Today I went to the former concentration camp of Salaspils, located around 20 kilometers from Riga. It was built during the winter of 1941/1942 under horrible inhumane conditions by Jewish men who were deported from the German Reich. Salaspils was the largest concentration camp of the Baltics, imprisoning many Latvians as well as political prisoners of different nationalities. Terrible medical experiments were carried out on children. I was touched by the amount of stuffed animals and toys placed at the memorial in remembrance of all innocent children. Now all that is left of the camp are the foundations of some barracks and statues, symbolizing hope and defiance. I strolled around the former camp for an hour or so, all alone. It was completely silent, except for the discreet sound system, which continuously played the sound of an immortal heart beat.
It has been almost 2 months since I updated my blog the last time. Many things happened and a lot of things permanently changed. This might sound a bit dramatic but I mean it in a very positive way. The last week of September I packed my orange Dutch-like suitcase again and headed to Bremen airport, accompanied by my dad who is so lovely to always bring me there. Destination: Riga. Again. I managed to arrange an internship there for the next 6 months. Before boarding I was, as usual, the lucky one to undergo all hardcore security checks. Even my bag and laptop were checked on some kind of bad prohibited substance I forgot the name of. Luckily everything was all right. While waiting in the queue I had a small conversation with an older German couple. They’ve been visiting Riga since 1991. A lot changed since that time. I already notice that when I compare the Riga of 2011 with the one I was introduced to in 2009. Riga is rapidly transforming into a city with Western innovations.
I started an internship at Riga In Your Pocket. This is one of the most successful city travel guides from the In Your Pocket series (if not THE most successful). Every two months a printed version of the guide is published and besides that Riga In Your Pocket has its own very informative website and app. I decided to apply at this city guide since it’s the only one in Riga providing true hearted information with a great sense of humor. If something is not 100% ok it will be written down in the guide, whilst other travel guides only publish the ‘this is the best restaurant in town’ reviews submitted by restaurants themselves. At the moment I’m responsible for providing pictures and movies which I upload to the world wide web. I absolutely love walking around in Riga, discovering even the smallest details of sights and unknown places I’ve never been before. Also rediscovering special locations makes a lot of fun. Last week I went to Sigulda, located in Latvia’s biggest national park. I made a video report about what all can be seen there and how beautiful the scenery looks during ‘Zelta Rudens’ – Golden Autumn. Even though my European Studies background didn’t really prepare me for a job in photography and video reporting, I must admit that I absolutely love this switch. I feel a lot more comfortable in this creative position than being busy with European policy reports all day long.
Besides the new job something else important changed. Felix and I moved to another apartment in Old Town. We live in a quiet street now in a small but cozy and stylish apartment. The eye catcher of our living room is a wall which dates back from 1300. I furthermore have my very own Finnish sauna now!
Together with Felix I went on a weekend trip to Kaunas, Lithuania. Some kilometers before Vilnius the bus suddenly stopped in the middle of the road. Smoke appeared in the bus, together with a horrible burnt smell. Passengers remained calm but shared some worried looks. The smoke was that disgusting that I had to put a scarf in front of my mouth and nose. After some minutes the smoke slowly disappeared and the bus drove on. The bus drivers’ assistant didn’t even mention through the microphone what went wrong. Typical Baltic. Luckily we arrived in Kaunas without any further problems. Interesting city. It was a Saturday afternoon and it was not too busy in the city centre. Even though there were actually some people on the streets it was absolutely quiet. I never experienced something like that in any other city. It was slightly mysterious. Something which later on surprised us is the fact that we saw so many smiling happy Lithuanians. In comparison with Riga, people in Kaunas look a lot more happy. Also noticeable was that we hardly saw any Russians. The reason why we went to Kaunas the first place was a concert of Jean-Michel Jarre. It was wonderful to see him perform a fantastic live show once, since I’ve been listening to his music from my early childhood already. It ‘s a miracle we eventually got out of the bus in one piece again when arriving in Riga. It seems a true trend in the Baltics to overtake when it’s actually not possible. My frightened facial expression showed up several times again during the bus ride. Luckily not because I was about to puke, what’s normally often almost the case. Occasionally three cars/big trucks were driving all next to each other, even though there are only two driving lanes. Dangerous. Death rates on Baltic motor ways are extremely high and understand why!
