This week marked the biggest Latvian holiday. Christmas takes the second place holiday wise. Said week also presented a good opportunity to take some days off and travel, and that is exactly what Clemence and Paul did, going to Germany and France respectively. Their adventures were manyfold and therefore to much to describe here.
Monday was off and spent in Rezekne, "pre-sleeping" for the big night on which Latvian people claim that sleeping on Jani will make you sleepy the entire next year. It clearly is most sensible to rest as much as possible and anticipate the following day.
Tuesday, the big day finally came; the festival park was transformed for the big party in Rezekne, including a stage and preparations for the big bonfire that is traditionally erected and jumped over. Later, there were vendors selling bundles of branches for Sauna purposes (more on that later) and crowns bound from flowers and twigs.
Later, I met up with some friends and we hauled 100 pounds each of camping equipment, drinks, foods and other utilities straight across town, aching under enormous backpacks and duffel bags filled to the brim. After a seemingly unending lineup at the supermarket checkout, we added another 50 pounds on top of that, proceeding to the rendez-vous location, were we got into cars and drove to the lovely lake Nirza in a group of 10-12 people.
Lake Nirza is absolutely stunning, surrounded by dark forests and impenetrable thicket. Our destination was a small compound of holiday homes, all of them in the same style, two floored houses with a porch on each floor, connected by stairs out front (which became a real nightmare at night). Our house featured a Sauna, kept hot by burning real wood, a small living room, and direct connection to the pier, which you good sprint along and dive head first into the cool waters of the lake.
We prepared an all you can eat buffet, the table aching under the load of food and drink just as much as we were. There was delicious cheese, my favourite ones were those with caraway seeds, and the one that had a smokey bacon taste to it. There were sausages of many kinds. There were vegetables and dill. There was the amazing bread with cumin on top of it. Drink wise, there was almost anything you could imagine, but special mention has to go to Kvass, of course. Then it was time for the sauna.
Latvian Sauna is a little different from Scandinavian sauna,because while the principle is the same, the details differ drastically: Scented oil is completely absent, so no eucalyptus smell. Also, pouring water on the oven is a big deal, and it seemed to me that Latvian sauna is more arid than humid. Another genius detail are the caps: it was explained to me that they prevent overheating of the delicate skin on top of your skull, which makes sense and the whole sauna ordeal a lot more bearable. And then there are the branches. They are intended to exfoliate people with, It sounds a little bit brutal, but helps removing bad skin.
What all saunas have in common is the joy of cooling down, stepping out of the boiling sauna into the cold evening air and racing each other to the lake was absolutely stunning.
The night continued with jumps over a bonfire, boat tours, another public buffet and a group of Latvian folksingers. It was almost 8am when I fell asleep in a tent, so I hope I will not be sleepy for a while. I have to say that Jani was definitely one of the most fun and memorable days of my stay in Latvia yet.
The rest of the week was marked by preparations fo the seminar scheduled for the next week. Plans had to be made so not much else happened in JACis.
Saturday, we worked, in exchange for the free monday, and had a splendid time with the kids from "Angels with us" in Raina park. We played soccer, built with wooden blocks and painted the pavement.
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