Tia Hotel Riga

... be different than
Scandinavia/Europe proper, but not that different. I was
completely wrong in the best of ways! I felt like I was transported back in time or
something, it very much reminded me of the open air markets in Sucre,
Bolivia. There was a huge room solely dedicated to the selling of
meats. I hate to sound anti-meat but I could not inhale through my nose
when I was in there because of the smell. It was so cold outside that I
had to use my glove to stop ...

... little town and it was really nice to see
something different to Riga. It had a few castle ruins and this little
park with walking sticks. There wasn't too much there but was nice for
a day. In the evening we met up with Linda, another girl from our tour
and she is also doing the same trans-siberian tour as me. We hung out
and again went out for a few drinks but didn't get home too late and
then i set out for Tartu the next day.

... sight to see. Unfortunately I left my camera in the room as I just planned to get food and go back. But the streets are busy with people at night and I wanted to soak up the atmosphere. I got back a couple hours later. It wasn't even 7pm yet! So I uploaded more photos for you all to enjoy. You can go back through my previous entries to see them. Yesterday sucked. I set my alarm for 5am and got up, got dressed, and headed for the airport. It was only when I was ...

... then he "protected" me coming down. I dread what my knees will be like tomorrow! After the church - would you believe it, yet another St John's Church - I guesss that is all those Teutonic Knights - we went to find something for lunch. No English menus, but we found a cafeteria, which meant we could point to things. David had a sort of meatball, some cold chips (like French Fries - meant to be hot) & he agreed to an unknown vegetable thing that turned out to be choko, with ...

... below emulating the heartbeat of all the people, Jewish or not, who were held and killed in this camp. There were also giant statues showing the different ways this camp was used. The worst of these being a woman trying to hold onto her children. In this camp there was a children's barracks. When the distraught parent's saw men in white coats they thought that it meant their children were being taken care of. In fact, what was happening was that these ...

... marssille. Parhaiten kasityksen marssista saa katsomalla videon seuraavasta osoitteesta: http://blog.amnesty.org/rigapride/ Oli shokeeraavaa nahda marssin vastustajien maara ja se miten paljon vaivaa he olivat nahneet esimerkiksi kylttien tekoon. Suurin osa kylteista oli venajaksi, silla suurin vastustusorganisaatio on venalainen New Generation niminen jarjesto. Kuitenkin vastustajien joukossa on myos latvialaisia nationalisteja. Onkin ...

... we were staying. There we met a charming and friendly man by the name of Eddie, who found himself in a similar position to us, although I don't think he was quite so pleased about it. He's a ship broker who was due in St. Petersburg early on Thursday for two days of meetings. Not only was he a nice guy to chat to, but he also had some Lats to pay the taxi driver to the hotel (we would have been totally stuck for what to do!). And another thing! There were ...

... meeting members joined us again, but just for a coffee and seeing some fireworks, as it was Sunday and everyone was tired. The fireworks show was really impressive, small but very well organized and with many different kinds I had never seen before. Quite different from the Brazilian "grab everything you can and burn it as fast as possible" style of fireworks. Then it was already the last day, which I spent walking around Rîga's old ...

... how many centuries the spire would remain standing. So they all climbed back down to have a gander. They weren't happy with what they found. The glass had only broken into two pieces. By chance, it had landed in a pile of hay. "So did the spire fall down?" asked Jodie. "Yeah, nearly two centuries later during the Second World War. It was hit by a bomb and collapsed in flames! Unbelievable!" Ten minutes later we were entered a large building that we took to be some sort of ...

... de cartes traditionnel russo-ouzbek, et eux m'apprennent en retour le boom, jeu traditionnel chinois. Les parties sont endiablees, et pour agrementer le tout nous communiquons dans un espagnol courant. Que voulez-vous, on est tellement cosmopolites dans le transsiberien... peuh ! Pour ameliorer notre quotidien d'Instant noodles, on se fait avant de reprendre le train vers Ekaterinburg une viree au marche d'Irkutsk : caviar, vodka, poisson fume, viande fumee, fromage fume ...