Riga 1 - Tim 0 (July 8-10)

My plans were simple, check in, eat, shower and early night in preparation for the arrival of James and Ryan on Saturday. But that plan was derailed from the word go. Arrived fine, went to check in and when trying to check in, realised that I hadn’t actually booked! Was no problems they had room so got a bed no problems. Phase two, food, was completed no problems. But then the final goal, early night, this was thrown out the window.

Happy hour at the hostel began and the 1Lat beers (roughly £1.20) were going down way too smooth and before I knew it  I had signed myself up to the pub crawl, and the mayhem began…

I would love to give you a detailed rundown of the night, but unfortunately my memory took a vacation last night. But the things I do remember…

• Drinking a lot of beers and shots

• Drinking rum (one of my most hated drinks)

• Two mojitos for 3Lats

• Sun never really setting

• Catching up with Jake, Jaryd and Sean

• On the way home at some ungodly hour of the morning, Jarrod (hostel owner from Yarrawarrah) decided he wanted to go swimming so stripped down and jumped off the bridge (prob 10m high) into the river, and then had to climb onto a boat to get out of the river due to no stairs or ladders. And all was going swimmingly until he got out of the water and the police turned up. After heated conversation, Latvian from one side and English from the other, as you can probably guess it went really well and Jarrod ended up getting arrested, not exactly sure what for still but don’t worry, he is ok and not locked up.

• Waking up at 2pm with a hangover that easily rates in my top 5 hangovers of all time

Day two, nothing to report here as most of the time was spent sleeping and meeting up with Jimmy and Ryan.

Final day was nice and chilled after a decent nights sleep. The sun was beaming and the shorts were out, so we decided to take a walk around town and get home food and make a nice lunch.

So we headed down to the water and housed in 5 old zeppelin hangers were the local markets selling everything from seafood to fresh produce to knock off clothing. I had my heart set on a nice piece of salmon that I had seen on a previous adventure to Riga with some nice fresh salad. Following the inviting aroma of fish, we made it into the hanger that housed all the seafood stalls and instantly were greeted with chunks of rich orange salmon. Picking a piece was a challenge as we had no idea of the cost, so thought we would go in the middle, and the end result I got a 400g slab of salmon for approx. £3.50 and then picked up garlic, lemon, lettuce, onion, avocado, cheese and cucumber for another 80p. Nice cheap lunch. A Brazilian we met picked up a kilo of chicken hearts for a traditional Brazilian dish for £1.50 and James got a 1kg bag of sea salt for £1 (even though we needed only a pinch).  Lunch..success.

Now where am I? I have no idea. En route to St Petersburg, Russia on a 12 hour bus journey. Sounds painful, but really it isn’t. Another bus with free coffee, wi-fi, big comfy seats and a 99% ratio of non-English speakers. If all goes to plan I should be in St Petersburg around 7am. If you don’t hear from me in a few days, maybe start to worry that the Russian border guards didn’t except my bribe and I am now a resident of a Russian gaol.

Mum I am joking I will be fine.

 Things learnt in Lativa

• The sun doesn't really set, which when mixed with alcohol causes extreme confusion

• Latvia's main export is wood

• My body does not agree with rum

• Latvia has a 60/40 split of Latvians/Russians

• I need a wide angle lens, anyone want to buy my a birthday/christmas present?

Salmon at the markets

My slab of salmon

Old Town

Old Town

Drinking with hostel people

Jarrod and a very tall man

Me, Jake and Sean

Me, Elina and Jarrod.

Jarrod the owner of the hostel and Elina one of his workers

Soviet style building