…why most roadstops sell hot dogs stuffed inside hollowed out bread and then filled with mustard and tomato ketchup…..advantages of flat countries, good for cycling, trains, agriculture, seeing long distances…thinking about past lives and different people….
Driving…requires a bit more focus than Not Driving and therefore needs a transition moment when you realise you are in fact in charge! Driving a right hand drive car on the right side (if that makes sense) requires you to hold your nerve and keep to the right even though you feel you are heading for the ditch…G is less concerned about Nelson actually hitting the hard shoulder however I decided quite early on that keeping Nelson,s wheels on hard tarmac at 90 kph was probably a good idea. The roads here are generally pretty good but they have a system where ther are two big fat lanes in the middle and tiny baby lanes on the edges (bicycle size). When people want to over take they drive somewhere down the middle of everything like scaletrix and you have to pull over into the baby lane to save being obliterated by a truck. At its most highly skilled or highly insane there are 4 vehicles abreast on the road 2 going one way and 2 coming the opposite way like a jousting match except you are aiming to miss…This is not a good time to sneeze or even blink or scream in particular when 2 of the vehicles are articulated lorries driven by Latvians.
