The road to Riga

Trip Start Sep 03, 2008
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Trip End Nov 13, 2008


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Monday, September 22, 2008

The bus trip to Riga was a long one. While the distance travelled was only about 540km; there was a border crossing (from Russian Territory to the EU) which too about two hours; plus plenty of road-works along the way to slow down the average speed. Kosta, our bus driver, does an excellent job. It must be hard to drive a bus for so many hours and stay alert. We left Viliiki Luki at around 8am and arrived in Riga around 5.30pm. Once we had checked 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. Although, the fact that the entire old-town is actually a duplicate of what was there before it was destroyed takes a bit away; it feels like a new/old town, if you get my drift.
Anyhow, after the exploration, we settled in for a nice dinner. Latvia is the only country we have been to where the currency is worth more than the British Pound! It was funny to watch the couple of Brit's on our tour complain that their currency bought less :)
After dinner, some of us went to the "Mad House" for drinks; then pilled into cabs for the trip home. This meant Shellie and I have now been on almost all forms of transport on our holiday (Plane to Finland, Train & Bus in Finland, Ferry from Finland to Estonia, Trolley-Bus and Taxi in Riga). Now all we need is to pick up the car during our driving component, and catch a Tram, and I think we have covered the whole "Planes-trains & automobiles) bit :)
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