Friday, September 08, 2006
Must Try Harder
In an attempt to keep my blog a little more up to date than I've previously managed, I've decided to let you know where I am in the world. I travel quite a bit with work, and although I won't tell you what I do, you should be able to guess with a bit of help from Google.
I'm in a small-ish town in Latvia called Daugavpils. I flew out yesterday with BA from LHR to Riga (RIX), and from there we were due to have a three hour drive to Daugavpils. Lunch on the plane was abysmal - a cold sandwich and a drink served 20 minutes after the sandwich. Then to top it all I left my passport on the plane. What a twat! I managed to get back onto the plane as they were cleaning it, but couldn't find anything in the seat pocket or the overhead locker. I was in "Oh fuck" mode by now, but fortunately after too long was told that it had been found and handed to the dispatcher. Tried to find out where the dispatcher was and eventually found out that the passport had been handed in at Passport Control. Wandered along to Passport Control (which is where I'd been about 20 minutes earlier when I couldn't find it and first started to panic!) and had a happy reunion. Joined the rest of the team at baggage control and the bags hadn't arrived, so I hadn't cost them any time. After we'd picked up our hire cars, a Chrysler Voyager, a Lexus RX300 and a Chrysler 300C, we referred to the RAC Route Planner instructions from RIX to Daugavpils. "Turn left onto the A10". Check. "Turn left onto the A6". Hmm, where's the A6, we should have passed it by now. Oh look we've just been overtaken by the Voyager, and the driver's been here before we must be on the right road. 45 minutes after leaving the airport, we stopped at a small garage and bought a map of Latvia. It was then that the true horror of what we'd done dawned on us. We'd turned left onto the A10 as instructed, but should have turned right. The wankers at the RAC had given us the wrong instructions!!!!
45 minutes later as we drove past the turning for the airport (90 minutes after we'd left it) we were finally on the right road.
We drove through loads of small towns with strange names, and in between them managed to get the Chrysler up to 160km/h. The further away from Riga we got, the less traffic there was, and at one stage we stopped the car, both got out to relieve ourselves, and got back in and set off without seeing another car!
Going through one village we saw signs for 70, then 50, but were still doing about 90. It was just past the 30 sign that we both realised that the road turned sharp right, and straight ahead was a no entry. Well, the brakes just about stopped us and we managed to turn right. Luckily this was one of the stretches of road where there was not much traffic.
20km from Daugavpils, we had a phone call from the Voyager (actually, the driver, not the car itself; although it had enough electronics in it that I wouldn't be surprised if it could make a phone call). Electrically opening doors worry me a bit. It's bad enough when electric windows don't open, or close, but what the fuck do you do if you can't get out of the car 'cause the doors won't open? Anyway, back to the Voyager phone call . . . "The display says 14km until empty". They were some way behind us as they had been in economy mode driving at 60km/h!! We were sure we'd seen a petrol station, but not sure where it was in relation to them. We told them this, and wondered how they'd used so much, when we still had half a tank? Anyway, about 8km from Daugavpils, we found a petrol station, having previously decided that we'd stop at the next one and if necessary, buy a petrol can and fill it up, and then drive back out to them, if the worst happened. We rang them to let them know where we were, and the backup plan. They arrive a few minutes later with the display having read "0 kms until empty"!!
We rang the third car, and told them where we were. "Oh yes, I can see you was the reply". They were just driving past the petrol station, as we rang, and managed to pull in.
We decided to travel to the hotel in convoy, as only one of us had been to the hotel before. "It's on a big square so just follow the centrum signs". A few minutes later, they went straight on and ignored the centrum sign pointing left. We followed it and failed miserably to find it. This was despite stopping at an off-licence and asking the extremely pretty girl in there if she knew where it was. She didn't, and a few minutes later we got a call saying that the hotel we were staying in was not the one that had been stayed in previously. Well thanks a bunch! We stopped at another hotel and they were kind enough to give us a map and we found it easily. By this time it was 9.30pm, and I was hungry enough to eat a scabby horse! Checked in and changed and went out to a Restaurant called Europa, which had been recommended to us by the hotel receptionist. It turned out to be in an entertainment complex, with nightclub (also recommended) and ten-pin bowling. The whole place seemed deserted, and it was not really a surprise when we arrived at the restaurant, and found no-one else in there. I'd never eaten in a restaurant with no other people in before, so I've just done something for the first time ever! We got a table in the corner, and had a surprisingly good meal. I had rabbit casserole (my daughter, and step-daughter would be horrified if they knew). Went back to the hotel spoke to my wife on the phone (we're two hours ahead of the UK, so it was only 10.30pm at home) and then went to bed.