So, a lot of positive changes and nice trips the last weeks. The whole moving chapter was quite exhausting and stressy, however, it’s finally time to relax now (in the sauna!). Time to enjoy and to slowly focus on my future plans. What to do after my internship? Where? Do I want to do a Master programme next study year? What? Where? So many possibilities… Any suggestions? Bring it on!
Not as much fog as yesterday morning; nice! After the briefing I went straight off to the France 3 studio. Finally, the preparations could be start for a short interview. Peter George put his balloon in sight of the camera, so I was filmed together with my favorite balloon taking off. During the interview the moderator and I discussed the Mondial Air Ballons fan page, the ‘waiting waiting waiting… cancel’ principle and the improvements made by the organization this year. It was a light ten minute talk and I felt very comfortable being interviewed about my biggest passion. Wanna see it? Just click http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/16325375
After the interview I took a short walk over the launch area with my dad. We enjoyed the slight sun and the huge amount of balloons still taking off. When we were about to go back to our car a French balloon team headed towards us. Clever lesson: never say ‘no’ immediately when a Frenchman asks if you speak French (that’s what a young couple standing near to us did). After a ‘un peu’ from my side the pilot invited us to join his flight since he didn’t have passengers yet. So, there we went, completely unexpected with both feet from the ground again. From the first moment onwards I had this strange ‘I hope this will all be ok’ feeling. Confused rushing crew members, the balloon not spread out towards the right direction, twisted wires, etc… What was I doing here? Is this French style ballooning? Eventually I climbed on board, keeping this uncomfortable feeling during the whole flight. I was surprised however by the amazing sight from above. The sun was doing its best to burn away some little sheep like clouds while still many balloons were happily flying over typical small French villages. After this moment of enjoyment I decided to close my eyes. Landing time. My goodness, we were heading straight towards a retrieve vehicle parked in the middle of our landing field. We had quite some speed and after lots and lots of burning the basket eventually just missed the car. Oefff! Then the actual landing came: BAM BAM BAM; an elbow in my stomach, a heavy guy falling on me and a propane tank which was not safely secured crushing my feet. What a delight to be out of that basket again. Luckily the morning ended calm. During refueling I had a little children talk in French with the pilot his son and his little friend. They for example asked me if I have animals at home. After my answer they proudly summed up all their pets. Sweet. The pilot’s son is blind but I was amazed by the brightness of this little fellow. He disconnected all gas valves on his own and was perfectly manageable to help packing the balloon. He did everything by touch, and it was great to see how well this worked out.
The evening started with Austrian schnapps and cookies, hmm! The Dutch-Latvian team from Hans van Hoesel asked if my dad and I wanted to join for a flight with the ladybird balloon later on. Of course! We got introduced to the Russian team and their self made balloon. Even though there was a slight language barrier the Russians left a really good impression giving us a nice Russian balloon magazine and some pictures of their balloon. In comparison with this morning I felt comfortable and safe right away with Hans and his son Andris both flying the balloon. It was relatively dark, however, the colors were good for the pictures. It was a very pleasant flight with a hard but way better landing than this morning.
During the slowly traditional British-American ballooning after party we enjoyed some cheesecake and champagne. Unfortunately it was also already time to say goodbye to some Americans leaving France tomorrow in the early morning again. This long day ended with a sweet comment from Priscilla: ‘I will call one of my kitty cats Nienke!’. Adorable.
So much fog this morning! When driving towards the launch field we could only look some meters ahead of us. This continued the whole morning: fog, fog and even more fog. The organization still saw a possibility for takeoff and kept the pilots waiting. After a two our nap in the car I noticed the situation still didn’t change. My dad and I drove onto the field and met Hans Pravda and his still half asleep team there. We tried to keep ourselves awake with Austrian homemade schnapps. Good morning! The flight was eventually canceled, as well as the interview which was actually scheduled for today. Off to Nancy for a short city trip then! Together with my dad I walked the Art Nouveau route there. We had a look at Villa Majorelle and the museum of the School of Nancy. Definitely worth a visit if you’re into Art Nouveau. Lovely architecture and furniture can be found there. In a Russian food shop I later on found the curd snacks I normally eat everyday when being in Latvia. Hmm, happy Nienke!
The evening didn’t bring much good. The weather was getting worse and worse and the flight had to be canceled. Back at the hotel Peter, Sarah, my dad and I enjoyed a beer and a delicious cheesecake while watching pictures and movies from flights earlier this week.
