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After our overly enthusiastic first night in Riga we have spent the last few days taking it easy. The weeks leading up to our depature had taken their toll and we were a lot more physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting than we'd realised. The evening of our last blog update we headed out for a sensible glass of vino and came across a, strange but relaxed, little place called 'Black Magic'. It was just what we need after a day spent nursing our hangovers and trying our best to stay out of the way of a bunch of 'in your face' stags on our hostel floor. My first encounter with these guys was the previous day when a couple of them, upon their emphatic arrival, burst through the locked door of the bathroom to find me, having just stepped out of the shower, barely covered by a towel. I don't know who was more shocked.
Earlier that afternoon, we ventured to St. Peter's Church; a very impressive dominating structure, with a large spire like tower eminating from it, that can be seen all over Riga. The tower has a viewing gallery at the top. Being someone keen on heights and
with Sarah, not being too keen on heights, we came to a compromise and headied upwards. The lift up was a little rickety and, with eight other people encroaching our personal space for what seemed like an eternity, it was a little cramped. When we eventually made it to the top we disembarked just as a stampeed of toursits filled the lift back up again. We were to realise shortly why the tourists were so keen to get back down. It certaintly wasn't because of the view. The panormaic view was incredible. We spent a few seconds taking it in before Sarah was overwhelmed by what seemed like a cross between vertigo and claustrophobia. With the lift at least an eternity away this could have been bad. Fair play to Sarah though, not only did she combat the panic that overcame her long enough for the lift to return but, when the lift came back, also managed to bulldoze us both through the scores of tourist that shared our common goal; to get down!
Yesterday was wet and miserable and evoked memories of home we once rembered; that is before we became accustomed to the 20 celsuis + tempertaures
prior to our send off. We went for a walk around the central market absorbing the sights and sounds and admiring stall after stall of fresh fruit and veg, pickles, blades and all things wooden. The rain, however, became a little too much for us. Not only because it was wet but also because our only salvation from the wetness were our brightly coloured Dunnes Stores pack-a-macs. We looked ridiculous. We decided to hit the local Omniplex and crossed our fingers that the film would be in English, a promise that was made to us by a waiter on our first night.
It's now our last morning in Riga and almost time to say farewell to it and, hopefully, the rain. The only thing that stands in our way is the 16 hour bus journey and Russian border control.
Next stop Moscow!
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O' Rawe clan (again)
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Belfast Weather in Riga?
St. Peter's church spire looks extremely extremely high up. How on earth did Chris manage to convince Sarah to even go up in the first place? Haha. Mad woman. Also, we're all quite keen to see these beautiful brightly coloured Dunnes Store macs! Photos??Unfortunately here in Belfast we're not quite needing them at the moment, due to the lovely warm weather. Haha. Well, lovely and warm for Belfast weather anyway. And we hope the movie you went to see wasn't purely in Rigish (haha - from earlier comment. Now I know it's Latvian they speak there - A levels here I come!) Lots of love, the O' Rawe clan. xxx