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Blogs from Riga, Riga Region, Latvia, Europe - page 15
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December 12th 2007
Flew Ryanair from Bristol to Riga on 12th December 2007, returned on the 17th. Stayed at Hotel Tia; a little out of town, but otherwise decent hotel for the money.... read more
November 27th 2007
Well, here I am again, my first post on the blog at the age of 24. What happened since my last post…many things, I had a trip to Siauliai, 200 Km West from Vilnius, I went to Riga to Chair and facilitate the CPS there and I had a party weekend in Vilnius. Let’s take them one by one and in order. First of all I had a pretty wild weekend for my b-day combined with the “boys and girls party” of AIESEC Vilnius and the goodbye party for Munkeet, one of AIESEC Vilnius trainee. On Friday night we had a small drinking party at my place with Jonas, Mantas, Andrius and Rytis, after that we went out in one of my favorite pubs “Prie Universiteto” and we had some drinks and danced. Later on ... read more
A rather brief foray into Helsinki and Riga
Published: November 9th 2007Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga
November 9th 2007
Well, its been a crazy last few days. Not only has the temperature gone down by 2 degrees each time as we move east, the landscape, the people and the language changes dramatically too. After Norway, we flew to Finland, from Bergen through the very efficient Oslo airport and onto Helsinki. Me being quite naïve and expecting pretty much all Scandinavian countries to be the same got a wee bit of a shock in Helsinki. Helsinki is a mixture of the Viennas and Pragues of this world, with a bit of Scandinavian thrown in for good measure. This is my conclusion after spending a sum total of one full day wandering around the city centre. We did the cheap and condensed 3T tram tour of the city which was nice to be able to see a ... read more
October 27th 2007
February 2005 It might seem a very obvious statement, but Riga in February is cold! As a couple who hail from the North East, cold never really featured in the list of things to be worried about….but this was COLD! John sometimes gets carried away with the photo taking opportunities, but this was instant frost bite just taking the hand out of the gloves to snap. Welcome to the Russian front. The hat might look over the top in the pictures, but believe us it wasn’t for decoration. This was our first visit to the Baltics and as you might have read, the other countries have now been visited or at least the capital cities and surrounds. The first impression (other than the Cold), would be that Riga is not as picture book pretty as Tallinn ... read more
October 4th 2007
Our whirlwind trip to Riga has come and gone. We arrived in Riga mid-afternoon on Monday, settled into the Grand Palace Hotel and then cruised the cobbled streets of the Old Town and a little beyond the remains of the medieval walls to get our bearings. Riga is a much larger, more cosmopolitan city than Tallinn. Once described as 'the Paris of the East' it is filled with ornate, decorative Art Nouveau architecture, classy boutiques, modern glass shopping centres and poker machines. The latter didn't do much to add to the sophistication of the city but they did remind us of home. The boys were wistful for the quaint, cobblestoned confines of Tallinn's walled town (or maybe for the beer and rugby they enjoyed there) but I liked the bustle of a bigger city. I'm obviously ... read more
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October 1st 2007
Hello, hello! Latvia was incredible - though I think I would have to say, more for the quirkiness and the people than anything else. I jumped on a ferry to Latvia from Stockholm and was a bit lost and nervous as I had missed the connection with John (having missed the ferry and having his wallet stolen, his schedule was pushed back a bit) so I was to head on to Latvia (bearing in mind that I had no tour guide or information of any sort) and we would figure out how to meet up there. I had managed to email a few people about couches to stay on, but had only done it a day before leaving, and had no chance to check my email, so was resigned to embarking on another scavenger hunt to ... read more
September 16th 2007
Well, let us see.....Riga is very different from Tallin. Not quite as Disneyland pretty, plenty of beautiful art nouveau buildings (lots of them by the famous Russian Mikhail Eisenstein) and its fair share of cobbled windy streets....streets you have to watch where you walk.. They are so pot-holed that you are highly likely to twist your ankle or just plain fall over while you have your eyes and neck stretched to the skies looking at the beautiful buildings!! Although nice things to look at...we did see some seriously dodgy looking people and far more than a few hobos and drunkards.... ..........seriously scarey rough looking Latvians/Russians! At one point we saw a good four or five of the starting to fight, we assumed swearing and cursing (our Latvian and Russian obviously is zero , but they were ... read more
September 16th 2007
Baltische trip, Episode 2. Wel, een beetje laat en misschien wat stom om er nu nog een verslag van uit te brengen. Maar zoals beloofd doe ik het toch. Moge het trouwens niet te veel verwarring brengen, mijn niet-chronologische manier van verhalen vertellen. In Riga checkten Jasmijn en ik in in The Old Town Hostel, op een boogscheut van het oude centrum. De namiddag hebben we het the easy way gedaan en volgden een plannetje met alle toeristische hoogtepunten van de stad. Natuurlijk is dit best in orde want je krijgt ook wel degelijk op een efficiënte manier alles te zien. We kuierden wat rond en zodra we van het pad afweken stuitten we op Bars I Love You (in het Lets krijgen mannelijke woorden een s achteraan). Daar nam Jasmijn een verrukkelijke chocoladetaart (ze wilde ... read more
August 31st 2007
Today we planned to spend the day in Riga and then go for a meal in the evening. We woke and headed to the central market to get some food for today and the trip tomorrow. We did the usual wandering around not really deciding on anything, then finally picked several cakes, some smoked cheese and bread. After crossing the world's busiest road ever we settled down to eat our picnic at the waters edge. Then we set off in a bid to find Riga’s spectacular castle, expecting it to dominate the skyline. It was barely an interesting building and we walked passed it without being sure if it was the correct building. It housed the museum of art or something like that, so we skipped that building and headed for the powder tower; a tower ... read more
Heavy History - Tense Film - Relaxed Evening
Published: August 30th 2007Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga
August 29th 2007
After being woken by the southern lads coming home rather drunk at four in the morning, we next awoke to some repair men coming in to fix the shower. Fully dressed and eager to go, we set off in the general direction of the museum of occupation. We stumbled across the tourist information and enquired about buses to Siguilda for tomorrow. Right next door was the museum, so in we went. The museum was like Latvia's history, long and very heavy. We thought that Estonia was a country that had a troubled history; well it appears that Latvia's was worse. We did spend a serious amount of time in there, and definitely left a lot wiser to Soviet and eastern European history. Having had nothing for breakfast we were rather hungry, so after a quick detour ... read more
