Great time in Riga!!!!

So Saturday night, 8 of us exchange students (1 Italian, 2 Canadians and 5 Germans) boarded a RyanAir flight to Riga, Lativa for a three day trip. We arrived in Riga around 10pm local time, exchanged some money and bussed to the city centre. We checked into our hostel (brilliantly called Riga Hostel) which in in the Old Town of Riga. It is a new hostel that just opened in June and we were all surprised at how nice it was. Everything was so clean and bright and new! We dropped off our packs and headed into the street to do a little night sightseeing. Being Saturday night, the streets were full of partyers and very drunk Latvians! Riga has a bit of a problem with the sex trade and most clubs are basically strip bars, so we stayed away from the bars and clubs and opted to walk around. We went back to the hostel to hang out in the kitchen where we watched some TV and met some British people and other Germans.

The next morning we were ready to go out by noon (pretty impressive seeing as there were 8 of us and only 1 shower!) and headed to this really great pankūkas (pancakes)restaurant recommended by the girl at the Hostel. It was called Šefpavārs Vilhelms and there we had the msot amazing pancakes I have ever eaten! There were different kinds, some filled with meat, cheese, bananas, apples, etc. as well as potatoe pancakes and a huge variety of jams (my fave was the peach jam) and for 3 pankūkas and an orange juice, it only cost 1,50 lats which is equal to 3$cdn! I was blown away with how cheap it was!

We spent the rest of Sunday taking a self-guided walking tour through the Old Town. Some parts of the Old Town date back to Medival times and most of what was destroyed during the wars, has been impressively rebuilt. The Old Town is made up of narrow cobble-stoned streets and lined with beautifully coloured old buildings that house everything from shops to cafes to strip bars and casinos. There are a number of really old churches, including St. Peter's Chruch where we took an elevator up the steeple 72 metres from the street to see beautiful views of Riga. The architecture in Riga is a mixture of medival, Swedish-influenced, art-nouveau, baroque, etc. and the city is over 800 years old! Sunday night we stayed at the hostel playing cards with others who were stayting at the hostel and some played a few drinking games...

Monday we were again out by noon and decided to take a "Panorama" boat tour of Riga. This wasn't so exciting, but it was relaxing nonetheles and we all enjoyed laying on the deck in the sun out on the Daugava River! We then decided to leave the Old Town and go into "New Riga" where the shopping districts are. The girls split from the boys so we could shop more, and spent a few hours looking in shops and trying on clothes. Monday night we went to a pizza restaurant for dinner and then went to a Jazz Club called "Hamlets". I had never been to a jaxx club before, and was very impressed with the musicians there. It was a "jam session" night and so there were all kinds of people playing jazz..it was really great and we all really enjoyed the music and the club!

Tuesday we again went into the New City to look around before having to leave. We walked to a beautiful park right in the middle of the city called Esplanåde which was very reminiscent of Central Park in Manhatten. While walking through the park on our way to see a beautiful Orthodox Church, we found a row of trampolines...it cost 0,5lats (1$cdn) for 10 minutes, so we all kicked off our shoes and had 10 minutes of childish fun! It was so great! We were all like children the way we were laughing and carrying on...it was really cool! We then saw the church and made our way back to the hostel to check out and make our way to the airport.

I was sad to leave Riga! It turned out to be such a surprisingly beautiful city and I am so happy I had the opportunity to go...I recommend Riga to absolutley everyone who goes to Europe! It's not at all what I thought Eastern Europe would be like...the city has done very well at rebuilding after the fall of the Soviet Union, although there are still some scars to be seen which adds to the character of the city...

Today I am exhausted from three full days of walking and touring! It's going to take a while to catch up to sleep! Lol...

All my pics from Latvia are on my Msn Space...I posted the link before, but I hadn't realized it had restricted access before, but I have made it public now so some of you should be able to get on it now to see all my pics...Here is the link again: http://spaces.msn.com/members/julezmay/

Love, Jules :)