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I got to know the name 'Jurmala' on the flight from Stockholm to Tallinn. I didn't expect that I were there only in two days. The abstract name was then visualized as white sand, forest, Latvian wood houses, and many happy angels on the beach.
It was a sunny Saturday morning. I got up without knowing where to go, -- the joy of traveling, aimless but always encountering surprises. I have walked most of the old town yesterday. What else can I do? I took out the brochure from tourist information center and found an event: a live exhibition of old fashion cars on Jurmala beach. I have seen the old car parade on the fifth avenue in New York, but one by one on beach? Interesting!!
Let's go.
I rushed into the train station, only to find that there are two stops in Jurmala. Which one? All schedules are in Latvian or Russian, not clear which train I should take. After a fuzzy dialogue with several staffs via their broken English, I jumped into a carriage, skeptical of where I am going but relaxed and ready to accept whatever the destination is. The carriage is old, spacious, colored military green, immediately reminiscent of the old-styled trains ever popular in the communist countries like the Soviet Union and China twenty years ago.
Uncertainty is going on... you cannot tell which station it is unless you luckily sit in the center of the train, since the name of station is not shown anywhere in the platform except in the center. Also, the broadcast is in Russian and Latvian and the announcer's voice is quick and blurry... Gosh! The last hope comes from blackberry phone embedded with Google map. Thanks for Google! I roughly figured it out and got off train at Majori, the center of Jurmala!
Beautiful! Relaxing! Rewarding for all effort!
Please follow the girl in white linen long skirt to enjoy an innocent Baltic morning. (Click the link at the bottom for a set of pictures.)
