Rigas Licis Hotel Jurmala

... a little passenger ferry to go from A to B, this was a freakin cruise ship!! I was on board the Silvn Festival from Riga to Stockholm. This thing had 9 floors, with everything you could want from a onboard supermarket, cinema, salon, disco, and live band. holy jeeves. I was in a female cabin with a Lithuanian gal named Elena, who was similar to myself (as in she was going to a conference in Stockholm, hers was on EU development). I stayed out on ...

... a lot of the beggars are Russians..Latvia operates a vicious citizenship program under which most Russians are not citizens of the country, which means they lack certain benefits I believe. This sounds cruel, and it is, but I understand why the Latvians do it- if someone had occupied my country for 50 years, Iäd want to make them pay as well. -Riga is nice, but its not the most beautiful city in the Baltic..youäll see why as you read on

... was nearly time to go home, but first we had to feed ourselves. Dinner We found a local place and I would love to know who was the person who changed the menu from Latvian to English. They had beauties like steamed green things, pok knuckles and the one that I went for, after celebration special. Raw fish and pickles. It was beeter than the cheese on toast that Lucy had, which we couldn't see the cheese !!! But the winner was ...

... the table leaving me at the bar with the bill. At that stage I thought that they had helped me and I just paid as a form of thank you. The three people working there were nice and genuine and tried to help me out by calling Lauris on the phone and trying to think of a cheap hotel. I told them I was staying in the hostel anyway I had already decided. When I got up to leave, the two that had been with me from the beginning followed me outside. The girl said to be in ...

... Space Garage. The docks area is a real bohemian hangout littered with art installations and is clearly on the brink of being bulldozed and turned into something modern and expensive. The Space Garage itself has very little space but looks convincingly like a garage. After a light night the previous night I only manage to stay till 2 dancing to Finnish Trance music. Leo and Dan apparently stayed till 5. Day 19 Another fairly laid back ...

... us off but all the same it was bloody scary. My heart was nearly jumping through my chest and i think i probably nearly **** myself. We were quick to get out of there...all this happened on a main street however it is not illegal to carry a concealed weapon on yourself so i wonder how often this happens. Crazy Country. We were meant to stay in Riga for 6 nights but instead cut our stay short and headed to a beach side town called Liepaja to chill for a couple of days.

... Society. THINGS THAT ARE CHEAPER IN LATVIA THAN AUSTRALIA, AND SIGNIFICANTLY CHEAPER THAN IRELAND Cigarettes. Local brands cost around $2. Not tempted, but I'm wondering what the tax on cigarettes is in Australia? Beer. Little bars sell .5 litres on tap for $2.40. Tempting. Train tickets. One hour to Sigulda cost $1.10. You could cross the counter and still get change from a $5 note. Russian Dolls. Jo has only bought one - that may change on our last day Sunday.

... ago, the interactions between the seller and the buyer with each different food you buy, the collection of plastic bags people aquire as they wander from one need to the next. It's just so full of life and character. People actually have to interact with each other to get what they want and there is no such thing as charging or paying by card. I can only hope that some countries can manage to maintain that way of life for us tourists to be able to experience ...

... been pressinig on my mind. Anyway, back to Riga, I'll worry about all that other **** in a few days. Riga and Tallinn are very similar and yet so very different. Historically they mirror each other, they both have there preserved "Old Towns", and have great night scenes. However, where Estonia is a poor mans Scandanavian country (I think they would even like that description), Latvia is a middle class Balic country. Riga is much bigger ...

... at least has a completely different pace to Estonia. There certainly isn't any shortage of backpackers here at least, sometimes it is nice to go to some quieter place and escape the chaos of backpacker life but at the same time it does tend to get pretty boring pretty quickly when there's no one else around so it should be a welcome change from the last few days. Anyway, I'd better get out there and explore as usual and I'll keep you all posted on how I go in this neck of the woods.