I want my two dollars!

Sorry, yet another quick digression -- this one on the topic of foreign currencies.

While the EU is great and the common currency of the Euro has made traveling between the countries of western Europe terribly convenient, it also has taken away a bit from the challenge and adventure of having to figure out just how much money you'll need to get by for a few days in one country.  For anybody who misses that adventure, just head a little east to the baltic -- the only country here that uses the Euro so far is Finland.

One important tip I can give though -- before taking money out at the ATM, look up the exchange rate!  I made that mistake in Latvia.  I was only planning on staying a few days so I took out a hundred Lat (thinking a Lat was about the same as a Euro).  As I strolled around I was amazed by how cheap everything in Latvia was!  You could get a pint of raspberries at the market for only one Lat, or you could pick up a liter of milk for less than half a Lat!  This was great.  That's what I thought until I finally realized the Lat was actually closer to two dollars US than one.  It's a good thing I hadn't bought anything yet! 

There's one other thing to be aware of in Latvia though.  Every now and then in the US, you'll reach into your pocket for some change and notice that one of your penny's looks a little funny -- oops, it's a canadian one.  Nobody really pays all that much attention and if you accidentally slip it into your change as you pay at the super market, there's a good chance they won't notice either -- that's probably how you got it in the first place -- in your change at the super market.  Well, that's not so bad, somebody ripped you off less than the value of a penny.  Now imagine though that your penny was worth two dollars.  And imagine that Canada had a coin that was worth about four tenths of a cent which was about the same size and the same color.  And imagine you tried to pay for something at the store with that worthless canadian less than a penny and the woman behind the counter looked at you like you were crazy.  That's what happened to me.  I can only imagine some bartender at one of the bars I went to (knowingly or unknowingly) snuck a lithuanian penny into my change, and I the uninitiated tourist accepted it without question as correct change.

If only I could figure out who that bartender was, I'd stalk him on the ski slopes with my bike saying, "Two dollars.  I want my two dollars."