Riga - Latvia (August 2008)

Back to my travel memories...

Before Cuba, i spent 4 days in Riga the capital of Latvia. I went there with a couple of friends and we where hosted and shown around by Latvians that we had met beforehand at home.

I didn't like the city that much. It is not one of these places where you just get out and are in awe all the time. Yes it has got a nice old town with some cute shops and i think they are doing a lot there to open trendy western style bars and restaurants, but there was this special something that was missing... We also spent a day by the seaside in Jurmala, a town located a 30 minutes train ride outside of Riga on the Baltic Sea. It reminded e a lot of the places i have been to in the North of Germany or on the Dutch and Belgian Seaside. But it was pretty, just not a place to spend a whole week. But all in all we had tons of fun and laughs and brought back a couple of inside jokes that are still running a year later....

Dont miss the bar at Hotel Latvia, it is located on the top floor and you have an amazing view of the whole city and if your lucky of the Blatic Sea. The decoration is uninspired - your typical fancy lounge style type of bar with highly overpriced cocktails.

If you prefer a more special and fun nightlife spot i can recommend the Shot Cafe. As it name already states they have a menu full of shots at reasonable prices and you can order fun stuff like a "monkey brain" :-) The decoration is fun and lovely, like a 30'3 inspired café and you could tell that the people where having fun. everyone was dancing to a very good mix (not as the crowd in hotel Latvia who thought they where better than anyone else and where just lying in their sofas like dead sacks...). This place even madeit to the top ten list of the weirdest travel attractions of the travel review website IgoUgo.com. See the article here.

Another highlight was our visit to the Lativan Open Air Museum, where ou can wander around a rebuilt typical old Latvian town with little huts and lakes, they even have employees in episode costumes to make the thing more real. It is all located in a refreshing forest at a gorgeous lakem a short tram ride out of the city center. We spent te whole afternoon there fooling around like children.