European ERE meetup

[loutfard]

Hello all,

I'd be happy to host a modest European ERE meetup at our summer house in rural Latvia.

WHEN: Saturday 20240824 - Sunday August 20240825 . Up to four early arrivals welcome from Monday August 20240819. No problem if you're staying until Monday morning 20240826. Hard deadline for all to have left is Tuesday evening 20240827. Should you wish to stay in the area longer, there's some very nice wild camping spots and affordable bed and breakfasts in the area.
JOIN US: Private message me. I'll check your profile and most probably ask for 0.01€ to be paid to my bank account. We're meeting in real life at our place, so this might be an elegant way to commit and build some mutual trust.
GETTING THERE: easy and affordable to reach from most of Europe by car/ferry/plane/bus/bicycle and on foot. The last 6 km lack public transport. We'll sort that out case by case. Details by private message.
MAXIMUM PARTICIPANTS: 10. A low cap to for me to build some confidence hosting this. An advantage of a low number is I can easily host all participants inside should the weather be bad.
PROGRAMME: We'll make it interesting using our combined skills and experience. Weather permitting, we'll certainly spend an afternoon picking chanterelle mushrooms and/or blueberries.

Kind regards,

Loutfard

[Seppia]

This is amazing, thanks for sharing.
I live in the USA at the moment so not doable for me, but thanks for the great gesture.
Will follow this thread, let me know if you need easy to prepare cheap recipes that people usually tend to enjoy.

[bos]

Thank you for organising this European ERE meetup! It's very generous to offer your summer house for a gathering.

3 years ago I was at the Latvian Border in Lithuania when the covid locks-downs happened. The plan was to continue to Sweden, but I sadly had to cancel and drive back to Germany. This may be a good reason to come back. Such an amazing wildcamping locations over there. I need to check some details, but look forward to participate.

[loutfard]

The first guest has made his interest explicit.

[loutfard]

Five potential guests have made their interest explicit.

[loutfard]

If anyone is planning to travel by ferry from western Europe, please do make that know here. It's an excellent way to get from western Europe to Latvia for those not in a hurry or avoiding air travel. Pricing is quite reasonable, doubly so when sharing a cabin. Stenaline from Travemünde, Germany to Liepāja, Latvia.

Plus we have one potential participant from France who might want to car share.

[Jean]

I would like to come, can't comfirm i'll be able to now. What part of latvia is your house in.

[guitarplayer]

If anyone is planning to travel by ferry from western Europe, please do make that know here. It's an excellent way to get from western Europe to Latvia for those not in a hurry or avoiding air travel. Pricing is quite reasonable, doubly so when sharing a cabin. Stenaline from Travemünde, Germany to Liepāja, Latvia.

I had entertained the idea briefly, though it would be quite an Odyssey with getting to Newcastle, another ferry from there to Amsterdam and vagabonding on bikes / with trains across Holland and Germany before taking the said ferry, then the same back. Think it could be done at a pleasant pace over two months but not over two or three weeks.

Instead, think I might research good walks around there. Do you know if there is an equivalent of https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ for the Baltic States?

ETA: For starters https://baltictrails.eu/en/forest?lang=en - makes me think 'hey why don't we get there, have a good time and then get to that track to just walk back to the airport to catch the flight back'.

[loutfard]

It's hard not to have really beautiful walks in Latvia. Do realise that it is less densely populated than most of western Europe, so some planning won't hurt. The trail you mentioned passes relatively close to our place. You should not have a problem following it to Rīga, with a few shortcuts by public transport should you so wish.

Do mind the weather though. Western Latvia especially has a relatively mild climate, but it is fairly up north. July and August are usually really nice, but late September can be quite a bit chillier already.

[bos]

ETA: For starters https://baltictrails.eu/en/forest?lang=en - makes me think 'hey why don't we get there, have a good time and then get to that track to just walk back to the airport to catch the flight back'.

I am playing with the same idea. It's around 120 kilometer of trail back to Riga city center. The websites estimates 39 hours.

[Jean]

Everyone is having the same idea.

[guitarplayer]

Good stuff, we can talk nearer the date.

Would be thinking about sticking around for a bit longer than just the weekend for the meet up itself, but another bit I am still wondering about is whether to arrive earlier and do something before the meet up (early to mid August so better weather) or after (better chance for foraging interesting stuff).

[loutfard]

Foraging peak season often is late August in Latvia actually...

[guitarplayer]

Yeah true you’re right, I seem to recall from when in mainland Europe. Scotland is notoriously late wrt flagship foraging species guess I got used to it a bit too much.

[loutfard]

An interesting variant might or might not be to take the ferry in one direction and a plane in the other.

[chenda]

Thanks for organising Loutfard, I will not be able to attend but I'm sure it'll be a success. I was also in Lithuania the summer before lockdown, and spent time walking and swimming in warm(ish) lakes.

[Jean]

I just want to state that I'll be at the meetup. I'll probably arrive during the week. It's not clear yet how i'll make my way to latvia from switzerland. At the end, I'll fly to Belgrade on sunday night to meet other people.
I have the secret hope that the opportunity to meet me will draw people to the meetup

[guitarplayer]

yeah you are like the european theanimal.

[Jean]

The animal has a family and a freezer full of meat. He beats me on every metric

[guitarplayer]

This is an undersell I saw the huge block of swiss cheese it was tough i am vegan