Latvia by www.born2travel.it

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30. 07. 2001 Riga (LATVIA) Today I was at the house of Krists's parents, where I spent that famous month two years ago. I saw Leo (the father) again, who was working in the yard, Martins (the brother), a bit older, and then all his various pets, from the legendary Ripsie to Rega. For lunch we go to a very nice little restaurant, "Lido", and right after we wander round the centre until late. I saw again many places familiar to me yet at the same time unknown, because the last time I'd seen them they were completely covered in snow, so now here came green parks, little artificial ponds, long tree-lined avenues with benches and flowerbeds, right where I used to see a simple, monotonous uniform expanse of white. Earlier I was rereading a few pages of this diary...

Truly, on a trip like this we live every single second of the day: Milan, Bern seem like episodes that happened so long ago, and yet only ten days have passed... 01. 08. 2001 Riga (LATVIA) Something that really annoyed me happened last night in a nightclub. Signe and a friend of hers, Laura, were sitting alone on the same sofa when two distinguished, well-dressed 50-year-olds, with a glass of wine in hand, sat down next to them. They were the classic pathetic Italians looking for young girls. I see the scene and, calling Krists, we sit down where they are. We exchange a few glances, they catch on and leave. These people disgust me. They think a jacket, a tie, a bit of money and playing the poor man's playboy is enough. They're disgusting. 02. 08. 2001 Riga (LATVIA) Krists talked us into staying a few more days so we could try a new thrill: parachuting.

Who knows! We met two Russian girls: Karina and Regina, very pretty. Karina works in a bookshop and studies philology. She's a very interesting and clever girl. We spent the whole day wandering round the centre with them, it was very pleasant. Martins gave me the famous Latvian ring called "Nameis"; for me it's a very important keepsake. All Latvians have one, it's a symbol they care about a lot. It represents man's virility and takes its name from the twelfth-century Latvian warrior who owned it. I'm really proud of it. 04. 08. 2001 Riga (LATVIA) This evening, after an excellent barbecue at Leo's house, we went to "Slepenais Eksperiments" with Karina and Regina, and as soon as we walk in who do we "bump into"? I still can't believe it! Kylie, the New Yorker who was "thrown off" the train with us on the difficult Cologne-Copenhagen transfer. What a small world.

The strange thing is that from Copenhagen we headed for northern Norway while he went to Finland, and ten days later we see each other, by chance, in yet another country! At four we get home completely shattered and four hours later we set off again for Cesis, to do a bit of extreme sport! 05. 08. 2001 Cesis (LATVIA) As soon as we arrive at this little airfield we fling ourselves onto some army camp beds and collapse from exhaustion. Around 2 pm Krists wakes us to take us for a little flight in a plane he pilots. It was a Russian four-seater. Up front was my Latvian friend and another pilot, in the back: me and Pedro. When Krists was flying everything went fine. A classic standard training flight. We did three calm touch and goes without problems. At one point, even, to take a photo we undid our seatbelts and fastened them to the water of a rose.

[sic] I can't say the same about his friend. He immediately starts doing acrobatics in flight. First he points the nose at the sky at 180°, then, with the engine at idle, the plane, by gravity, flips over and dives... But our seatbelt wasn't fastened properly and so we were suddenly and abruptly "launched" upwards, giving a painful bang of the head on the canopy! What a fright and what pain! A final thrill was the landing. We cross a motorway perpendicular at about two metres off the ground, all while a truck came charging along blaring its horn like mad... But who made us do it? I didn't know these were just little pieces of a big puzzle of emotions we'd feel that day! Not long after, the preparations for the parachute jump begin.

Hours and hours explaining, practising the various manoeuvres on the ground, getting ready, with Krists acting as my simultaneous interpreter while the instructor explained. A few hours later we're split into two groups. Inside the plane, into subgroups of three. The plane, an old Russian Antonov, takes off. There are some girls near me who are terrified. I try to stay calm and strangely I manage it. I'm too reckless. We reach 600 metres, we find the right spot: the first three are thrown out of the plane. A deathly silence. Ten endless minutes pass and the plane, after a 360° turn, comes back to where it was. The second subgroup is ready. It's my group. The first one goes. The second suddenly vanishes before my eyes. It's my turn. I move towards the hatch. I see everything tiny below me. I stop right on the line that still lets me feel something under my shoes.

I hear a shout in Russian and a strong push. A few seconds that last an eternity. I feel slapped by the air, by the gusts of wind, and then a strange sensation, as if someone were pulling me from above. My parachute has opened. A silent sigh of relief. But that wasn't the end of it! There's still a spin going on. Once sorted, I calm down. Absolute silence like I've never heard before, broken only by the scream of the boy who jumped before me. I release my adrenaline by shouting first with all the breath I had and then calling Pedro, who had stayed on the ground. Then again an unreal silence. Just me and the world. Slowly I head towards the ground, everyone looked like ants under my feet, but there's a little group running towards me shouting something I don't understand. I don't understand Russian. I start worrying again, I who by now was enjoying the view from above.

Maybe my parachute has some problem? I'm about to touch the ground. I close my legs, as instructed, and land gently. A few metres from me there's a girl crying, holding her broken ankle in her hands. I land and see Pedro running towards me, snapping a thousand photos. I did it. I feel even stronger than before. An hour later he too would feel the same emotions, but jumping in tandem from 2,500 metres, with the instructor "strapped" to his back like a backpack. On the way home, I can't stop thinking about my feelings and emotions from this long day!

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