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| © Alexander Drozdov/AFP/Getty Images |
While I'm checking the daily dose of emails confirming or rejecting the hostel bookings on an ordinary working day and hoping to proceed with fighting my BA thesis when a spare moment arrives, two backpackers come in to check-in their pre-booked hostel beds.
Olga and Irina. They came to celebrate. It's yet another year and another birthday. This is a special one despite the fact that Riga greets them with snow, so white and so unbearable.
They say they never buy a return ticket, just in case if the city's charm gets them too far and the desire to enjoy the beauty of the place is so vigorous that there's no chance to resist it.
They come from the city of lions and bridges. The city that is all covered up in historical fairy-tales and beauty, having both features in a great amount. [St. Petersbourg]
They speak about the famous white nights and the bridges that tend to split and merge back time to time. That's all about the weirdly astounded bridge thing, as they say. If you stay on the wrong side of the bridge after a great party it just means that you had a great party. Indeed! Now you need to use your creativity to figure out where you're going to spend the rest of the night. The tourists even if just innocently watching this phenomenal bridge splitting activity might get themselves into a trouble for the same reason for being on the wrong side of the bridge.
The economic tendencies are uniquely precise and appropriately portraying the global stability crash, also in Russia. The workforce is experiencing massive dismissals from full-time and part-time positions. Same goes for pubs that are decreasing in space and numbers, as they say.
They consider themselves workaholics. For already 3 years they're earning money by writing BA and Master thesis and reports for lazy students. They work together and they succeed. One of them states that if the spring season was very productive by doing this stuff, they can afford a pretty easy living afterwards that includes expanding of horizons away from home city walls, like now. Seems like it's worth it. However, the present economic tendencies have also influenced their unique method of earning income, since the nation's financial capacity has become less impressive than it used to be.
They passionately approach the subject of existing subcultures in their city, when I ask, excited to describe the curious features of subcultures that they are also part of. The Roofers is one of them. Roofers are those living on the roofs or at least enjoying some late night beers there once in a while. However, even roofers are experiencing hard times, since the owners of houses that apparently have roofs have started to close more and more doors to those numerous Roofers' paradises. That's a shame! Maybe those house owners want to keep the king-size happiness of being on the roof for themselves? Nevertheless, there are still some unlocked roofs left and if needed you can always get directions how to get there.
Meanwhile they continue to celebrate. To celebrate their silent moments of happiness of being in a big city, drinking beer hidden in gloves, smiling and telling jokes, inviting to come for a visit, to visit the city of lions, pretty bridges and just great people. I'm smiling along [for those... forever young and forever drunk].
