Valka, a town split by the Estonia-Latvia border

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There can be no better illustration of the Schengen Agreement, which allows free travel across many international borders in Europe, than a small town on the Estonia-Latvia border, called Valga (in Estonian) and Valka (in Latvian). The national border cuts right through it; when Masayo and I ended up here on Day 11 of our trip we found that you can just stroll back and forth between the two countries all you want, past an empty guard shack that still stands in the middle of the road.

We stayed at a hotel in Latvia and had dinner over in Estonia, which was kind of a nice touch to the day. Valka is modern, living European history.

First we had to get there though, and that meant a bus from the town of Tartu, Estonia southward. And while the bus ride was nice, my blood sugars were too high almost all day and for both of us we felt we got off on the wrong foot with Latvia.

The first BG of the day was excellent: 89. For breakfast we finished the cinnamon cereal and milk that I’d been keeping in the Aleksandri Hotell room refrigerator, then checked out and strode through the chilly early Estonian morning to the Tartu bus station.

Going to Valga was a last-minute decision we just made yesterday; I thought it would be fun to see a border town. At the bus station I got some coffee at the cafe — the total was €3, but the lady accepted the €2.94 in coins I had. That might not seem notable, but as an American (where cashiers will do that) living in Japan (where they won’t) it was a nice surprise.

I thanked her in Estonian (“tänen”) and got our coffees: it was a self-serve machine and I could fill the cups all the way, not halfway like many cafes have been doing. (Why do they give us half-filled cups of coffee?!)

The Tartu to Valga minibus showed up and proved to be a rather unpopular service on a Sunday. We got on and I asked the driver where our assigned seats 1 and 2 were. He motioned gruffly to just sit anywhere.

My first diabetic annoyance of the day came as we sat on the bus waiting to leave: my BG, so good just before breakfast, was now 234. What happened? I was getting very irritated at the sequence of bad blood sugars I’d been experiencing, but I took a Humalog shot to get it down some.

But when I injected the insulin I had what might turn out to be something of a breakthrough with my high BG trend.

After I withdrew the needle (from my Bluff Works pants), some insulin was still dripping from it. Could I be absorbing less insulin than I think? Maybe I need a needle change. That would explain the highs.

Strolling freely across the border to Latvia

In Valga, Estonia we had a 2+ km walk to the hotel which I’d booked in the Latvian side of town (called Valka). The border crossing is just a sign; a disused guard’s checkpoint stands in the road. There is a decided lack of formality; it might as well be a closed-down snack shop.

So much for a passport full of cool stamps.

Dead Latvian hotel

When we got the Otrā Elpa hotel we were a bit miffed to find it closed. I mean, totally closed down and dark, with a big metal grate pulled down and locked in place. Peering through the window I could see the unlit reception area. The town itself was similarly quiet; a few people walked by but there didn’t seem to be any stores open or anything else going on.

There was a buzzer on the outside of the hotel though, so I pressed it and lo and behold, a voice answered. I said, “Hello” in English and the woman on the other end replied in English: “You want to check in, yes?” She said she’d be there in five minutes.

While waiting I looked around a little — there was a Maxima supermarket around the corner, open until 10:00 pm here on Sunday evening. At least we were guaranteed some kind of dinner, if not an actual restaurant.

The lady showed up, little baby in her arms, and was very friendly but obviously in a hurry. She checked us in, showed us the room, explained how one key was for the room and one was for the hotel entrance, and left, saying “Bye! See you later. Tomorrow.”

And we were on our own.

Actually, there was someone else staying there, a couple guys in the next room who just seemed to watch TV and go outside every hour to smoke. But basically, in this quiet town with its overcast sky and inertness, it felt like we had an entire large house to ourselves

One curious thing about our room at Otrā Elpa: the toilet isn’t attached to the bathroom floor. Everything seems to work fine plumbing-wise but still… Welcome to Latvia, I guess.

Self-catered lunch from Maxima

Masayo wasn’t feeling well, and had in fact been objecting to the fast pace of travel recently and wanted to rest. We went to the supermarket to find lunch, which turned out to be chocolate milk, pieces of pizza bread, and orange chocolate cookies. It was a small supermarket. My BG, following my drippy Humalog shot on the minibus in Tartu way back in Estonia, was now 217. I was not amused.

Walking around Valka

Masayo took a nap after lunch and I took the opportunity to walk around Valka, to get a sense of it and to check if it might be possible to find dinner later. We’ve had only junk food for a while and that’s not helping our mood or my blood sugar either.

Valka didn’t have much do offer — a couple of small supermarkets still open, a sleeping town, and a meager few pedestrians strolling about under the colorless, cloudy Sunday afternoon sky. Masayo had mentioned how we should try to make sure we were in larger towns on Sunday nights, especially after last week when we couldn’t find much to do in Mariehamn, Åland. I think Masayo was right. Valka is silent.

I walked back into Estonia (past an empty guard shack being watched over by a black cat on the sidewalk) and found two bigger supermarkets and a Hesburger hamburger fast food place that was open until 10:00 pm. So, we were guaranteed a hot meal, at least. Getting better.

The main sight back in Valka, Latvia was the Valka-Lugaži Lutheran Church — just a few seconds’ walk from our hotel and small but pretty. And old; it was first mentioned in historical texts in 1477. I wondered if it was possible to get up in the tower to look out over the town, but it didn’t seem like it. Not on a Sunday, anyway.

NFL Game Pass in the hotel room

Back in the room, where we had working wifi, I realized that the Atlanta Falcons were playing a game — live, right now in London, against the Detroit Lions. I loaded up NFL Game Pass, which I had paid a season’s subscription for, and started the game. (I accidentally noticed the score, Altanta winning 21-0 in the third quarter. I cursed myself for spoiling the first two quarters but moved the slider all the way left to watch the game from the beginning.)

Dinner back in Estonia

After an hour or so Masayo and I walked out into the cold, clear night and crossed back into Estonia to go to the Hesburger. I ate as Hesburgers once or twice on my first trip ever out of the United States, while in Finland in autumn 1998. It was rather fun to be back, even though it’s just nondescript hamburgers. We sat inside and peered at the menu — all Estonian.

But Masayo had bought a book in Tartu called Suur Kindaramaat which the saleslady had translated at the time as The Big Mitten Book. So I assumed suur was Estonian for “big”. Some of the hamburgers had suur beside them — I figured that meant it was a set meal with large fries and drink, while the other column must be a set meal with regular sized sides. A linguistic genius, me.

I got a Megaburger with fries and a Coke Zero and sat down to check the old blood sugar. Still high: 263. And still highly annoying. But there was nothing to do but take a shot and ate. It was good to have something hot, even if it was a fast food hamburger.

Back in the room I watched the rest of the game (the Falcons lost it in the last four seconds). I was dispirited and my BG misadventures had put me in a foul mood. We went to sleep, neither of us particularly enjoying our time in Latvia so far.

I hope tomorrow will be smoother. We haven’t even decided on where to go tomorrow — stay in Valka, or continue further in Latvia, to to Cēsis or Smiltene or Sigulda or Valmieri? Or all the way to the capital Rīga?

Just between you and me, grumpy bad BG and dull grey town aside – I love not knowing where I’m going tomorrow!

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