After the shortest night till now I drove to the airbase together with Sarah and my dad. We saw two gasballoons; they took off already before the briefing started. The gasballoon with German pilots Dominik Haggeney and Astrid Gehardt was about to take off when the briefing just started. No briefing for me; my still well working gasballoon magnet sent me straight towards this mysterious envelop filled with hydrogen. The balloon eventually took off carrying a Norwegian flag. What a lovely gesture. The hot air balloon pilots prepared themselves for another morning flight. The sun tried its very best to show up, but after 10 minutes it failed already again.
This evening the sun surprised us all. It was there, the whole time! That didn’t happen during any day before. In the hangar I met Dutch balloon pilot Hans van Hoesel. We eventually figured out that Hans has an apartment in Riga, only a few blocks away from where I normally live. What a small world! I was pleased to meet Hans his wife and her son later on; they’re from Latvia but speak Dutch perfectly.
A while ago someone from the France 3 television station contacted me and my dad with the message that they would like to interview us about our Mondial Air Ballons fansite www.mondialairballons.com. My dad decided this would be a good job for me. We went to the studio, introduced ourselves and got all kind of information about how France 3 put this event in the spotlights, on television and on the world wide web. The interview is scheduled for tomorrow morning during takeoff, live from the launch field. Exciting!
American pilot Mike Shrum invited me and my dad to join him for the evening flight. He brought ‘Laristra’ with him; the biggest chili pepper ever. I was honored to step on board of this fascinating balloon. We took off accompanied by hundreds of smiling faces from the audience looking at us while applauding. Goosebumps! What a lovely moment. When my dad later on asked Mike why on earth he bought this difficult to handle balloon he pointed out that a happy audience makes every drop of sweat worth it. He’s absolutely right. We had a great flight with the three of us. Eventually 24 people helped packing the balloon. All these people later on stood in a big truck like cattle, going back to the airbase for some refueling. Another perfect day in France; a big thank you to Mike, Nick and their French help troops!
Laristra on the background, earlier this week
I started the day with sleepy eyes and a warm bath at 04.30 a.m. Every day here starts with a one second thought: ‘why am I doing this to myself?’, followed by some mental images of a mass take off at Chambley. Then I realize again that all these early wake ups are definitely worth it. A line up was scheduled for this morning with the aim to set a new world record. It was a wonderful sight to see hundreds of balloons lined up and take off almost simultaneously. My dad made a flight with Austrian balloon pilot Hans Pravda while I stayed with two feet on the ground capturing today’s record attempt. Most balloons eventually disappeared out of sight because of some slight fog while some were still carefully lighted by some shy sunrays. I took a break reading the local newspaper and chatting around with a Dutch balloon spotter who nicknamed himself ‘Scooter Willy’. When Willy decided to hunt for some food I kept myself awake with some Finnish symphonic metal (even though I absolutely don’t like metal; a symphonic touch can do miracles). When my dad came back we joined Tarp and Desiree Head and Peter George’s team drinking beer and champagne while eating chocolate, sausages and cheese. What a lovely breakfast!
The afternoon was rather lazy. After a nap I took a small walk through Pont-a-Mousson. It was quite sunny and warm, but that changed once we got off to the launch area. Sarah and I filled the time we had to wait with our traditional two year update talk; lovely girly gossip once again. Peter invited me to fly with him and his G-UKUK today. Yeah, flight number 50! It was great to share this special milestone with Peter and Sarah, who also joined the flight. After half an hour we had to land because a big grayish cloud was approaching. What a coincidence, the weather was ok everywhere and right above the field and towards our landing spot this massive bad cloud had to appear. Our landing caused a big traffic jam since everyone passing us stopped to make a picture. Some curious French children ran towards us for a small welcome, however, once they heard the burner their scared faced showed up. When hiding behind their mom they were fine again. Isaac, Tarp and Desiree did some good retrieving and found us right away. With some teamwork we packed the balloon within minutes. One French spectator started asking all kind of irrelevant questions. I was unable to answer any of them since I couldn’t stop smiling about his 10 cm zipper being unintentionally opened proudly. I have some difficulties taking persons serious in such a situation. As soon as we closed the trailer it started to rain. What a shower! At the entertainment area of the airbase we eventually found some empty tents. There we built up a little table which we packed with food and drinks. Next to our tent was a ‘free fall simulator’; a huge turbine which makes you feel like flying even though you’re secured with some elastic ropes. That was some great entertainment during the late evening.
