Europa City Riga

... pretty
unexciting. It was this massive "pick your own" weighted plate deal.
All labels were in Latvian and we had no idea what we were eating, they
have some strange looking food. (so do we I guess.. Cheetos?) One of
their staples is a traditional black bread which I tried, turned out to
taste like mild rye. :( I did in fact have some excellent cheese
though. I put a little bit of everything questionable
(non-meat-looking) on my plate and it was.. ok. I can't ...

I'd never been so nervous crossing a border....

The Route:
Place: Riga
Depart: Riga 6pm, Wednesday Sept 9th
Arrive: Moscow 12pm, Thursday Sept 10th
.

****, forgot to buy the earplugs and eyemask in Riga. And, I'm now on the unofficial start to the trans Siberian, the train from Riga to Latvia.

So I was expecting anything here. I bought a sleeper ticket for the overnight train that leaves Riga at 6pm and gets ...

... noticed people giving money to a driver, so like ths stop before I was suppose to get off, i give the driver the money. I got off and had breakfast with a CS and then went to the museam of the Oppupation. It only opens at 11am and it was only 10am so i went to Double Coffee and went on the internet...I met up with my friend Lily at the Museam. She is Russian and the museam is about the Russians occupying Latvia. So she was taught something different. It was good ...

... in we met in the foyer for a quick walking tour of the old down. Riga's old town is amazing; it is benefiting from the influx of foreign capital through its EU membership, as well as tourist from the UK (Riga features on the list of favoured buck's night party destinations). With all the destruction which came to the town due to Soviet, then German, then Soviet occupation, the people have done an amazing job of rebuilding the town ...

... but that was only 17 years ago. Gosh the people in this part of the world have suffered. David is keen to see the Museum of Occupation - which we have walked past a couple of times today. But I thought we were too tired today to do it justice. That will probably be first thing this morning. It's ironic - I'd just been saying to David that I didn't necessarily know where everything was (David is doing a marvellous job of guiding us, and sometimes I'm just tagging ...

... historic town (without harming the character)... People definitely dress much better here than they do back home... Almost all young women wear high-heels even though I am sure they are not the most comfortable things to wear on cobblestone... On the second day in Riga we took an hour-long tour by bus around the city and then took a commuter-train to Jurmala along the coast... Jurmala was ...

... through the Soviets), St. Peter's Church, St. Jacob's Church, and the Freedom Monument. Our flight leaves Wednesday morning and we should be in the states by early Wednesday night.

Riga (population 800K), the capital of Latvia, is 5 hours from Tallinn by bus. It is very similar to Tallinn in that it also has an old town, with cobbled streets, which is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List. But, it doesn't have the wall any more (except for a small section). And there is not just old buildings in the old town - there are modern buildings right in the middle of it. Just like Tallinn, it has lots ...

... ni nada por el estilo, pero me dio una sensacion rara, y me fui lo mas rapido que pude, ufffff me dan escalofrios de solo recordar la situacion.(eso es el lado mas desagradable de europa, brrrr(escalofrios), no me quiero ni acordar de Paris, menos mal que voy con Jessica) El resto del dia lo pase viendo iglesias, aqui parecen un poco musulmanes, las mujeres deben cubrirce la cabeza al entrar en ellas(ortodoxos de alguna rama, no se cual), son muy ...

... of beers decide that a hostel is a good idea...after some smooth talking to the extremely easy-on-the-eyes waitress, we find out that there is an australian run hostel just 70 metres around the corner in old-town Riga (another UNESCO world heritage listed site). Hostel Argonaut...extremely friendly welcome and check-in, and we are informed that we are extremely lucky to be in town today and not tomorrow...as today is Latvia's independance day and tomorrow (why, nobody knows but ...