Blogs from Latvia, Europe - page 32

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

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

Geo: 56.4893, 21.0116In addition to the headache continuing, an earache has started. What's going on??? Perhaps it was Mary "accidentally" elbowing me in the head last night as we slept? Off to Liepaja. The bus stopped in a little town to pick up some more people. It looked like some kind of county fair was taking place, but none of the rides were active. There was cheesy dance music blaring loudly - so typical of Eastern Europe! Pat and Mary Asian Circus-Sideshow Freak in the Baltics Moment #9: Like in the Axe body spray commercials, we officially have our "Bow Chick a Wow Wow" back - people are checking us out like crazy still! We arrived in Liepaja - wow, a pretty run-down place. As we took the tram into the city centre, a local woman ... read more

Geo: 56.9465, 24.1048Off to the bus station - on the way, we stopped to pick up some more of those donuts, pastries, and an open-faced ham sandwich for the ride to Riga. I had some Estonian Kroons to blow, so it was spent on bottled water, chocolates, and cough drops (or throat drops, as Yvonne would say) for Mary. I wasn't feeling too great this morning - perhaps it's because I haven't had my usual morning cider yet. As Mary and I listened to my iPod, U2's classic "With or without you" came on. She asked me if I liked the song and I responded that no, I actually fill my iPod with songs that I hate so that I can constantly torture myself. Ahhh ... sarcasm ... the only thing in life that I am ... read more

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