ARTURS IRBE, SANDIS OZOLINSH, RAITIS IVANANS, SERGEI ZHOLTOK, KARLIS SKRATINS!

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Last night in Riga and we figured that we'd definitely have to add a new entry before we catch the bus to Poland tonight. After the worlds craziest ferry trip, we managed to arrive safely in Riga and after a much needed nap, caught a few of the sites that Riga's old town has to offer. Basically alot of parks, Orthodox Churches, and bridges that have locks all over them (cool little Latvian marriage tradition). Friday night was spent out with some people in our hostel, 3 aussies, one austrian, and one spaniard, all really cool people. We even managed to meet some of the locals, impressing them with our knowledge of Latvian hockey players (did you even know that hockey was the number one sport in Latvia? Neither did we), so much to the point that we had offers to 'come and chaaave sooop and daaamplings with them', but unfortunately we had to turn down the offers.

Saturday was an experience we wont forget for a while, opting out of Riga, we went on a 'canoe' trip down the Gauja River in Latvia's national park, with our tour leader Carles an American Latvian, Anna the Austrian, and an Aussie couple. After an hour on a Latvian train that we cant imagine went faster than 30, we stocked up on beer and Moldovan brandy and got ready for a day spent drifting downriver in the 25 degree heat. Boy were we wrong. After 10 minutes down the river we headed into a monsoon. After about twenty straight minutes of heavy heavy rain we realised that the only way we'd stay warm was to drink our beers quicker and jump in the river, which got us alot of looks from passing Latvians. Luckily however the sun made its way back into the picture just in time for us to challenge for the record of beer drank while on the drift, which we can happily say today, with sore heads that we beat. Last night was a bit more relaxed as we played pool with people in the hostel and got into arguments with some Quebecois girls about hockey.

Today, Riga is a completely different city. Little did we know that here in Latvia once every five years they have a national culture party, or song and dance party, where choirs, schools, dance groups and pretty much every Latvian comes to drink, dance, sing and be proud of being Latvian. After watching the parades of people dressed in Latvian clothes and singing their songs we made our way to the old Soviet statue that the locals call the Rapist statue, dont worry pictures will follow. Wow wrote a novel, next stop POLSKA!

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