We have been traveling a lot lately. So far in December we have been to six different countries. Its been pretty exhausting- too be honest, I think between 3-5 nights in one place is about ideal. We have been jumping from hostel to hotel and even switching rooms daily when we do stay at hotels for promotions. We seem to always be running around and it feels like we have not even had enough time to breathe, let along catch up on blog posts. However, it has been an educational and scenic few weeks. I knew absolutely nothing about the Baltic Countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) before we visited them. Turns out, they are pretty amazing. It has been an eye opening experience for sure.
We stayed in the old town of Riga, Latvia. The old town is much bigger than the old town in Tallinn, and instead of one central square there are several, smaller plazas pimped out in their Christmas best, full of small shops, Christmas trees and mulled wine. One of these markets is home to what are probably the best recycling bins of all time. I am oh so grateful for digital cameras because I took a ton of pictures of these silly recycling bins- something I would have never dared to do with a film camera- and I am so glad I did, because I absolutely loved them (I have gone on and on about them for some time. I am sure you get the picture).
Riga’s old town is also so much colder than Tallinn’s. Riga is located right off the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea. There is also a large river, Daugava, that runs through the city. Between the river and the gulf, the wind is absolutely brutal, it takes your breath away and chills you down to the bones. So even though the temperatures hovered right around freezing the whole time we were in Riga, we were freezing! We made a comment to the guy who checked us into our hostel and he just shrugged and said “this is not so bad, wait until January or February.” Oh, that brings me to the story of our hostel. Without a doubt, it was the worst place we have stayed yet. We had a private room. It was an empty room, except for some foam pads sitting on the floor (they were quite thick and ended up being very comfortable). Our blinds only covered about 1/3 of the window which presented a bit of a problem when the people in the hotel across the street opened their window to smoke (which was a lot!) and had a clear view of our room. Then there was this weird door in our room, it looked like a giant safe door and upon further investigation (we opened the door) we found that it was an old walk in safe which still had a bunch of random junk in it, no treasure or anything good though, we looked. It was very strange. Although, the location was perfect and the price was pretty good too (about $20 a night, plus they had laundry services! yippee!).
Our first night there we met up with another traveler we had met in Tallinn, Jason and Victor, a guy from Singapore studying in England who was staying in the same hostel as Jason. They had been on the walking tour earlier that day and knew of a few good places to get some dinner. We grabbed a pizza (yay for pizza! It is usually the cheapest option in just about every country!) and chatted with them for a while. Afterwards, we joined them at a traditional Latvian pub. Not quite as unique as the pub under the town hall in Tallinn, it was still a very cool pub. Located underground it had a fireplace and candles dripping with years of wax throwing flickering, mysterious lights along the walls. It was also quite large, there was a small room with books lining the walls and large comfy chairs, and there was a large central room with a stage and a dance floor. Not only was there live music, but there was also dancing! After watching in amazement as the group seemed to know every song and danced these intricately choreographed dances in perfect rhythm, we concluded that it was a local dance club. It was a blast to watch as they whirled and twirled each other around.
The next day dawned just like so many of the days before them- cold and cloudy. We had sent our laundry out the night before and got it back first thing that morning, the only problem was it was still a little damp. The bigger problem was that we had sent out our warm pants, which were still damp as we got dressed to go on the walking tour. So, we wore our thin, not at all wind proof hiking pants out onto the cold, windy streets of Riga. It was definitely the coldest walking tour we have been on. Our guide was dressed more appropriately in snow pants and a huge coat.
Our guide appropriately dressed and singing us a Latvian rock song
Us not appropriately dressed and freezing but still smiling!
I was excited to learn that Riga was founded by a German from Bremen, and they are still sister cities. There was even a sculpture of the Bremen Town Musicians peeking through a window, which our guide mentioned was an allegory for looking through the iron curtain. I had no idea!
The tour was pretty good, but I must confess that I didn’t pay as much attention as usual as I was busy trying to keep warm in my inappropriate attire. The old city is picturesque, decorated for Christmas and all lit up.
There was at one point a wall and gate surrounding the city, first one wall but as the city grew, a second wall went up out a little further. Not much remains of the wall now, a powder tower and one gate known as the Swedish gate. At one point, the Swedish had control of the city and when the Russians forcefully took over the city, because they had such great respect for the Swedish, they allowed the soldiers to walk out that gate.
After the tour we returned the pub we had been to the night before (actually, it was totally an accident, our guide recommended it for lunch. We had not paid attention to the name of the place we had been the night before and were a little surprised when we followed the directions our guide provided and we ended up at the same pub!). The pub featured a lunch special of traditional Latvian food for 4.60 euro, which included a bean soup, a chicken cutlet, a beet salad with pickles (why? Why take a delicious food like beets and ruin it with pickles?), what I think were mashed split peas and juice. It was a tasty and filling meal all at a very affordable price- exactly what we were looking for!
A few more pics of Riga:
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