Riga

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From Vilnius to Riga I took a bus called Eurolines, this bus was a million times better than the last one, but a few dollars more. It was well worth it. On the bus I met a guy from the hostel I was staying at in Vilnius and he said he had to get out of that place it was so bad, so now I don't feel as bad for judging the place so quickly. When I arrived in Riga I went to my hostel Famous Franks, this place was so much fun but full of bachelor parties. I think there were 183 guys and 7 girls in this place. I really enjoyed the city, they have the largest market in Europe there. It is inside a building the Germans use to make blimps or aircraft in or something like that. Then the Russians made some war time equipment in it after as well. Now you can buy anything you ever wanted inside, as long as you know Russian (not the language in Latvia).

My time there started off rocky when I went out for dinner and had a bill of 15 LATS, I thought that was $7.50, turns out it was $30. Not exactly a cheap mistake. After that I decided I better go to the grocery to buy my food and while I was there my heart stopped when I saw that they indeed do sell Dr. Pepper here in Latvia. I had to control myself on how many I put in my bag, but I decided to go with one for every meal. You can see on it, the can has this "can you handle the taste" on it. Well the bad news is I couldn't. It tasted awful. I didn't finish one can that I bought, I tried to drink each and every one of them, but with no success. I mean if coke can get their formula right in every country I don't see why Dr. Pepper can't. They need to look into their Slovenia bottler, because something is horribly off. My bad grocery experience didn't stop there. I bought creamer instead of milk and so in the morning I tried to eat my cereal even with creamer on it, but I just couldn't. I had to throw it out. Then not to mention that I can't really cook anything so while I saved money it is hard to say I enjoyed it.

My time out at night was a good time, one night I went out with some guys I met who were watching England vs Australia in Cricket, it was the championship game and since they were all from England I guess they cared. They tried explaining it to me, but I figured this was probably the first and last game I would watch so I didn't really pay attention. When we went out at night they were there for a bachelor party and made the groom wear some ridiculous outfit and every bar we went into the people who were there before us finished their beer then left the place. So we didn't have much interaction with anyone else that night. The only people we talked with besides ourselves was this group of girls who tried to get us to go to this club Babylon. This club I was told before was black listed by the US State Department, the hostel told us not to go there, and I went on a walking tour and the guide stopped in front of the place and told us not to go there. So when the girls wanted us to go with them there, we turned and walked the other way. I guess the bar will charge foreigners $100 for a beer and then "make you pay" I don't really know how, but I figured it was best not to find out.

Overall it was a great time and I really enjoyed the city of Riga.

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