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Published: August 22nd 2012
Riga was a place denied to us in December 2010 when due to the snow fall in London Heathrow Airport went to shut down and we spent two nights sleeping in the airport and another week in Slough waiting for a flight. We vowed to see it next time we were in the area! Arriving in a city with high expectations is always a little dangerous as you are nearly always disappointed, like we were in Riga. In fact I think it is better to arrive without expectation and be surprised.
We spent the first day walking around the old town area which to be honest was a little underwhelming (the overcast weather didn't help). We did have high expectations, but it came across extremely touristy (somewhat expected), restored to the point of looking shiny and new (something we are worried is currently happening to Georgia) and having an overall staged vibe.
There were some beautiful buildings but they seemed to be restored in an untasteful fashion losing what charm it may have had in the process, so we took much more interest in the communist built buildings on the outskirts. Later in the evening we ate at a
nice Latvian restaurant, tasted the local beers and watched some locals performing traditional music and dance, overall not a bad evening.
We returned to our 14 bed dorm to find we were the only people left, this continued for our three night stay which was nice to have some space. The next day we decided to leave old town and head down to the farmers markets which are located in old hangers, it was a really cool setting with indoor and outdoor food and clothing markets. We purchased some fresh fruit and tried some Kvass which was the drink people in Lithuania drunk during communist times instead of coke (made from rye bread); we both agreed it was pretty bad.
After the market we went on the communist walking tour of the city, which took us around the old town and other areas of the city that hold significance from the times of the soviet occupation of the country. As always it was interesting to get the view of a local on such events as well as hear the stories of how life was lived during those times in a former soviet republic. After the tour we spent
about an hour and a half in the soviet occupation of Latvia museum which was excellent.
After a huge day of walking we decided to go to the cinemas for the first time since leaving Australia (we don’t include our session in Tbilisi in the old lecture theatre) and watched the new batman film. We tend not to try and do things we can do back home but it was nice to just relax in a cinema which is something we love to do back home.
The next day we walked around some different areas of the city which was uneventful. That night however we went to the ballet of Sleeping Beauty at the beautiful National Opera House for $8 and had a great night. Our hostel is quite close to the bus station so we will rise early tomorrow morning to catch our bus to Vilnius.
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colvinyeates
penny and gary
The ballet
We will be in Riga in about a week and the ballet sounds fun but what are the dress codes. Will a couple of scruffy middle aged Aussies be let through the front door?