Monday, January 28, 2008

Latvia

Riga
Janurary 23-25, 2008
Riga has many parks, which makes the city beautiful, even in winter!

Day 3

The bus ride continued. Backed up a little by traffic, but nevertheless arriving earlier than planned at Riga bus station at 14:00. As usually I didn’t know where the heck I was nor where my hostel was, and since I was alone, I paid for a Taxi. This time I was a little upset that I paid for a taxi. The hostel was really close to the train station, but it still would have been hard to find. I checked into the hostel, which was very quite. I had an entire 10 bed female dorm to myself. Anyway, I put my stuff down and then went back out to get some food. Guess where I ate? You guessed correctly McDonalds!!!! Cheap, quick and good! After that I just wondered around and arrived at an amazing Orthodox Cathedral. It was set on a wide space of green grass with trimmed hedges, many trees and benches to take in the scenery. I also stumbled across the opera house, which was as nicely landscaped at the Cathedral, but with a small creak running beside it. By this time it was almost dark, so I headed back toward the hostel. I sat by the river for a while before going inside to find warmth. Since it was still pretty early I took advantage of the “free” internet! I talked online for close to 7 hours!!! Some would say Lame, but I say it’s better than going to bed; which I eventually did around 1am.



Day 4
I slept in, waking at around 11:30. I dressed quickly, and headed out in search of some food. I decided on Fridays since it had been so long since I ate there. I had steak, potatoes and a smoothie, it was freakin’ delicious. Then I went to the opera house to see if I could get a ticket for that night’s performance. Unfortunately the lady said that it was all sold out, but they sell standing room seating only at one hour before the performance. After that I didn’t really get to enjoy Riga, it was snowing so hard that I could barely see my hand in front of my face. So I went to the movies to kill time. I saw Atonement, and Michael Clayton. Both movies were completely different, but good. After the movies it was time to go back to the Opera Theater and get a ticket. I paid $6 for the standing room ticket. Not bad. The opera was called Carmen, a story about Cuban prostitutes and the military. It was really good; the only thing that sucked was that I couldn’t see the translation boxes, so I didn’t really know what was going on! After the opera I walked back toward my hostel and stopped at the Double Coffee. A chain diner restaurant in the Baltic’s like Denny’s, but with European breakfast not American!!! It was really good and cheap. I ate and then went back to my hostel for bed.

Day 3

Of course when I woke, it was sunny and I had to be on a bus for about half the day! But there were storm clouds rolling in so I wasn’t that upset! For breakfast I ate at the Double Coffee my new favorite place. I had potato pancakes and ham, a little creasy but tasty!! After breakfast it was almost time to be at the bus station, so I went to the grocery store and stocked up on some food for the bus ride. I then walked among this out door market. I didn’t really find anything that great, although I was temped a couple of times to buy one of those Russian type hats, with the flaps!!! But nothing was that appealing. So I went to bus station. This bus was not nearly as nice as the one I took two days before, but I had a seat to my self which was nice. This trip was a lot longer for some reason than the other. Not sure why? But we eventually made it!


Riga was a 4. It's big, historical, modern and pretty. It has everything one needs and wants!

I I could actually live in Riga, its big and pretty, but it would be hard for me to adjust to the language.

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