I'm in a small-ish town in Latvia called Daugavpils. I flew out yesterday with BA from LHR to Riga (RIX), and from there we were due to have a three hour drive to Daugavpils. Lunch on the plane was abysmal - a cold sandwich and a drink served 20 minutes after the sandwich. Then to top it all I left my passport on the plane. What a twat! I managed to get back onto the plane as they were cleaning it, but couldn't find anything in the seat pocket or the overhead locker. I was in "Oh fuck" mode by now, but fortunately after too long was told that it had been found and handed to the dispatcher. Tried to find out where the dispatcher was and eventually found out that the passport had been handed in at Passport Control. Wandered along to Passport Control (which is where I'd been about 20 minutes earlier when I couldn't find it and first started to panic!) and had a happy reunion. Joined the rest of the team at baggage control and the bags hadn't arrived, so I hadn't cost them any time. After we'd picked up our hire cars, a Chrysler Voyager, a Lexus RX300 and a Chrysler 300C, we referred to the RAC Route Planner instructions from RIX to Daugavpils. "Turn left onto the A10". Check. "Turn left onto the A6". Hmm, where's the A6, we should have passed it by now. Oh look we've just been overtaken by the Voyager, and the driver's been here before we must be on the right road. 45 minutes after leaving the airport, we stopped at a small garage and bought a map of Latvia. It was then that the true horror of what we'd done dawned on us. We'd turned left onto the A10 as instructed, but should have turned right. The wankers at the RAC had given us the wrong instructions!!!!
45 minutes later as we drove past the turning for the airport (90 minutes after we'd left it) we were finally on the right road.
We drove through loads of small towns with strange names, and in between them managed to get the Chrysler up to 160km/h. The further away from Riga we got, the less traffic there was, and at one stage we stopped the car, both got out to relieve ourselves, and got back in and set off without seeing another car!
Going through one village we saw signs for 70, then 50, but were still doing about 90. It was just past the 30 sign that we both realised that the road turned sharp right, and straight ahead was a no entry. Well, the brakes just about stopped us and we managed to turn right. Luckily this was one of the stretches of road where there was not much traffic.
20km from Daugavpils, we had a phone call from the Voyager (actually, the driver, not the car itself; although it had enough electronics in it that I wouldn't be surprised if it could make a phone call). Electrically opening doors worry me a bit. It's bad enough when electric windows don't open, or close, but what the fuck do you do if you can't get out of the car 'cause the doors won't open? Anyway, back to the Voyager phone call . . . "The display says 14km until empty". They were some way behind us as they had been in economy mode driving at 60km/h!! We were sure we'd seen a petrol station, but not sure where it was in relation to them. We told them this, and wondered how they'd used so much, when we still had half a tank? Anyway, about 8km from Daugavpils, we found a petrol station, having previously decided that we'd stop at the next one and if necessary, buy a petrol can and fill it up, and then drive back out to them, if the worst happened. We rang them to let them know where we were, and the backup plan. They arrive a few minutes later with the display having read "0 kms until empty"!!
We rang the third car, and told them where we were. "Oh yes, I can see you was the reply". They were just driving past the petrol station, as we rang, and managed to pull in.
We decided to travel to the hotel in convoy, as only one of us had been to the hotel before. "It's on a big square so just follow the centrum signs". A few minutes later, they went straight on and ignored the centrum sign pointing left. We followed it and failed miserably to find it. This was despite stopping at an off-licence and asking the extremely pretty girl in there if she knew where it was. She didn't, and a few minutes later we got a call saying that the hotel we were staying in was not the one that had been stayed in previously. Well thanks a bunch! We stopped at another hotel and they were kind enough to give us a map and we found it easily. By this time it was 9.30pm, and I was hungry enough to eat a scabby horse! Checked in and changed and went out to a Restaurant called Europa, which had been recommended to us by the hotel receptionist. It turned out to be in an entertainment complex, with nightclub (also recommended) and ten-pin bowling. The whole place seemed deserted, and it was not really a surprise when we arrived at the restaurant, and found no-one else in there. I'd never eaten in a restaurant with no other people in before, so I've just done something for the first time ever! We got a table in the corner, and had a surprisingly good meal. I had rabbit casserole (my daughter, and step-daughter would be horrified if they knew). Went back to the hotel spoke to my wife on the phone (we're two hours ahead of the UK, so it was only 10.30pm at home) and then went to bed.
