http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Latvia en-us Sat, 17 May 2008 15:02:58 BST Sat, 17 May 2008 15:02:58 BST We disembarked the MV Oceanic II The Scholar Ship on April 19. On April 21 it was renamed the Mona Lisa it's original name and chartered back into a cruise ship for the summer. And then the captain ran it into the ground.httpedition.cnn.com2008WORLDeurope0504latvia.cruise.aphttpit.youtube.comwatchvDhIROlJsjpE http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/blog-273086.html Those were some interesting days I tell you. First of all I was exploring Vilnius a bit further especially its cafes since it was raining for the next two or three days. Apart from that I visited the Museum of Genocide Victims also known as the KGB museum. It deals mostly with the KGB in Lithuania but also pays tribute to the armed resistance against Soviet occupation from 19451953. The hi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Liepaja/blog-269522.html When Latvians go to the sauna they keep their swimsuits on. I found this out the hard way when I was standing starknaked in the middle of the main room of the sauna with everyone else being dressed and staring at me as if I was the first guy they had seen without clothes in their entire life's. Well the people I had asked to find this place never mentioned that fact to me so... Altogether tho http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-268691.html Well here is a place I have wanted to go to for a long time and was really impressed by the city and its history. I went to a museum in Estonia on the occupation of the Baltic States but you didn't see as much there as you did in Riga the capital. As for the history of the area iswell I think this would tell it better then I could httpen.wikipedia.orgwikiHistoryofLatvia I know but its tr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-266322.html My dear reader... and my dear myself...I am writing this post during the reflection time in Kick off 2008 in Riga my first conference managing experience.I feel so weird... but I also feel proud. The reality was not even close to my expectations but I see that it still somehow became amazingJust 3 minutes ago 11 delegates and 6 facis were doing the counting game. And I was totally taken aback. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/blog-265742.html We arrived at the airport in Riga on Friday afternoon. Both Latvia and Estonia are 1hour ahead of Germany. As we taxied to our gate we saw an airport in need of some work. The runways needed paving the airport terminal itself was tiny and there appeared to be a Soviet plane graveyard in the middle of it all. Once inside the terminal we found an ATM to withdraw LATS the local currency. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-264251.html In the beginning of February i decided to participate as facilitator at Natcon 2008 Latvia Well it was a decision made in the last moment as usually and i ended up in a bus on My way to Riga again but this time with two persons i consider close to me and i like to work with Laura and Ieva from Vilnius. In four hours we were in Riga and few hours later we were somewhere on the seaside where http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Ventspils/blog-262060.html It was yesterday evening when I was considering my next year and how it will look like... and suddenly out of blue air I got this crazy idea of spending my summer somewhere abroad. As I have to start my master studies in September I have my time only till then. And as I am in AIESEC and are we kind of dealing with internships P ... hi hi... well You got my point... I want to go on an internship http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-257731.html Having booked our flights to Riga back in November our trip East seemed to come around incredibly quickly after our last jaunt to Krakow. The usual silly o'clock start that we have become so used to saw us arriving in Riga without any problems and a first for boys club a taxi driver from the airport that didn't want to either rip us off massively or try and kill us with his dodgy driving. Resul http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-256679.html Llegamos a la capital letona cuando ya ha anochecido y Riga nos recibe durmiente y glida. A la maana siguiente pequeos copos de nieve caen perezosamente y tras abrigarnos concienzuamente bajamos al Hall del Hotel donde nos espera Ieva de la oficina de turismo de Letonia . La ciudad ha recuperado su actividad habitual y cuando llegamos al Latvian Etnographic Open Air museum empieza a nev http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-253998.html 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. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-252657.html A great countryFlew into Riga the capital on the 9th August and stayed for a few days in a awsome hostel Fun Friendly Franks based in the Old Town of Riga. It was a small city but the buildings were so amazing with paved streets and a great laid back feel about the place. The hostel was up 2 flights of well worn wooden stairs and it was a great place to meet other travellers. Every night t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/blog-249276.html well well well well.i find myself sitting at riga airport like a giant lemon all tired out and wearing too many layers. see its dang cold outside but inside its el scorcho. very annoying. been another interesting day really yesterday was insane. maybe not as insane as a man holding a gun to his head on a tram but still latvia is mad. so yes recap.woke up early yesterday as arta had school s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-238288.html it's cooooooooold.well lots to put in here i guess has been an interesting couple of days. i'll do the right thing and start at the beginning makes the most sense really. ok a matter of life and death in latvian was wonderful not that i picked up a word of it but of course i pretty much know that film off by heart so it wasnt really a problem. i must have looked a little silly talking over t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Jurmala/blog-237985.html hello there return of all this i suppose. i will start by a little spiel about east midlands airport. what can i say about that place i'll put it joint top with rome ciampano in my list of lamest airports. now i havent been to skopje yet and from what perry mccoy tells me it sounds lacsidasical but for now the triad of notts derby and leicester join rome at the top of that unfortunate pile. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-237451.html Well here I am again my first post on the blog at the age of 24. What happened since my last posthellipmany 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.Letrsquos take them one by one and in order. First of all I had a pretty wild weekend for my bday combined with the ldquoboys and gi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-223177.html 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 nave and expecting pretty much all Scandinavian countries to be the same got a wee bit of a sh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-218252.html February 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 abouthellip.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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-210787.html Hello helloLatvia 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-209139.html Our whirlwind trip to Riga has come and gone. We arrived in Riga midafternoon 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-208289.html . http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/blog-207035.html 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 nietchronologische 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 geda http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-205685.html 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 potholed that you are highly likely to twist your ankle or just plain fall over while you have your eyes and n http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-205381.html Latvia the country that sings is the tourism tagline we saw on our 4 days here. But as Aussies in this 'country that sings' we found ourselves asking Well where the bloody hell is the song We should mention this blog has been banned in England... As a result Latvia can be a confusing place for Australians to visit. To help you navigate this tricky country we have assembled a list of FAQ http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/blog-204483.html Day 108 July 22 ESTONIA Tallinn LATVIA RigaAccommodation Friendly Fun Frankrsquos Backpackers HostelI woke up with a bit of a hangover this morning nothing brutal but enough to be annoying. I stuffed all my belongings into my bags grabbed some water and a quick bite to eat and caught a taxi out to the bus station with only 10 minutes to spare after having trouble getting out of bed e http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-200668.html Left for our bus at 7am not really wanting to be there after our last bus trip. But this journey was so much easier scenery not much different to Poland and time just flew by.Arrived in Riga at 11.30am it was cold and the wind was a howling. With jackets on we proceeded to find our hostel the alleged 5 minute trek turned into 30 minutes and with our heavy backpacks it was hard going.... Wind s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-199881.html Wersquove spent the last couple of weeks cycling the Baltic Sea Coast and stopping to relax on its beautiful white sand beaches in between Nida and Riga. Nida is on the Curonian spit a small strip of land covered in forest and sand dunes. This Unesco region is shared between Russian owned Kalingrad and Lithuania. From Nida you canrsquot walk more than a kilometre south over the dunes witho http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-198487.html We fiinally realised that we weren't going to get any sleep around ten. We got up and packed our bags. After paying for the hostel we went to the bus station and bought our ticket to Liepaja. They were approximately 9 for both of us. The journey to Liepaja was very slow because we got stuck behind the worlds longest military convoy. This was interesting for a while as It had about 30 vehicles in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Liepaja/blog-198370.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-198358.html