Riga/Tallinn - Days 163-165

I discovered a free walking tour in Riga and decided to try it out on my last day there since my previous experiences in Sofia and Krakow were so positive. There are actually several organization who run these free tours in various cities and they are typically staffed by young volunteers and offer a more alternative experience from the typical historical city tour. And they work only fro tips so a few bucks should cover you. Plus they generally last anywhere from 2-3 hours - not a bad deal!

In Riga, the cool guide thankfully took us out of the old town and explored the "Moscow" neighborhood next door, which is a run down place with lots of history and homeless people. My host recommended it to me as a complete contrast to old town, so I was glad to walk through it with someone knowledgeable and who had lived there for a couple of years. That area also served as the Jewish Ghetto during WWII and now holds a monument dedicated to the "Latvian Oskar Schindler" - Janis Lipke. 

Later that evening I went out with my host Agnese and walked around Riga's biggest park and had some Latvian food for dinner, which is basically some kind of meat, potatoes, and salad combination. 

Now I'm in Tallinn, Estonia and arrived by bus (also around 4.5 hours from Riga) yesterday. I'm currently hosted by an American guy from Ohio, Bryan. He is a professional online poker player :) First one I've met in my life. He was also simultaneously hosting another Bryan, also an American from California who is on a bike tour of Estonia and had ridden around for a month already. 

So far in Tallinn it's been about meeting tons of new people. The first night I was here I cooked dinner for the boys (never thought I'd hear myself say that) and we went out to an Inter-Nations meet up, which is a community of expats. Then went to a salsa bar where Bryan #2 gave me a mini lesson. Then yesterday the three of us went out to grab brunch and then just sat in an outdoor cafe for a couple of hours soaking in the sun. I walked around old town by myself and then met up with them again at the weekly Tallinn CS meet up picnic. In my opinion, that was a much cooler crowd and we hung out until after 11pm and then moved the crowd to a local pub when it became too cold. That's an Estonian summer for you. When Bryan and I were walking back to the apartment at 2am, the sky was still not dark. 

Riga - Days 161-162

I'm in rainy Riga, Latvia! It is absolutely stunning here. Vilnius really wasn't what I expected because it didn't have a compact or distinctive old town, and the city center and "old town" kind of blended together. However, Riga's old town fits the stereotype and the architecture is very unique. Due to its German and Soviet occupation, the city has a mix of old Soviet style buildings and also some amazing art nouveau buildings that will blow your mind. I'm talking about buildings so ornate/gaudy that you can't help but raise a brow.

I took a bus yesterday from Vilnius to Riga - about 4.5 hours. At this point, anything less than 7 hours is considered a short trip. And again, thanks to the generosity of the couchsurfing coummunity, I found a last minute host. I arrived in the afternoon but had to wait for my host to get off from work, so I basically walked around the old town whilst dodging the sporadic rain. Then I got tired of carrying my backpack around so I stepped into the Occupation Museum (appropriately housed in an ugly Soviet style building) and learned about the depressing Latvian history in the 1940s, which goes German, Soviet, German, and Soviet again.

My host, Agnese, drove us out to Jurmala after work yesterday; and Jurmala is a beach resort on the Baltic Sea (technically the bay) only about 25 minutes from Riga. She actually grew up there and knew the area well. We walked along the beach and then back through the town, and I completely forgot where I was. It seemed like a quaint little town South Carolina with its wooded parks and wooden houses. Okay, they were pine trees and not oak covered in moss...but you get the idea.

Today was more of walking around. I decided the brave the unstable weather and walk across the river to another district and back - wrong idea. I got caught in a downpour while I was ON the bridge and couldn't find cover. I ran to the other side into a shopping center, but was looking pretty pathetic.

Only less than a month left of the trip and I'm all heartbroken about it :( But it'll be good to see family and friends again! Plus my gear is falling apart. I had to throw away my jeans in Croatia because there were holes. My favorite black shirt is going to die a similar death as my favorite white shirt...but hanging in there for the moment. And my shoes have holes on the outside and two gigantic "craters" on the inside sole. I hope my one pair of pants and three shirts get me through the next month. Oh, and my day pack strap is coming loose... * sigh