Mark's Travels

10 years of travel blogging from 35+ countries around the world

Exploring Riga in the daytime 23rd September 2007 in Riga, Latvia


This morning we woke up and went out to restaurant for breakfast. Girts and Diana are Latvian and know quite a bit about their country. What I can't get my head around is how well they know where all the inexpensive stuff is. It's incredible. We haven't paid more than £3.30 for any taxi ride, meals have been about £3 in restaurants, it's just amazing really. Last time I was in Latvia, I spent a small fortune in the old town. I thought this country was really expensive. I guess it pays to be in the know.

We walked around Alberta street after that. It's a UNESCO world heritage site. Then we went to the TV tower so we could see all of Riga. It was really nice. When we got there, there was only one other couple there so we practically had the place to ourselves. The windows weren't washed but my camera lens focus could be adjusted to see through the dirt.

There were 2 high speed elevators in two of the legs. In Tallinn, the TV tower elevator made the world's scariest noises but these were quite nice and not alarming at all. The woman giving the tours only spoke in Latvian and Russian. But, at the end of the tour, out of no where, she said to me in German, "Sorry, I don't know any English". I then replied to her in German, "I can speak German fluently". She then told me that I should have told her and I said that she didn't ask :)

Before we left, the tour guide showed us this old piano and played a little bit of classical music. She didn't think anything of the number and stopped quickly but I was really impressed by the song. I didn't know pianos could make those kinds of sounds.

Right as we left, heaps of German school children came in so we had some great timing on that one. Ze Germans seem to be everywhere I go nowadays, taking over the Australians and the British as the pre-eminent nationality that is to be found in every corner of the globe. In Germany, they were quite quiet and uptight but abroad they are really loud and annoying. They use broken English at every turn. I do remember Germans being loud in Germany, but it was when they were yelling at one another at work or when it was like 7am in the morning and they were waking up the rest of the house with their verbal disputes or phones ringing off the hook. This might be a bit of a generalization for some 82 million people but, hey, it's my website, I can do what I want.

After the TV Tower, we took a boat on the Dauga. It was nice to be able to get some really good shots with my Canon EOS camera. There were a number of occasions where I wish I had a 10 degree or maybe a 135 degree lens but I was happy with the majority of my shots anyway.

Before I left, Girts showed me some of the work he had been doing. It was really amazing to see. Design and architecture are two things I don't think I'll ever be good at but are things I do have a great appreciation for.


    Recent Posts