Critical Mass
On the first day of May, the cycling season officially starts in Latvia with an event called Critical Mass. We had wanted to take part in it for many years, but the time was not right when I was still living in Finland.
Eventually I moved here and we decided to take the opportunity to attend the event. There was only one obstacle, we noticed on the morning of the event that my fiancée’s bike tire was punctured and we didn’t have enough time to fix it. Along the way, however, was a bike repair shop, so we decided that I was leaving with the bike earlier to the repair shop and the fiancée would be coming there on my bike. The workshop got the bike up and running quickly and we were able to continue our journey. We both had our own faculty overalls on, as Finland was currently celebrating May Day, which is an important day for university students to party on wearing their specific overalls.
We didn’t make it to the very beginning of the event, so we decided to catch the group along the way. We saw from the internet in real time where the group was at, so this was pretty easy. After catching the group, we followed them through the old town, across the Daugava river past the Railway Museum and finally to a park in the suburbs. The weather was great and we also met many of our friends during the event, which was a pretty funny coincidence considering the amount of people attending.
We were driving on the highway because the event was so big that it had been approved by the officials and the cars had been diverted to other routes or temporarily stopped on a few occasions. Eventually we stopped at the park and had a mini picnic with a few of our friends. I also met a co-worker there who was also attending the Critical Mass. From here we continued along a larger highway back towards the center of Riga.
Turned out, that the center was not our destination after all. We went around the center of Riga and drove along the highway that led to the other side. From there we headed to our final destination, which was another pretty park a little closer to the center. I still had little energy left, so with my fiancée we decided to continue to her parents to spend time in their garden. We also ended up enjoying a few beers and snacking out in the sunshine. All in all, this was a pretty great day and a great experience, although sometimes other people drove a bit too close for my own comfort. However, it left me with a good mood. It would be nice to attend this event again sometime, when the right opportunity arises.
