Riga Days 12 - 16

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Day 12
Oh not again more eighties hits on the bus to Riga, I couldn't get on this bus again it was driving me crazy - argggggh! I finally arrived at Riga with an ounce of sanity left and sought out the madhouse that would be my home for my stay in Riga - The naughty Squirrel - God what a place I loved it and was the highlight of my nightlife on my travels - woohoo.

I had a wander round Riga for a bit to get my bearings and then as it was Saturday night i headed back to the hostel to put on my dancing pants:-) In my dorm were two lovely and crazy Aussie girls Kelly and Amber who I spent most of my time with on my time with but not on Saturday night as they were still recuperating from the night before. Anyway that night I had signed up for a pub crawl and headed to the common room at 9 for the festivities to commence and immediately got involved in a drinking game with another bunch of Aussies. As a result of the game I quickly polished off a couple of pints but that wasn't as bad as carols and American who had to drink 3 pints and 2 shots within 30 mins of joining the game. As part of the pub crawl we then had to down 5 shots of god know what and then at around 11 we hit the bars. We got taken to some great bars - Mojo at the far end of town where Carlos got into a fight with a huge bear of a local, me and aniother Aussie were all primed to wade in and break it up and then thankfully it ended in handbags - phew!!

We then headed to a shot bar where it starts getting hazy and ended up in this fantastic bar/nightclub that was just full of locals no tourists and we were the toast of the town and were very popular:-) I was the last of the group in the club and ended up leaving at 6 in the morning - crikey.

Day 13
Despite my late night I was woken up at 11:30 by the cleaner which was good as I had arranged to go on a bobsled ride that day with my roomy - Amber. Apparently this is the only place in the world where you can go down a professional track (It will be hosting the world champs in Feb) with no training. It cost around £50 and last around 45 seconds but it was worth it. The driver is a member of the Latvian Olympic bobsled team so we were in safe hands. the run was incredible we reached speeds of 102kph and hit 4G round some of the bends - when you are in the sled its extremely rough the g froce squashes your head down and then you are thrown around from side to side. I was holding onto dear life (there are no straps or anything) as their was no-one behind me. What a rush but both Amber and myself had sore backs afterwards and I had a huge bruises on my calfs - dont know how they happened though!!

After that we headed back to the hostel for a quiet night in Riga - yeah right!!
This time the girls joined us in the common room and we started off with beer Pong and the night deteriorated from there, later on we headed out to some dodgy bars. At one point a man came up to me holding a woman in his arms and said here she's yours and threw her into my arms. I've never introduced myself to someone whilst holding her up at the same time so it led to an interesting conversation. the bobblestones had frozen over in the night and most of our party ending up slipping as we were wandering round, one fell backwards onto her head and got a bit of concussion, fortunately for me I didn't fall over. We eventually got in at around 3!!

Day 14
The next day I had to go and have a look round Riga, so I woke up and had to go straight out of the door in order to meet up for the Riga free walking tour that I had heard about. The tour visited all the parts of the twon that were outside the old town, so we visited the fish market first which I was in no condition for but I managed not to throw up!! the tour lasted around 2 hours and afterwards I had a wander round the old town. Latvia and probably manay of the Baltic countries consist of the indigenous population supplemented by a large population of Russians. The guide was saying that because of what the Russian state did to the local population they do not get on with them and there has been riots in the past and this will probably continue for sometime to come as there is little integration between the 2 popoulations.

That night we stayed in the hostel I think I can't quite remember but it consisted of more beers and more shots!!

Day 15
For the bus back to Tallinn I chose the cheapest bus possible and it ended up being the same type of bus as previous but the TV was turned off - result!! On arriving in Tallin I had to head to the Ferry to go to Helsinki. On arriving in Helsinki I headed out for a few drinks and ended up in the Kaurismäki's brothers bar. the brothers are responsible for the Leningrad Cowboys films which an old friend put me on to (Phillipo) crazy films but the bar was a bit boring.

Day 16
Wandered round Helsinki visited the Kiasma contemporary art museum but by now was ready for home the following day.
Boring bits - Fantastic cafe/restaurant - and cheap - Lido off Baron street - traditional East European food - delicious. Hostel Naughty Squirrel - only place to stay in Riga, very clean and very well run and very cheap!!

Hesinki hostel - stayed at Eurohostel - expensive 26 Euros and more of a working community hostel - very few backpackers - wouldn't advise staying here - plus cardboard walls not very quiet.

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