Riga

Even if we didn’t found the address on the GPS it was really easy to find our way but suddenly we arrived to what looked like an abandoned house over the road. A bit confused at the beginning we soon realized that this was an old toll house from the old times and then we were in Latvia. The road conditions went from really good to really bad just as we crossed the border and you can really see that this is a much poorer country.

Riga is the biggest city we been to so far on this trip and you really see and feel it, a completely different atmosphere, people are more stressed, always people on the streets and its more expensive here, not Sweden expensive but still. We arrived pretty early so after an quick shower we headed out and and once we started with 1.5l Sangria as a pre-drink, I think we all know where it ended. Later we moved on to a sky bar and took a bottle of wine while having a blasting view over the city. While the sun was setting we headed into the night life of Riga.

Well, the nightlife here sucks, we had some weird russian drinks, we went to a club with really lousy gogo-dancers (good looking but they couldn’t dance) and everybody we ask just keep telling us “You should go to Palanga”

A bit tired after all partying and clubbing we spent this day in relax mode. A cup of coffee here, some water there, attempted to do shopping but only found trash but we did find a really cool market hall. Former a place for zeppelins was rebuilt to a huge indoor market where you could find anything you wanted, from vegetables and fruit to meat and fish. It was packed with people but you never were really afraid of pickpockets and except that mix a hangover with the stench of fish it was awesome. However the language is a problem, its not any problem at the hotel or at the restaurants but as soon as you start to talk to people you realize which low level of English they have and on the market where most of the people were older, English was non existent. I don’t think its an bad idea to learn a few phrases or at least words in Russian or Latvian before next trip here.

Just a few pictures from today, the last pictures are our hotel. As you can see it feels kind a harsh and you can really tell that its a poor country but the streets are so clean, no garbage on the street and not a lot of graffiti on the walls and the contrast are huge between the newly built and the old.