Raucous Riga
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2007
1
13
90
Trip End
Apr 19, 2008
Riga,
Latvia
Thursday, September 13, 2007
via Australia via the Philippines, but I met him in Riga, so that's
what we'll go with. I spent the day exploring Riga's old town with my
dizzying friend and a couple of his buddies. Captain Jack, as we shall
call him, had trouble walking in a straight line (whether drunk or
sober) and seemed barely able to stand still long enough to take a
picture of an art nouveau building, a church spire, or the latest
Latvian beauty walking by, making for a rather entertaining afternoon
of sightseeing.
With a population of 760,000, Riga feels like a
city and smells like one too, a slight acidic taste on your tongue from
all the fumes, perhaps a little burning in the back of your throat. The
city's train station sems to go on forever, but once outside,
navigation is not difficult, especially if the majority of explorations
are confined to the compact old town.
After a hearty Latvian
lunch (the boys wouldn't stop raving about the steak) we headed up the
spire of St. Peter's church. A lift takes you to the top, so minimal
effort is required after such a filling meal, just a $4 ticket.
However, don't think this ticket entitles you to actually see the
church, instead, a lady will escort you directly to the elevator,
yelling at you loudly in Russian should you try to sit in one of the
pews for a few minutes of quiet reflection. Visiting the House of God
requires a different ticket.
Nonetheless, the views from the
spire were stunning and gave a good orientation of the old town. Riga
sits on the Daugava river, with the old town being on the river and the
rest of the city stretching away behind it. The old town, on UNESCO's
World Heritage list, was mostly built in the 16th century and is now
painted in pastels, much like Tallinn's, with church spires and
monuments popping up between buildings on winding, weaving streets.
St.
Peter's was followed by the Dome Cathedral on the other half of the
town, the largest church in the Baltics, and then the Museum of
Occupation in Latvia. The museum was quite interesting and very
thorough. We spent two hours there, learning about the Soviet's
conquest of Latvia, how it was then taken by the Nazi's in 1941, how
they were treated as liberators, and then how the Soviet's regained
control of the country at the end of the war.
The remainder of
the afternoon was spent wandering town, snaping shots of art nouveau
architecture. We made it down to the river and went wading, found a
statue commemorating the founding of Riga, and wound up eating sushi,
doing shots, and sipping on rather strong long island iced teas around
4:30. In Captain Jack's opinion, it's never to early to start drinking.
The
nights in Riga were also filled with drinking and clubbing. Casper, a
Swedish hostel employee took us to a different place each night and we
partied 'til dawn - literally. I learned that Hollywood's portrayal of
European clubs is fairly accurate: strobe lights, smoke machines, and
techno. However, it appears that wearing flip flops to a bar in Riga is
liable to get you kicked out or denied entry, so I will have to find
another pair of shoes, as I doubt hiking boots are acceptable attire
either.
A final distraction formulated by the Friendly Frank's
Fun Hostel (think I got those F's in the right order, it was everything
a hostel should be and for $10/night, I would never stay anywhere else
in Riga) was gun shooting. Nine guys and myself (story of my life) went
to an old Soviet bunker firing range to shoot glocks, pump-action
shotguns, and Kalashnikovs, better known as AK-47s. Most of the guys
selected targets featuring a villian holding hostage a damsel in
distress - and proceeded to put far more bullets in the damsel than the
villian. Having a target with only a bad guy, I did not have this
problem, and did a respectable job of getting my man.
Riga's Prague Factor: Riga has a lot going for it: a river, a lived in
old town, beautiful churches, and restaurant decked squares. The good
parts of Prague. But it also has the bad: too many drunken Brits over
for a cheap drinking holiday. This makes Rigans unbelievably rude
towards all foreigners and puts a real damper on visiting. That said, I
suspect Prague has a similar downside, so we'll put the PR at 92%.
