Riga

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  Riga, Latvia
Monday, June 11, 2012

I arrived Riga very late at night and checked into my hostel called Friendly Fun Frank's.  It the most famous hostel here in Latvia. They are known for having really crazy nightlife here.  The hostel was alright, but the owner has a monopoly on a lot of the stuff here in Riga.  He owns like 5 bars and a few other things, so the popular club here in Riga is Club Essential.  We were supposed to go to this club as part of a pub crawl.  The pub crawl left really late and come to find out the bars we went to before the club were Frank's bars and they told us Club Essential was under renovation, which was not true.  They lied to us to get us to go to the club that Frank owned, which was not so great, but also not so bad.  There were a lot of Russians there.  I was in a 4 bed hostel with 3 Canadians and they were pretty cool.  They were actually from Vancouver, so not so far from me.  We had a good night drinking.  I actually left the club to try to go another club called Club Essential and it was not so great, so I left and came back..  When I got close to the club, one of the bunk mates was in a taxi and he was lost.  He didn't know where he was, where he was going or how he was going to get there.  I offered to take him back and decided not to try anything else tonight and it was in the best interest to get this guy back to the hostel.  He had no recollection of this the next morning. 

I got a city tour the next day.  Riga is a pretty interesting place.  The funny thing is that to experience Latvia, you have to get out of the city.  Riga was occupied by Russia, Germany, Polish and another country, so they all left a little bit behind.  Only half of the people here are true Latvians and the rest are decendants of Germany or Russia or elsewhere.  It's a mix of cultures here in Riga.  Latvia gained their independence about 20 years ago and are doing pretty well.  The city has the same kind of stuff as Estonia with the outside cafes and stoned streets.  They actually filmed Sherlock Holmes here because it feels like you are back in the 1800s.  The freedom monument is the most famous monument here in Riga.  It somewhat symbolizes the independence which was granted in 1991 I believe, but the soviet troops did not leave for several years after that.

In the past, I have always been stressed and try to see as much as possible during daylight when I travel.  This is no issue in these countries as daylight is still 19 hours, so if it gets late, I still have plenty of time to see a lot!  It is great!

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streets of Riga	That's me in front of the freedom monument!	tallest church in Riga	German and Soviets went to war here
Old cathedral	A Riga street	Nice statues	Riga video

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