The travels of Tim and Megan: Riga, Latvia

Friday

So we arrived in Riga at about 10.30pm on Friday night. We ended up catching a taxi with a taxi driver who looked like he should be on America's Most Wanted List for having chopped up people in his freezer, but to his credit, he took us to our destination without killing us and he charged us a fair price. We pretty much crashed straight away, especially since we had to climb 5 flights of stairs with heavy packs on our backs to reach KB Bed & Breakfast.

Saturday

On Saturday morning (10 September) we had a bit of a sleep in before breakfast at the B&B, which was pretty standard. Then we walked into the old town, yes, another old town. It was a lovely sunny morning but a little chilly in the wind.

Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of northern Europe, the meat in the Baltic sandwich if you like, bordered by Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south, as well as by Russia to the east, Belarus to the south-east and by a patch of coast on the Baltic Sea to the west. The official language is Latvian (we don't know this one either). The population of Latvia is about 2.2 million. Riga is the largest and capital city, with just over 700,000 people, making it the largest city of the Baltic states.

With the help of a guide brochure, we showed ourselves around the old town, wandering the medieval streets, checking out the beautiful buildings and statues and visiting the main squares, which were all packed with cafes and bars with plenty of outdoor seating. There were also a lot of market stalls selling various nik-naks. Our favourite square was the Town Hall (Ratslaukums in Latvian) Square, home to the rebuilt Town Hall (obviously), the beautiful House of Blackheads and the Museum of Occupations, watched over by the central statue of St Roland (Riga's patron saint).

The House of Blackheads was originally built in 1344 and owned by a merchant guild. It was destroyed during WWII and buried by the Soviets, but rebuilt in the late 1990s. It is now home to a museum and concert hall. We decided to visit this on the Monday and instead we caught the elevator to the viewing platform at the top of the 70m-high spire of St Peter's church. The church interior was pretty plain, but the wait for the elevator ride to the top of the spire was definitely worthwhile - the views of the old town were amazing.

We grabbed some lunch and then met up with the London crew who had arrived on the midday flight from London to spend the weekend with us in Riga. Kristen, Daggy, Alex, Andrew, Kate and Jono had just started their lunch when we found them, so we joined them for a drink and then wandered the old town in the sunshine. There were plenty of buskers in the streets, including our favourite old lady in a red jersey, who was "dancing" to some delightful pre-war tune (see below). Now that is good quality busking. The was also a guy dressed up as a slice of pizza, who Andrew punched in the crust - but he didn't feel a thing. Good solid crust!

Riga is renowned for its art nouveau architecture and a few of the girls were eager to check it out. So we went on an art nouveau walk, through one of the quiet suburbs of the city. After the walk, we had a couple of drinks at a slightly strange sailor-themed bar, where our bill was presented to us in the skull of a crocodile!

As we were walking through town to find somewhere for dinner, we stumbled across an archery course, so we all had a crack at that, largely without success. We are blaming the alcohol! Then we found a great little restaurant tucked away in a square behind St Peter's church, just along from a "Musicians of Bremen" statue (random). We had a few drinks and a great dinner there, before checking out the Kiwi Bar across the square. New Zealanders with valid ID get their first drink free. Bonus. We watched the tail-end of a classic tennis match (US Open semi-final between Federer and Djokovic), which Djokovic won after Federer blew two match points.

A few more bars and a few more drinks followed before it was just Tim and Jono left, talking to some Brazilian cage fighter at 4am. Jono could easily have taken him. We told him this. He laughed.

Sunday

We were pretty slow getting going on Sunday morning. Some felt worse than others, but generally everyone felt rubbish. Andrew had brought balloons and a birthday cake all the way from London for Megan's belated birthday, to show what a kind, caring guy he really is. So breakfast consisted of chocolate cake and various other snacks that we managed to pick up on our way down to the old town.

We joined a midday walking tour, which started out badly. The guy taking the tour was very...shall we say...eccentric (read "weird") and did his best to be offensive too, but he was only the second weirdest guy in the tour group. The medal went to a Riga local who decided to join the walking tour of his home town and wave to confused strangers as we went. As it turned out, the walking tour was not of the old town at all, but rather outside the town centre, in some of the so-called "dangerous" spots of the city. The tour lasted three hours and we visited the huge market next to the bus station, which stunk of fish, a quirky little art gallery, a massive Soviet-era building nick-named "Stalin's birthday cake", a church constructed entirely of wood (this was actually pretty cool), the train station, a developed area full of eateries and modern bars, a park and a sprinkling of art nouveau. The tour guide got better as the tour progressed and it was actually pretty good in the end.

Once the tour concluded, we took 75 years to decide where we should have lunch. Eventually we settled on a place in the main square, where the waiters wore white gloves, as if they might break into a mime at any moment. It was a really hot and sunny afternoon - we soaked it up while we could, as we were off to Russia next, while the rest of the crew was heading back to dreary old London town.

A bit more walking in the sunshine, a cheeky afternoon beer and then an early dinner for the Londonites. There was a fair bit of anger floating around the dinner table, as Jono expressed his dislike for a certain red taxi that was ruining his view of an otherwise pretty square and the Gunn went off about how the Americans arrange their dates in the month before day format (as in 9/11) - those scoundrels! Poor old Captain Daggs struck out swinging with a disappointing "little girl's basket" that consisted of cheeses, pickles and similar, while Andrew hit a home run with BBQ chicken wings and a man burger. Andrew just about fell off his chair laughing. The Germans actually have a specific word which means "laughing at another's misfortune", so we all had a go at putting that into action. Much hilarity.

It was really fun to see everyone again and we had an awesome weekend. We will really miss them when we leave London for the final time. After seeing off the others, we were once again lonely in Eastern Europe. In truth, we were completely shattered. We grabbed some dinner of our own and crashed pretty early.

Monday

Monday was a much-needed admin day. We had a big sleep in and grabbed a delicious breakfast at a cafe down the road from our B&B. We then had plenty of washing to do at the laundromat, plenty of internet to do and some general planning for our tour of Russia, which started bright and early Tuesday morning! As it turned out the good weather of the previous days deserted us and was replaced with cloud and drizzle. So it was a good day for admin.

We looked for a Russia travel guide (in English) but could not find one. They had about 50 other countries' travel guides in English, but not Russia. Booooo. We wrote some postcards over lunch and then wandered into the old town to try to visit the House of Blackheads, but alas it was closed. The woman dressed in a ridiculous outfit from the Middle Ages took great delight in telling us that it was always closed on Mondays and that there was now no way we would be able to see it. Bitch.

We did, however, visit the "Three Brothers" houses on a narrow street not far from the Town Hall Square. The Three Brothers are the oldest stone buildings still standing in Riga, and an excellent example of medieval architecture. They were built from the 15th century (white brother) to the middle of the 18th century (yellow brother).

It was starting to rain a bit heavier, so we left the old town and returned to our B&B area, where we had an awesome dinner at a place called Iguana. Tim had pork fillet and fries, Megs had chicken noodle stir fry and we shared chocolate cake for dessert. We played a few pokies at a mini-casino after dinner. We broke even and headed to the hotel to pack up and get ready for Russia!