Bura Liepaja

... one other table in use on this Monday night. I start with an Asian chicken salad then what is said to be lamb chops but turns out to be delicious lamb stew. Lastly, chocolate soufflé. Portions, though, are small. Cost is $22. I also try to the Latvian liquor, Riga Black Balsam. It is very strong, black and tastes a little like cough medicine. It is supposed to have medicinal qualities which would be nice if ...

... bed up. Needless to say we were a little slow the next day and in fact stayed in bed until 12pm drinking cups of tea and reading books! We did pass a fleeting thought back to those at home and wondered what they were doing on this fine Tuesday morning. We dragged ourselves out of bed finally and meandered our way down to the markets where we ate anything in sight (which included 2 cakes and ...

... she told me "just for fun" cause that part of history, he has to know. Undërstand if you want to, i'm still wonderring.... Anyway!, that was the most amazing experience ever! And here now i'm just coming back to normal life......some people will get it :) For the beggining of my trip, it was in Riga, and i had the chance to meet Liga, the girl who host me for 3 nights. We didn't had too much time to talk , cause she was working early in the morning and so she had to ...

... etc. Not everybody treats us like complete freaks! We got off the tram and continued walking to the hostel - the city centre is fairly nice, but it gets pretty run down as you head towards the beach. There are many abandoned and burned out houses. The hostel was pretty scary looking from the outside - until you go inside. Brand new and renovated. Until ... they took us to our room in another building ...

... contrast with the Grey breeze block like flats that surround it. Finding the whole place a little grim I plump for a 4 km walk to an imperial fort to the north rather than the main attraction of the area a reconstructed soviet prison complete with actors playing guards. Apparently for more than it costs to stay at my hostel you can dress up in prison uniform, be insulted and spend a night in a bare cell, an experience for sure but fun or desirable ...

Our short stay in Liepaja just wasn't long enough. Our hostel was about 2 blocks away from the beach and it bloody rained. That didn't stop us from going to the beach though. We went out one night with some people from the hostel, but mainly just chilled out playing air hockey, wathing DVD's and drinking.

... and a TV in the room were good freebies and at least I ended up with a dorm room to myself, so was able to catch up with the news a little. Liepaja is a bit of an ugly, soviet industrial port city, with very little to recommend it. Even the town beach wasn't anything special, especially having just come from Neringa. However, the northern beaches near Karosta, a former soviet naval base, were ...

... journey. We all had our passports to hand this time so no scrambling around in the hold. The man this time looked much less threatening and a quick passport check was all that was needed before we headed onwards. The country side during the journey was very forest oriented, miles and miles of trees. The roads were very straight with very few corners and on the Latvian side the road was fairly bumpy and not well looked after, I guess that ...

... nsch' mir, ich müsst' nicht fort Frieden und Liebe vereint hier sind Gedanken im Winde blau treiben alle Sorgen verfliegen geschwind Auf Reisen nun wieder ich geh' Lieber würd' hier ich bleiben Bald wieder an diesem Platz ich steh' Habt Dank, ihr Leut, für eure Freundschaft zum Gast Im Herzen mein, mach' immer hier ich Rast we went to the city of ...

... way. He will refuse to give you a reply for half an hour. He will just tell you that it is the rule. The streets are really dirty in winter. Capot everywhere. One day the snow is melting. The next day new snow flakes are falling from the skies. Beautiful snow. I love the snow here. I love it, because when it snows it means that it is not so cold today. My head has gone crazy during the last days. Maybe I shouldn't have ...