It started on 23 November 2014. It was a foggy day in Riga, but a small multilingual group was excited: poets Jan Kaus, Miia Toivio, Kārlis Vērdiņš, Gunnar Wærness and Poetry Ride staff, producer Jenni Kallionsivu, artistic director Guntars Godiņš and press officer Heidi Iivari gathered in Tõnu Vaher's white and blue minibus. The next eight days were spent as much in the bus than in four Poetry Ride stops in Daugavpils, Tartu, Joensuu and Tromsø.

The first stop was 230 kilometers from Riga to South-Est in Daugavpils, which is Latvia's second biggest city. We arrived in the evening and were warmly welcomed by Maija Burima, the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of University of Daugavpils and MA student Eva Kasparenoka. The first “on the stage” day was very busy, but the best start to the hole trip: during one day there was a seminar and opening the Poetry Ride exhibition at the University of Daugavpils and poetry reading in a local student pub. In addition we made a video to say hello to Helsinki Poetry Connection. The video was showed in TransLate Night Show on 26 November. Our marvelous partners from the University of Daugavpils were 100 % helping us in order to make Poetry Ride true. There were lots of people in every happening, not the mention a large interest by Latvian media.

It took almost the the hole day to drive from Daugavpils to Tartu, the “City of the Good Thoughts” in South of Estonia. In the very same evening poets gave again their best by performing poetry to the enthusiastic audience indeed with the good thoughts. It took place in a historical Writers' Union House in Tartu with in cooperation with the head of the Writers Union in Tartu and writer Berk Vaher and Estonian poet and former Poetry Rider Contra, who also performed poetry he had translated from Latvian to Estonian.

Next day there was a very educating seminar at the University of Tartu with the students of lecturer of Estonian Literature Mart Velsker. After the seminar poetry riders headed to Tallinn and the Embassy of Latvia, where ambassador Juris Bone hosted us and our local partners in the most pleasant way. When the night boat reached Helsinki harbor at 6 am, the bus and its devoted passengers were ready to have new company, the ambassador Uģis Bambe and Jana Šteinberga-Ranki from Embassy of Latvia in Helsinki. A six hours long journey brought us to Joensuu. There was a seminar in the University of Eastern Finland. The seminar, which got wonderful feedback, was also a climax for ending a very popular course of translating poetry supervised by lecturer of English Languge and Translation Minna Ruokonen and lecturer of Literature Elina Arminen.

Back in Helsinki, it was time to say goodbye to our white and blue bus and take a plane to Tromsø and the world's northernmost university, the Arctic University of Norway. It was dark when we arrived to town and it was dark when we left the town, but poetry riders faced a lot of light and joy among themselves and in local people at the university, where the seminar was hold. This time poetry, ideas and opinions were shared with the creative writing students supervised by a writer and lecturer Anne Oterholm. We enjoyed a lot also the 30^th anniversary celebration of teaching creative writing.

During the trip Gunnar Wærness' song called Fisken (Fish) turned out to be one of the most popular performances. Wærness performed the song accompany on the mbira, an African instrument. Somewhere on the way from Helsinki to Joensuu Fish was collectively translated also into Finnish. It was in our last stop in Tromsø, where we made a video with our amazingly musical poets performing Fish in four languages. There were also other results of the Poetry Ride: we realized how valuable it is to get to know and understand our neighbors' poetry and language, especially small countries can share the same worries and challenges, though there are differences as well. No doubt these poetry riders will keep contact with each others in future as well. The experience sharing the trip together was inspiring in many ways. Poetry riders are extremely happy with the atmosphere and the results of the ride and most grateful to our partners and supporters. Thank you, paldies, aitäh, kiitos, takk!

Have a look at the blogs, pictures, videos and what media has said about Poetry Ride 2014!