We arrived in Riga at 6ish. It was amazing to step off of the plane. The weather was perfect and the air smelled so sweet and fresh. I don’t know if I will ever forget stepping off of that plane. We got our bags from the baggage claim and saw we were one group of only five actually staying in Riga. Since all airBaltic flights go through Riga, there are a lot of connections at the tiny airport.
Last time I was here, the nice lady just stamped my passport and said “Welcome to Riga.” However, this time the man asked me a million questions and seemed reluctant to stamp my passport. We followed the hostel’s instructions and ran across the airport parking lot to take the #22 bus from the airport to the city center. We took the half-hour bus to the center and carried our bags down the road. We got lost in the underground crossing because nothing was marked and there were roughly 15 million exits. Again, in my broken Russian, I asked someone the directions to a place and found we were on the right street. As we got to the top of the stairs, my good buddy, Cormac, came up behind us and led us the rest of the way to the hostel.
The hostel was fantastic and reminded me of the hostels in Sarajevo and Mostar. Both had great vibes. Ieva, who is the young and hip hostel owner had opened up about a year ago. She had really done a great job. It was a large hostel but the layout made it seem small and personable. Very personable. For those of you coming this way, I highly recommend you stay at “Cinnamon Sally’s Backpacker’s hostel.” Anyway, we basically checked in, unpacked a bit, changed into some warmer clothes, and then headed to get some dinner.
Dad you will be proud. We went to the Latvian version of K&W. Basically it was cafeteria style Latvian food for a decent price. We ate there and went back to the hostel and just hung out with others there. Steve and Darrah were two recent graduates from Ireland just traveling around. Proved to be good boys. Always interesting talking to the Irish. Basically after that, we went to bed. The first time I fell asleep without the paranoia of bugs eating me in the night.
The next day we woke up and walked around to find some breakfast before our free walking tour starting at noon. We started out walking down a road and ran into a fax place. I needed to fax something to my advisor, so I printed my sheets out and tried faxing my papers. Faxing proved to be unfruitful. So we continued onward and found a place to eat a sandwich and then headed over to the meeting place.
We waited there for some time and then were met by our tourguide James. He is an English guy who saw lots of immigrants going to England and decided that if everyone was going west, he should go east. He has been here for six years and a couple years ago started these “free walking tours.” If you think the tour is good, you give him money. If not, then you don’t. It was really good though. It was two hours long and he took us to many of the sites there and then some. (I wish I could post pictures but my memory card messed up so I will have to just wait until I get back to the US to take care of all that). We saw little Moscow, some interesting art nouveau architecture, an interesting super modern village inside of Riga, old town, and some other places along the way. Really nice tour.
We then went to the occupation museum and witnessed what life was like under Soviet rule. Not very good from 1941-1991. Seeing these kinds of places really show the perseverance and the robustness of the human element because I just can’t imagine going through the things that the Latvians and others went through. Worst of all, not knowing an end date to all the suffering and torture. Hard to swallow sometimes.
After the museum, I went to the post office to buy some stamps and to try faxing my paper from there. It proved fruitful. I sent me postcards and then walked back to the old town to sit at an outdoor café. One of the cool things about being is here is that there are a lot of young people on the side of the road playing their instruments. Near the café were four ladies in their early 20’s playing as a string quartet. They played many of my favorite pieces.
We walked back to the hostel and on the way, went to the supermarket. We wanted to get some pasta and make white sauce to go with it. So we bought mushrooms, blue cheese, cream, red peppers, onions, garlic, and gnocchi. It turned out really well but I’m sure we also gained about 20 pounds by eating all that cheese and dairy…
It’s interesting the people you meet at hostels. I have yet to meet someone I didn’t want to talk to. The best hostels are not necessarily the ones that give you towels, or have many bathrooms, or have wireless internet, but they are the ones that are more conducive to small social gatherings. Cinnamon Sally did a great job of having a central room that you had to go through in order to leave. The kitchen was there too and to use the bathroom, you had to go through the central room, thus always creating an opportunity to start conversation.
