On the 23th of March, I went to my second Baltic Country (the first one was Estonia). We were 6 people in total: Tom (American guy), Marie (French girl), René, Andre, Janine & Mario (German guys). Before going there, I was asking some of my friend, who had already been there, for a good place to stay. Franks Hostel was what they told us, and they were right. It was a familiar hostel, where just when we arrived, they told us "you can leave your luggages there, we will fullfill the form later, go to the bar and take a beer for free". We alsmot cried. The place had a really good environment, full of young and partying people.
Once we finished our beers, we took a shower and we met with the others (in this place were just Tom and I) in the hall in order to go to the "Beer Tour".We paid around 10 euros, and we had 5 beers in five different pubs. We were moving around the different pubs, meeting new people (from our hostel and from the city), singing in the karaoke and drinking some gigamaster shots ;). When we were done with the pubs, we moved to "The Club" (I know, it is a really original name for a club). Anyway, we had a good time our first night, some people arrived to The Club quite drunk after the Beer Tour, but we did not have any problem ;).
The next day we had a free tour around the city. I have to say that it was more beautiful and impressive that I thought in the beginning. When we were in the outskirts of the city, it looked an old and very poor city, but the city center was completely different.
Just about two minutes far away from hour hostel we had one of the main squares. Over there you could see something like a big black box, what was the museum of the ocuppation. It contained part of the Riga's Nazi and Russian ocuppation history. When you are in this kind of places, you really realize what is important in the life...
Just beside this building, you can find like a shield where appeard the date of the first Christmas Tree in Riga. This is something interesting because as they were suffering a lot due to different invasions (Germany, Russia, etc) they tried to keep during the whole year the Chrismas' spirit (that's why you can find something which, if you have imagination, seems to be like a Christmas' tree made of glass. This tree is in the middle of another main square, with the reason of shows that in this city is always Christmas).
In front of the Christmas' tree shield you could see one of the most emblematic Riga's symbol, the house of the Blackheads. This building was built in the XIV century and was the headquarters of a group of traders called "The Blackheads". This building, like the most of them in this city, was destroyed because of the war. In this case, it was in the Second World War, but, like the most of them, it was rebuilt. The outside's face looks really new, but when you go inside, you can see how was it originally (some parts were conserved).
We came by St. Peter's church but we did not get inside (we did it the last day). We kept walking around the city, seeing some buildings until we left the main squares and we arrived to a park right next to the "Freedom Statue". Something magic happened there, at least, that's what the leader told us. The statue is a girl, holding three starts which are forming like a pyramid. Just when we arrived to the statue, two birds landed on the statue. They both were on the highest star, and they both keep it for the whole time that we were there (more than 10 minutes).
Straight ahead on this street, we arrived to the biggest Lutheran Church. You could notice that it was a Lutheran church, apart from its shape, for the stick that the cross has in its middle (everyday is a chance to learn something new).
The tour finished with a shot as courtesy of our leader and, as courtesy and as gratitude for her service, we gave her tip.
As an important data, I have to say that this city, like the most of the Baltic Countries cities, is in the city center mainly medieval. You are walking and the floor of the squares, the streets, and almost everyplace is made of stone.
With the tour finished, Tom and I were tryind to find (and we found) a place in order to check another point. When I was in Tallin, there was a place where you could ask for honey beer, but my friends (some ******* Spanish guys) did not want to. I could got over, and finally, I tried this amazing, and, of course, sweet beer!!
I was thinking to watch the game (Barça's) when we came back to the hostel, but a better plan appeard. For first time in my life, I went to the opera. I felt like a high class fancy guy. We arrived there (Tom and I) and we met with Marie and Andre, just 10 minutes before the piece started. We could not get a ticket with chair, because everyplace was fully booked. It did not matter because after the first brake we could get some places. We paid for the piece around 4 euros and yes, I am not kidding. Even it was so cheap, the piece was a very famous one. Sevilas Barddzinis, or, as in my village said, El barbero de sevilla (The Sevilla's barber). If it does not sound familiar for someone, maybe if I tell you that they sing "figaro figaro fiiiiiiiigaro!!" you start to understand what I am talking about. The piece lasted about three hours, but the time was flying. The piece was simply amazing, along with the orchestra who went with it.
After these hours of culture (it was incredible when you saw people completely dressed up with their monocles) we came back to hour place and we started the drinking time. We left the hostel and we first went to "The Club" again, but in about 30 minutes some of us (Marie, Tom and me) moved to what they told us was the biggest club in the whole Baltic Sea. Actually, it was really huge. It had like 3 floors and many different rooms. We were dancing "Ai se eu te pego" for ending the night and we came back home.
Riga was sad because we were leaving, that's why in our penultimate day the sky was almost crying and the wind was blowing like if the end of the world was close. It was almost impossible to move with this wind. As we did not have during the past two days and as we were leaving the next day at midday, we did not have any choice, and we went to the highest peak in Riga, the top of St. Peter's church. I thought I was dying when the wind touched my face. It was impossible to hold it and that's why in a few minutes we started to go down again. Before that, we had a really good and tasty lunch in a typical Latvian restaurant. This day was sunday, and that's why we could not find too much party around as, so we were just chilling in a pub and watching football games.
In our last morning, Tom and I went to a medieval tower, which was actually a museum focused (again) in the Nazis and what they did in Riga. It was full of weapons, maps, and different stories about these tragic days...We arrived to a big park outside the city center. This morning the sun was shining and like in the most of these contries, the city looked completely different with this kind of weather. Finally, we found one of the cheapest and best pizza's place and we had our lunch. Better late than never.
In order to finish this post, I want to show you three pictures. In the first one you can see four animals and, according to the tradition, if you touch them you get luck. The highest you touch, the more luck you get. In the last one you can see a server, with my name as the title of a tourist company. I do not if it is just because Balta and Baltic start with the same letters, of if it is because my ancestors were coming from one of the Baltic's countries, but so far, in two of the three Baltic countries, I have found my name related with them. Eventually, in the last one you can see the stunning views from the plane just before we landed back in Sweden.
C u all in the next post, hugs and kisses ;)
