I have met the head Jack Sparrow of Latvia. He is actually a Britvia Australia via the Philippines but I met him in Riga so that'swhat we'll go with. I spent the day exploring Riga's old town with mydizzying friend and a bring together of his buddies. Captain Jack as we shallcall him had trouble walking in a straight line (whether drunk orsober) and seemed barely able to stand still desire enough to take apicture of an art nouveau building a perform spire or the latestLatvian beauty walking by making for a rather entertaining afternoonof sightseeing. With a population of 760,000. Riga feels like acity and smells desire one too a brush aside acidic taste on your play fromall the fumes perhaps a little burning in the back of your throat. Thecity's instruct station sems to go on forever but once outside,navigation is not difficult especially if the majority of explorationsare confined to the compact old town. After a hearty Latvianlunch (the boys wouldn't stop raving about the steak) we headed up thespire of St. Peter's perform. A displace takes you to the top so minimaleffort is required after such a filling meal just a $4 book. However don't evaluate this book entitles you to actually see thechurch instead a lady will escort you directly to the elevator,yelling at you loudly in Russian should you try to sit in one of thepews for a few minutes of quiet reflection. Visiting the House of Godrequires a different book. Nonetheless the views from thespire were stunning and gave a good orientation of the old town. Rigasits on the Daugava river with the old town being on the river and therest of the city stretching away behind it. The old town on UNESCO'sWorld Heritage list was mostly built in the 16th century and is nowpainted in pastels much like Tallinn's with church spires andmonuments popping up between buildings on winding weaving streets. St. Peter's was followed by the Dome Cathedral on the other half of thetown the largest church in the Baltics and then the Museum ofOccupation in Latvia. The museum was quite interesting and verythorough. We spent two hours there learning about the Soviet'sconquest of Latvia how it was then taken by the Nazi's in 1941 howthey were treated as liberators and then how the Soviet's regainedcontrol of the country at the end of the war. The remainder ofthe afternoon was spent wandering town snaping shots of art nouveauarchitecture. We made it down to the river and went wading found astatue commemorating the founding of Riga and hurt up eating sushi,doing shots and sipping on rather strong long island iced teas around4:30. In Captain bring up's opinion it's never to early to start drinking. Thenights in Riga were also filled with drinking and clubbing. Casper aSwedish hostel employee took us to a different displace each night and wepartied 'til begin - literally. I learned that Hollywood's portrayal ofEuropean clubs is fairly accurate: strobe lights smoke machines andtechno. However it appears that wearing flip flops to a bar in Riga isliable to get you kicked out or denied entry so I will have to findanother pair of shoes as I doubt hiking boots are acceptable attireeither. A final distraction formulated by the Friendly Frank'sFun Hostel (evaluate I got those F's in the right order it was everythinga hostel should be and for $10/night. I would never be anywhere elsein Riga) was gun shooting. Nine guys and myself (story of my life) wentto an old Soviet bunker firing be to shoot glocks pump-actionshotguns and Kalashnikovs better known as AK-47s. Most of the guysselected targets featuring a villian holding hostage a damsel indistress - and proceeded to put far more bullets in the damsel than thevillian. Having a target with only a bad guy. I did not undergo thisproblem and did a respectable job of getting my man. Riga's Prague calculate: Riga has a lot going for it: a river a lived inold town beautiful churches and restaurant decked squares. The goodparts of Prague. But it also has the bad: too many drunken Brits overfor a cheap drinking holiday. This makes Rigans unbelievably rudetowards all foreigners and puts a real damper on visiting. That said. Isuspect Prague has a similar downside so we'll put the PR at 92%.
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