Yesterday morning we drove from Otepaa, Estonia, to Madona, Latvia, where our next two races will be. All I knew about Latvia before today was that it is located directly below Estonia on a map. After driving through a relatively unpopulated country side, complete with large, empty looking concrete apartment buildings, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was beginning to envision that we’d be staying at a hotel similar to the Linnel, but it turned out to be quite the opposite! It looks like big log house, and when we came in, we found incredibly nice rooms, and a fun wooden spiral staircase going upstairs! We had lunch at a small café, which was in another grey concrete building, but inside incredibly well decorated, there were couches at all the tables, and the food was really good! So far, even though on first sight Latvia looked like it might not be as nice as the previous places we’ve been, its turned out to be surprisingly pleasant!br /br /Two days ago was the last day of Junior Worlds, which included the junior relays as well as the U23 pursuit races. Since I wasn’t in the relay, I got to cheer all day, which was a lot of fun. The sun came out, and it was a perfect day! Both the relay teams beat their places from last year by one (girls were 7th and the boys were 10th).br /br /This morning we had a skate sprint here in Latvia. Ida and Jessie skied really well, finishing 4th and 5th! I qualified 22nd, and ended up 4th in my quarterfinal for 20th overall. It was a really fun, fast course, only 1k for us! There were only 33 women racing, but there were over 100 men!! Skyler qualified 38th, and was 2nd junior, behind a kid who has been top 20 in world cups. Tomorrow we have a skate 10/15k, and then we drive from here to Joulumae, Estonia, where there is a classic sprint on Saturday, and a classic 10/15 on Sunday!br /br /br /
