Restless in Riga

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May 7, 2009
Bus: Eurolines, Tallinn, Estonia - Riga, Latvia
This was my last morning in Tallinn. Today I checked the online blog I've been following, this guy (http://www.leeabbamonte.com) is trying to be the youngest person to visit all 300+ Traveler's Century Club 'countries'. I noticed that his last post was from Riga, where I was headed! I sent him a note, then headed off to the bus station. The long-distance bus station is a few miles southeast of the old town... spent awhile walking down there. The Eurolines bus shows up, very nice with leather seats, and onboard wifi-internet and electrical outlets. I checked my mail again only to find Lee was already in Tallinn! But by then the bus was on the move so I just missed meeting him.

The bus ride to Riga was uneventful, about 4.5 hrs, arriving there at 5PM. Once there I had a 5 hr wait before my next bus to Kaliningrad. I had been to Riga several years previously but most of the film pictures I had taken had come out ruined. The weather was really nice out too compared with my last visit. Spent a few hours wandering around the old city without a map, just remembering landmarks from our previous trip. Saw the Freedom Memorial, Cathedral, Swiss Gate, Three Brothers medieval buildings, etc. Riga seemed more lively this time, maybe because it was a nice day out and good weather. I had heard of protests and problems lately with the economic troubles but I didn't witness anything in the short time that I was there. At one point I did hear alot of yelling and whistling.. came around the corner to find it was an outdoor cafe full of people watching a NHL hockey match! I guess one of the players must be Latvian as everyone was very excited. I changed a little money, just enough to get a coffee and sit awhile in a cafe uploading my photos to flickr and kill a few more hours before heading back to the bus station for the overnight bus to Kaliningrad.

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