I Got A Ticket...already!

Sunday afternoon, not much to do. Had a great idea to go just hop on buses that goes to who knows where, get lost, get found, and do it again! Yeah sounds fun!
Then I even had a better idea, I would go on the busses but bring my language tablet, my dictionary, and my personal “language helper”, my daughter – Endija. Yep, sounds good!

So we were off! Found a bus that neither one of us knew where it went and hopped on! It was a great time of learning and just enjoying each other, the Latvian people, and Latvia!
After a while we realized that everybody had gotten off of the bus and we were heading to a pretty deserted area.
Oop, the end of the road for this bus. Problem was is that that bus was the only one we could take back (30 minutes later) so we sat at the bus stop in the freezing cold (sounds familiar!) and waited for the bus that we were just on to drive up about 20 feet just to let us back on.
When we got back on I was waiting for the lady to come take my money to get my ticket, but she saw that we had already been on this bus, so she just let us go without paying.

Cool.
Well… not so much!

About 15 minutes later a very large gruff looking lady came up to me, and in my broken understanding of Latvian, I knew she was asking for my ticket. Hmmm. Now what? I tried to explain what had happen, she didn’t care and seemed to get more upset when she realized that I was American and spoke English. Endija tried to explain she still didn’t care, and just got more upset! Then she just threw out her hand and said 2 lats.
What?!!! 2 lats? That’s 4 dollars! The bus ride cost 20 santiems! That is 40 cents! Man this sucks! Well I gave her the money because obviously I was not going to get her to understand! And then she took out her little ticket book and gave me a ticket!!! Ha ha! This is priceless! I got a ticket for not paying, and I am here to be a missionary! Sweet!

I couldn’t help but laugh as I was being issued the ticket (which did not make the lovely lady any more happy with me) as we were getting off the bus Endija told me that she was still talking bad about me and how it is like this all the time with people like me!

Hmmm… now I just need to find a frame that will fit the ticket!! ;)
Fun times!
Oh and I did learn a lot of Latvian that day too, thanks to Endija!