Rob and sanj's Excellent adventure Part 1

Well last week I had a friend from sunny Plymouth come to visit me here in Latvia. AS I wanted to show Rob around I had to think of things to do...so he comes to Latvia and the first Idea I have is to go to Estonia and visit their capital city Tallinn.
The best thing had to be the fact that he brought
English Tea Bags
Brannigans: beef and Mustard (veggie friendly of Course)
Mojo magazine, Q Magazine and Nuts *ahem
and Last but no means least a jar of Branston pickle...which believe me friends nearly brought a tear to these old eyes.
The first night was fun, the Hostel was fantastic and the beer was a pound...two beers later and huge shot, we found ourselves conversing with latvians, Canadians, Australians and Chile...ans ???(well people from Chile).
The drinking was fun...but the 3 and half hour journey back to Gulbene wasnt, I was ok, But Rob suffered a little more than me, but soon as we got back to the flat...time for Pro EVO ( for those not familiar with Pro EVO, well its the best football game in the world and if you prefer FIFA then stop reading my Blog and Fuck off).

Now since Ive been here I haven't had any problems with anyone, none of the locals or any of the rivals but for some reason Rob attracted the crazies.
The first time was on the way to Riga, I had to leave for a minute (to go toilet around the corner of the bus station) as I came back a strange old man is trying to converse with my English friend who at the time was looking quite bemused by the whole situation, luckily I know enough Latvian to tell people I can't speak Latvian.
When we were in Riga we went to the cinema to watch a film "From Paris with Love" I read one review that i had to agree with which described the movie as Rubilliant...something which is rubbish and brilliant at the same time...any film with John Travolta as a fat and bald special agent with a black dyed beard is worth watching. Now when you buy the tickets here you have to choose the row and the seat number so we picked the ones in the middle...but it didn't really matter as the place was practically empty so what were the odds we would be in someones seat...........well Im glad Im not a betting man...5 minutes into the film a Latvian gentlemen walks over says to me in Latvian that I'm in his seat..there were seats all around us but he wanted that one, luckily I didn't have to move he just sat one seat away from me...very odd.

When we were in Riga we didn't have long until we had to get the bus to Estonia. So we had a bit of lunch with some traditional food (pizza followed by Ice cream.
As I was in the bookshop picking something up for the journey (Frankenstein and selected poems by Edgar Allen Poe- I was in the mood for something dark).
As i left the shop I see that Rob was having another strange encounter with one of Latvia's finest drunks...this guy was a little harder to talk to as and a little more aggressive his face was right in robs asking for money...but luckily I knew how to diffuse this situation I just used the old short charm..distract and run.

However our meetings with European drunks didn't end here..no..unfortunately it got worse. The Bus to Tallinn (Estonia) was a 4 hour and a bit journey and on this bus was one Estonian gent who was going to get through this journey the only way he knew how...drunk...very very drunk.
Now he was sat in front of rob and I was sat behind rob,,so for most of the journey I didn't notice him..sometimes I can hear some shouting over the noise coming from my I pod but in general I didn't care. Rob however started to get annoyed, he couldn't sleep because the guy kept hiccuping (we timed him and he went on for half an hour). I tried to help Rob by telling him not to be so up tight, relax, don't let him bother you and even suggested that he should just move. Half an hour later Rob got to sleep and when he woke he found that the man was gone...moved...thats right he moved...moved right behind me.
I tried to talk to the man to befriend him so in that way he may choose to be quiet and to stop disturbing me from reading but unfortunately nothing... he would say some nonsensical things in English and then carried on drinking and spilling beer on the floor....which flowed on to the bottom of my bag..then he would put his face in between the my chair and the chair next to me...say something in Estonian and then would proceed in reading Frankenstein with me.....well enough was enough I turned around looked him straight in the eye "excuse me, Im trying to read my book if you don't mind" well that showed him he went back to his seat...at the next stop the driver saw that this guy was so wasted that he forced him to sit at the front of the bus.

When the bus arrived we were greeted by our Estonian hosts Jaanika and Bono the Dog.

Please stay tuned for next week for Part 2 Rob and Sanj's Bogus Journey