Blogs from Riga, Riga Region, Latvia, Europe - page 8

I wasn't supposed to spend just 34 hours in Riga. But a temporary and ultimately infuriating memory lapse forced my hand. I had bought tickets to see Beirut months ago and I've been waiting to see them live for years. "Remember not to book anything on the 16th, Derek", I told myself. "Don't do anything on the 16th!" I told my friend Alastair, who would accompany me to the gig. So when Davies and I were deciding when we should go to Riga, I suggested the 9th. "That will be the weekend after we get back from Slovenia - why don't we do the morning of the 16th?" he replied. "Hmmm....", I thought. "What do I have on the 16th? Don't think I have anything...yeah should be OK." Flights booked - done. It was only the ... read more

An diesem Tag habe ich mir Riga angesehen. Die Altstadt ist weitgehend schln restauriert und ich bin auch auf einen Aussichtsturm hinauf gefahren. Die ehemaligen Wallanlagen sind heute schlne Parks. Ich war auch noch in zwei Cafés.... read more

The beginning of my journey wasn't easy at all. Once I got to the city with a friend of mine, the hostel which was waiting for us was HORRIBLE. I've been traveling quite a lot and I've seen several places but I've never seen such a creepy hostel. It was at the very top of a building (without lift, but later on we discovered that here in Riga people don't really love lifts). Once we got into bedroom we just had a glance to the beds and to the sheets on the bed. They were totally black. Luckily we weren't alone, there was a latvian girl with us who decided to bring us to her home at least for the night. The day after I had to fill in a lots of papers for my Erasmus ... read more

Dupa inca 300 km de drum prost polac , si dupa travesarea rapida a Lituaniei , am ajuns in Letonia, la Riga. Cazarea destul de ok, la approx 1.5 km de centrul vechi. O prima "ciudatenie" - cursul valutar. Moneda locala - lat-ul, fiind mai puternica decat euro (1 eur = 0.7 lat). Prima cladire inalta care ne-a iesit in drum, chiar la intrarea in centrul orasului a fost Monumentul Libertatii , dar din pacate nu ne-am putut urca in varf , fiind doar o statuie foarte inalta, oarecum tipic comunista. Centrul vechi insa, bine ingrijit, cu cladiri renovate si frumoase, dar cu destul de putina agitatie. Putin turisti, raspanditi sporadic intre cele cateva obiective de interes: Swedish Gate, Cat House si Three Broders. Orasul vechi este locuibil si functional. Ne-am gasit si punctul inalt pentru ... read more

We travelled to Latvia via Lux Bus and it was luxury in terms of space when you consider the room on the Easyjet flight. The bus driver was rather tense and stressed, felt like he was about 10 coffees in before our departure time of 8.30am. The funniest part of the journey was when the drivers changed and the new guy had clearly never driven the automated bus before and managed to stall twice leaving the car park. He persisted but it was a long drive in as the bus bunny hopped and stalled about 4 times on the long straight road into Riga, hilarious. When we crossed into Latvia boarder control staff did jump on the bus and do a check of passports even though it was EU to EU. We did notice the difference ... read more