While we were eating, there was a very interesting guy that came in. He was carrying a bike with no pack or anything. He came over and sat down for a moment. Lots of great energy and excitement. One of those people that would be able to make just about anyone feel better just by being around him. We asked him where he had been riding. We figured he just went out for a stroll. He is from Luxembourg originally from Spain. He left Luxembourg July 19th or so and just started biking through various countries. He had gone through France and the Netherlands, before heading into Norway, hitting the northern most city before going through Sweden and Finland and ending up in Latvia. He had traveled quite a bit on his bike.
We asked him where his stuff was and he asked “what stuff.” The stuff that you sleep in like a tent or a sleeping bag or something like that. And without even a second thought, he said “come on guys, I sleep under bridges and in random parks, sometimes just on the side of the road. To that I said “Jesus Christ”. His response with much excitement… “That’s my name, Jesus.” I believe it...
Now you may think that I am making this up but I have two others to vouch for this story. He was still in University and was a bouncer back in Luxembourg. Not a tall guy but a very built one. He kept telling us how badly out of shape he was. (Because those that ride 50 million miles on a bicycle and sleep in parks are really out of shape…). Anyway, he asked if we wanted to see pictures of him before he started his cycling. Everyone thought that he would be a huge overweight guy who just decided to start riding. We were not prepared for the pictures we saw. He was a bodybuilder and actually lost muscle mass by going on this cycling trip. Really unforgettable guy.
We also spent some time with Steve and Darrah. Two Irish lads from Dublin, Ireland. Really friendly guys who were just traveling after they finished University. They reminded me of Damien, the Irishman that I met and worked with in Korea. I just loved the way they spoke. Darrah looked and acted just like the guy from “Little Miss Sunshine;” the brother that never spoke until he had his mental breakdown. It was uncanny.
Ieva was the owner as I mentioned before and later on that night, I told her that I was making a documentary of our travels. She asked how I was doing it and I showed her my little iFlip. Somehow we decided that I would film her doing a “cribs” themed short about her hostel. So we walked around and she showed us her hostel and she uploaded it somewhere online so that future hostel-stayers could view it.
Daega was her assistant and a Heidi klum look-alike at the age of 21. She was really cool. There was another girl working there Ilze who was new. They all looked the same. It is weird. There were several questions asked such as “as you three sisters” or “do you have to be 6 feet, blonde, and gorgeous to be Latvian.” I didn’t ask these questions… but I was thinking them.
The following morning, we woke up and reheated our dinner from the previous night. We realized we might be late for the train so we hurried across the street. We started running when we saw the train for no apparent reason only to realize we were over 30 minutes early. That must have been a site. We met an Australian girl who was traveling for whatever reason and went to the castles in Siguda with her.
When we got there, we just walked around. Again, the air was so crisp and nice. Weather, couldn’t have been better. We saw different castles and a sandstone cave with inscriptions from the 1600s in it. It was just a nice day to walk around. We rode on the cable car and saw the gorge, walked to another castle, realized we would miss our train, took the public bus back, and ran again to the train, just in time to sit down before it left. A two hour trip turned into a 7 hour trip. It was great.
That night we went out with Daega. She took us to a karaoke bar with several of the other hostel people. The next morning we got up early and again, almost missed our bus to Tallinn. Cormac thought he knew the way to the bus station. We took a wrong turn. Time was cutting short. But, we made it, also with a couple minutes to spare. We need to stop doing that.
(Did I mention when we left Istanbul, we had been taking our time a bit too much and we heard the airline call for us to get to the plane?) We need to start getting our act together.
There is something about Latvia that is just so nice. The people are nice, friendly. The architecture is great. Lots to do. Quiet. I would recommend this place to anyone willing to go somewhere off the beaten path. The whole country, not just Riga, seems to be really great. I will certainly miss Latvia and will surely go back.
(Did I mention that I would love to post pictures, but my memory card messed up?)
Until next time…
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