The Baltics

Well, my last Euro trip ended with the Baltic state of Latvia. I really wanted to visit the other Baltic states during my short exchange in Europe but flights were rather inconvenient from Scotland. So i seized the opportunity to fly from Stockholm where flights were about 50 euros. 

A city of spires, churches, museums and one of the mos vibrant social scenes in the Baltic, Riga is Latvia's capital city. At one time an influential port city, today Riga is a popular destination with many europeans. This is thanks to a plethora of historical and cultural attractions. 

It was too, the only place which i didn't meet any Singaporeans cept 1 random exchange student from NUS. (damn our luck

Riga is a pleasant little small town where everything is in walking distance. It was quite different from the other European cities i visited because of its medieval heritage and Russian influence. Remember those scenes with the overly thick animal fur coats and squarish fur hats from Russian pictures, you see it everywhere here. You can find many of that in the markets around town. Although the Latvian currency, Lats, are rather big (about 2.4 SGD to 1 Lat), most of the stuff there are rather cheap, especially the local eats. 

Unfortunately for us, we didn't manage to escape the cold. A storm brewed the moment we stepped into our hostel (Friendly Fun Franks Hostel). The winds were so strong that you could see the snow float horizontally from the window. Temperatures ranged from -10 to -15 degrees, warmer than Sweden but still cold enough to make your fingers tingle with pain. Also, with the cobble stone pathways layered with black ice, every step we took, with extreme caution. Even my hiking boots couldn't prevent me from slipping haha. With the many Public transport (bus 22) was rather cheap, ~70 Latvian cents to the city center. Alternatively, if you have a big group, you can opt to take a cab which shouldn't be too expansive as well. 

Honestly, i was rather disappointed by my hostel for the amount i paid relative to other hostels. The room was very small, the toilets weren't heated and worst of all, the walking tour was utterly disappointing. I regretted not listening to Justin's recommendation to take the yellow suitcase tour. The tour brought us around major landmarks in Riga but because of her poor PR skills, she couldn't offer any historical or more informative remarks about those places except, 'here we are at freedom monument' or 'this is the St Peter's Church'. Absolutely horrible. 

But on the lighter note, Riga is rather quaint in a sense that the architecture and the culture is more scaled towards Russian influence. A fine example would be the Russian Orthodox Church and random things which we would find quirky like a Rabbit play area where a miniature town is built in the park for Rabbits to hop around. Like Singapore, because the town is so small, everyone flocks to the same spots, like the Skyline bar, where the locals claim that it's nice to dress up just to go in and local eateries like Lido, a marche style restaurant that offers cheap Latvian cuisine. As it only gained independence when the Iron Curtain lifted, Macdonals and Starbucks were considered as novelties and couples would flock there for their dates. You'll also see random christmas tree monuments throughout the year as the Latvians are proud to proclaim that they founded the Christmas Tree. As for food wise, do try the cheesecakes at Sweetday Cafe.

Medieval Insignias 

 Oldest Bar in Riga, since Medieval times. Its still using candle light!

 Freedom Monument

Nativity Cathedral, Russian Orthodox Church where there are no chairs

Interior of LIDO

Christmas Market, where they sell things from mulled wine to animal fur

Blackhead's House

Riga itself can be covered within one day with continuous walking. With that, I seeked out things to do at the outskirts of town. Somehow, it being the peak of the festive season and winter, many things were closed. Things like the Gauja National Park, Soviet Secret Bunker and many others were closed and many tours were unavailable. Even when we wanted to rent a car, the cars were all fully booked with available ones being overly inflated. 

With the help of the friendly tourist officers, we planned a trip to Sigulda. With the first bus departing Riga bus station at 10 plus on a Sunday, we explored the infamous markets that took up occupancy in old zeppelin hangars, you know those german war air balloons..

Having occupied several hangars, the market was huge with an indoor and outdoor market!  Each section bringing new surprises. Each hangar housed a different section of the market from meats, cheese to fresh fish. Somehow, the wet market reminded me of the markets back home. When looking for cheap eats, the market is the right place to go! Chinese Style chai fun (vegetable rice) was the most common way of displaying their food. What you do is select the dishes you want and they'll heat it up in the microwave for you. Their fried rice is one of the best i had in Europe. You can choose several dishes. It will make you full and all for less than 1 Lat! Pastries there was also extremely cheap. You can get stuff as cheap as 5 cents! I was also rather amazed by their fish market. The fishes were so fresh that you can still see them breathing and many fishes there were considered premium fishes back home. It was considered rude to take photos of their stuff so sorry guys, no pictures!

Zeppelin Hangers turned into the market where most locals get their produce from.

Chai Fan Style

Having travelled most of Europe getting around with English, Latvia proved challenging with most people being unable to speak english, so i had to improvise and use sign language and pointing with my phone haha. The bus ride to Sigulda took slightly over an hour and a half and it brought us to a totally different place with thick white snow instead of the black ice shoveled to the side of the roads in Riga. 

Sigulda is a destination for the citizens to escape the crowded streets of Riga. It claims to be Latvia's winter capital and the Switzerland of Latvia. It houses the only authentic bob sled facility that allows tourists to enjoy the thrill of the actual olympic sport in the world. However, that can also burn a hole in your pocket. The town is dominated by castle ruins and unspoiled nature. 

Aided by the tourist office there, we got a cab to Turaida Castle and walked back. On the map, it looked really far but everything was actually very near. 

Turaida Castle, built in 1214

some of the artefacts in the Turaida Castle Museum 

walking to the next landmark

Gutman's cave is the deepest and largest cave in the Baltic countries. On the walls of the cave there are inscriptions from the 17 Century. Having read there, we were led to believe that it was a cave where you can explore like the ones in Budapest. But instead it is only 19m deep, 12m wide and 10m high, practically just a hole in the wall. The cave is considered the oldest tourist attraction in Latvia because visitors, from even the earliest days, wanted to leave “decorations” such as names, initials and the dates of their visits engraved on the walls of the cave. Inside the cave you may even find coats-of-arms and names of various barons and estate owners. These were made-to-order for a fee by local craftsmen who would wait for wealthy visitors near the cave armed with tools, stepladders and templates. Today, it is no longer permitted to write on the cave walls because it is a protected archeological and geological monument.

The legend of the Rose of Turaida also began in this cave and after reading the story behind it its just another lame love story which isn't even interesting haha. You can google it if you're interested. 

Gutamanis cave

The scenery was just amazing and i really enjoyed the trek from attraction to attraction. After all any amount of snow is winter wonderland for a snow deprived asian like me. 

Honestly, i thought this was a random castle ruin until i was looking through wikipedia links and stumbled upon this. Apparently this castle dates from the 14th century and was destroyed in war in 1601. 

 Krimulda Castle

Finally after exploring the northern part of Sigulda, it was time to return to the main Sigulda area to catch our bus back with the help of this Gondola. It is the only other way to cross the Gauja river besides the car. And unlike a cable car service, there's only 1 that runs every hour. The service is rather primative with a girl running the gondola collecting your money and manually opening the doors for you. Haha and since it was around the Christmas period, it was quaintly decorated with christmas lights. But in the summer, it transforms into a bungee jumping platform into the Gauja river for as little as 20 Lats!

Incoming Gondola

  

Iconic symbols of the native people from Sigulda who once made canes for tourist to support themselves walking on the slippery rocks in the nature parks.

With that, the chapter of my Europe Adventures has come to an end. Many places to go, many things to do but to each at its own time.