Baltic Balsam

Our traditional Latvian cuisine last night was served buffet style at a restaurant called Lido.  We were sadly informed by a ladle wielding tall man that taking pictures of the food was illegal in Latvia. Big bummer. Unfortunately the only picture we have is one of some sad potatoes taken seconds before being told off. Poor Paul. 

The portions were also  huge.  I asked for a little sauerkraut and was served half a plate. Hmmm lucky Paul tonight!  

Sunday we started the day with our usual freshly baked goodie from the local supermarket Rimi and had lunch at the beer garden. Here they had surprisingly good food with a range of local beers on tap. 

We shared a cup of fried seafood (squid, octopus and shrimp), some fried garlic soaked rye bread, a sandwich of spinach, pork and aged provolone with a spicy mayo and finally a fig and beet root salad with goats cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette. 

With food heavy on our bellies we decided the logical place to go next was the central market. Housed in three large zeppelin hangars we were surrounded by huge quantities of meat, fish, vegetables, pickles, breads and any other food item you should want. I had a delicious pickle from one stall and for dessert some fried donuts covered in powdered sugar. Yum indeed!

To complete our day of food food and more food we went for dinner at a local dumplings store called Pelmeni XL where they sell, you guessed it, Pelmeni! Dumplings filled with a variety of meats, veg, and cheese with sauces and soups.  A very unhealthy day over all. 

4th of July! How better to spend it but to shoot some soviet guns at a James Bond cut out!  Great experience if not a tad sketchy. The guide book says it is in a Soviet Bunker so when we showed up outside a football pitch with toddler boys and their practice session I was a tad confused. We came to find out that a few weeks prior, the police ("who are now mostly corrupt") had raided the soviet bunker and taken control of all the guns. So now the older woman who runs it had to find somewhere else to once again set up shop.  Hence we were allowed to take pictures of the shooting as long as we did not get her face in the shot. Ended the day with some cards and black balsam. Note of warning about the balsam: as Paul and I found out, it is not only hard to down, but also has the unlikely trait of providing you with the interesting next day body odor of licorice.

Next day we were off to Sigulda. The gateway town to the national park 'Goija' (pronounced 'goy-ya'). 3 lats (about $5) total for an hour and a half trip. Thinking we had landed somewhere out in the boonies we were surprised that our hotel was so nice. The Hotel Segevold was swank and clean with the most comfortable beds we have had in a few days (Paul's eye baggage was grateful) but also desolate. Other than an asian party (which we saw once) we seemed to be two of a total of three guests.

In Sigulda we did the long walk to castles and caves taking a cable car along the way. We saw the infamous Gutmana cave where the beautiful Maija Rose was murdered, and splashed the "wrinkle-remover-medicinal" spring water on our faces (you can never be too careful). We saw Krimulda castle (where Maija Rose lived) in the town of Turaida with it's red bricked tower.

Back to Riga on Thursday for our morning flight to London on Friday. Maybe another shooting lesson?

Ready to Start

After a BBQ of every available meat and a late night game of cards we spent the next better half of the morning tired (and more to the point hungover) traveling back to London and meeting up with the wonderful Lucy! A quick nap and we were raring to go. Hyde park!!!! Thousands of people, a bit of pushing and shoving and we were front crowd centre in a surprisingly peaceful crowd of eager fans of all ages. 

I am not going to even attempt to describe the concert, except to say that I do not believe I will ever experience as amazing of a line up as that. 

The low point of the day was finding out that Paul and I, dummies that we are, did not adequately prepare for the trip back with £0 left on our oyster cards we were forced to ask people on the street for change, asking people to donate 20p only to find out we needed 40. Eventually walking the 10 blocks to a tube station that was not "closed for scheduled works", witnessing an attempted robbery and finally getting back to Lucys apartment. 

Keeping with the theme of our disorganization we did a bit of scrambling to print our boarding pass finally deciding just to take the iPad and therefore being forced to pay the £80 just for Ryanair to print it for us. 

Latvia is two hours ahead of London and in the summer hardly gets dark.  As soon as we had dropped our bags off in our room we made some friends in the hostel and got a night tour of Riga and the bars.  Rock band bars, "moon safari" bar, a 30 minute wait for a sugary mojito, a punch bowl of assorted fruit and alcohol with 6 straws...made a friend with a Latvian girl who danced with me, gave me drinks, told me I was fun (man I am so naive). She left and we were to go meet her at a bar when I passed her making out with another girl on the street....hmmm did I just get hit on? Interesting experience or narrow escape? 

In the day, Riga has an old European feel. Cobblestone streets lead to huge churches, replicas of original Latvian buildings torn down during the soviet oppression, beer gardens and markets. Art Nouveau buildings (more than any city in Europe I hear) are everywhere in central Riga, gargoyles,  peacocks, and goblins, Oh My! 

Traditional Latvian cuisine for dinner with some hostelers!