Back in India

I realize that there's a whole chunk of time missing from my time in Latvia. I think I was just too busy to keep two sights updated so this one lagged. I will post pictures soon and share some of the stories. It was a good time, different than the first week, which was also good.

Whew, it was an interesting few minutes while I was checking my bags in the Riga Airport. I had some extra goodies to bring back, so I picked up an small duffle bag. But there is no allowance for an extra bag - as in you can't even pay for it as an additional piece (unless it's a sport's bag - golf clubs, skies, snow board, etc.). Which means the two bags were weighed together and the excess weight was what I was going to have to pay! The nice lady took off 2 kilos, which I was thankful for and pointed me towards the office to pay. It took a couple elevater rides to get to the right place, but once I got to the office I was floored to find out it was going to cost 240, I think that was Lats, which would cost roughly US $500!!! No way! I was thinking I can't possibly pay that. I told the girl I was frustrated because I'd repeatedly tried calling and sent an email and hadn't been able to connect with anyone. If I'd known it would cost that much, I would have mailed it. She was sympathetic and said maybe I could take some items out of the bag and either put them in my back pack or another bag to carry on. I pulled some items out. And asked her if I needed to go back down and have it weighed again so I know what to pay. She said, no, it's all fine, just go back down and check my bag. ??? I didn't understand, but found out that there was not going to be a charge at all!!! PTL! I cannot tell you how excited and surprised I was. The only casualty was that my three pack of canned tuna didn't make it past security and the confiscated it. But if that was the only price I paid, how could I complain?

The first leg of the trip (to Helsinki) was packed. But the longer flight to Delhi wasn't bad. I had no one next to me, so I could stretch out. With the H1N1 flu strain causing alarm, there was a special medical check point and it took nearly 2 hours to get out of there. But my taxi driver was waiting, I got to the B & B and slept for about 6 hours. I went out for some lunch and saw a salon. :) My eyebrows were looking so scary I decided to have them taken care of. After I got in there I thought of my toe nails - they hadn't been trimmed in about a month and tomorrow I need to wear sandals. :) Yep, I threw in a little pampering. All for under $10. Now I'm just relaxing in my room, watching some American TV shows and then I'll have dinner at this great Mexican restaurant with friends. :)

Tomorrow I catch the train home.