Latvia: Riga

If you’d told me six months beforehand that I’d be off to Latvia for a week in the summer of 2011 there is no way I would have believed you, but it’s funny the way things turn out. Had things gone a little differently I’d have been spending the summer in the capital of capitalism, New York, instead I went to a former Soviet state on the Baltic Sea.

We were staying in a fairly modern hostel in the centre of Riga with a bar next to the reception selling cheap half-litre bottles of the local beer – Zelta. The receptionist told us that the first bottle was complimentary, so we thought it would have been rude not to buy at least 5 more.

I eventually made my way back up to the room and proceeded to throw my guts up in the bathroom while everyone else laughed at my inability to handle alcohol. I attempted to sleep it off, but there’s only 5 hours of darkness in Latvia during the summer and our window didn’t have any curtains. Safe to say I felt rough the next morning, but we still managed to see a lot of the city.

This is the Latvian Rifleman Monument, right in the middle of the square next to our hotel.

Me and Matt in front of Riga’s very impressive town hall.

Me, Matt and Rob in the centre of Riga.

Flower garden in front of the theatre.

Riga from above.

We found a place to rent rowing boats and spent most of the time trying to tip each other out.

Couples write their names on these locks, then throw the key into the river for good luck. Rob and Matt considered it, but decided against it when they found out that homosexuality is still frowned upon in the Baltic States.

We went to a very surreal shooting range one day in an ex-Soviet bunker that was run by a very old woman. I don’t mean to brag, but I won by a country mile. Everything seemed to be going well until we tried to re-enact a hostage scene with one of the shotguns for a photo; we were ushered out pretty quickly after that.

The perfect place to end our time in Riga – a cocktail place called Skyline Bar at the top of the tallest building in the city. Piña Coladas all around.