Maritim Parkhotel Riga

... snot from dripping down my face because
I definitely wasn't going to breath!! It seems that the Latvians have
figured out how to sell more animal body parts than I thought existed.

The
cheese room was equally amusing. Thorstein had told me to go to see the
"circular" women selling and eating their cheese. They had observed
that the sellers often exuded attributes of what they were selling. It
was quite the sight, these older,short, round women standing behind ...

... out in to the forest and to see what the lake had to offer. Our journey was short-lived when we realised the entire lake was saturated with wealth and all lake front properties had own their own private jetty and boat (ferocious guard dog or two included!) which were impassable to us. Luckily the hotel had its own private lake frontage and terrace bar.

Next stop... Vlilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

... how they walk in those pencil thin stilettos over the slippery cobblestones!) - Tall, slim, gorgeous blondes, one after another down the street. A big tip for any single guys.......the place has 20,000 more women than men..........do we need to spell it out any more??? We arrived ready for a big night out.........and it didn't disappoint. We'd heard that this was a haven for loutish, rowdy British stag/ bucks weekends, but we hardly saw any - maybe ...

... We were pretty knackered in Riga so slept in the park like tramps, drank coffee, ate some seriously bad food in a weird cafe then headed to the bus station ready for our journey to St. Petersburg. Not much to report about Riga apart from they have good cherries in the huge market and look out for cats on roof tops.

... they are from, it's hilarious. With almost as many Irish people living in Canada as there are in America the Canadians have a great affiliation with the Irish and the craic is usually quite good. There is actually a town in New Foundland on the east cost of Canada where everyone speaks with an Irish accent. What's strange about it is that they are all second and third generation Irish so it seems that the accent is being passed down through the generations. Harley was staying ...

... where it was 21 Euros a night for a dorm room... Plus in our $16 we get infinite free internet and free breakfast every morning, complete with juice, bread, cereal and tons of spreads! I'm in heaven! They also offer free coffee and tea throughout the day for their guests! It's very cozy and the living room has English magazines...I could move in here and be quite content! The hostels seem to be getting progressively better...hopefully this trend continues! Cheers Ali

We made the reverse journey from the Hostel back to the bus station, but this time taking a little known shortcut down a dirt track road with no street name! Again the sun was belting down and we were getting pretty hot with our packs on, we a quick rest here and there was needed. That said we arrived at the bus station with plenty of time. I tried to work out where we bought bus tickets from as there wasn't anywhere obvious, however it turns out that it was a small unsigned window inside ...

so finally i made it! after waking up (late) getting to the old port and hopping on a 2 hour ferry back tot tallinn and then a 5 hour bus ride to riga! the hostel is brilliantly located 5 mins from bus station and woo hoo efrat is there so we can start the weekend with a tipple or two!

... platform, only about half way up, we could see out over the whole city, including the not-very-imposing, utterly rebuilt castle that housed three museums and the president. We carried on to see the House of the Blackheads, which was the guildhall for bachelor merchants, and was dated at the top 1344/2001. This was because it was built in 1344, destroyed in WW II, completely eliminated by the Soviets because it was 'decadent' German architecture, and rebuilt from scratch for the ...