Latvia

MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED
DATE: JUNE 28, 2008
PADDY WHELAN’S, RIGA, LATVIA

Damon and I had one weekend left in Europe, so we tried to plot out how many countries we could realistically visit in three days. The itinerary we decided on was to fly to Latvia for a day, take a bus to Estonia, and finally take a ferry to Finland, where we’d catch a flight back to Germany and then fly back to the United States. This was actually the perfect amount of time to sample each of the three countries and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone else looking to cram a lot into a single weekend.

The first thing that struck me about Riga was the airport restrooms. I’m not sure if this is a Baltic thing or a Latvia thing, but there were only a handful of bathrooms and each one had a single sink and toilet (unisex). The airport was small but hardly the smallest I’ve ever flown into, so this intrigued me.

We hopped a taxi (our driver spoke perfect English and was very friendly) to our hotel, which was really freaking cool. The room was gorgeous and colorful, and I even enjoyed climbing the five flights of stone stairs to the room. The restaurant in the basement (where they served the complimentary breakfast) was like a cozy cave … I’m a chasmophiliac (someone who loves small, enclosed spaces) so this was right up my alley.

It was also next to a sorbet shop called John Lemon:

Riga is a great city to roam around. There are many cobblestone pedestrian walkways and plenty of random streets to explore. It rained the whole time we were there, but we’re from Seattle, so that was nothing new. In fact, my favorite part was walking along the water with the rain beating down.

We asked the hotel desk if they could recommend a place to eat that *they* liked — aka that was for locals and not for tourists. They suggested Lido, which is basically a Latvia version of Hometown Buffet, but with a traditionally-dressed staff. I have no idea what most of the food was, but I put various things on my plate, ate them, and did not die.

Damon managed a quick shot of his plate before a HUGE security guard rushed over and boomed, “DON’T PHOTO” which only resulted in our wanting to take more pictures by hiding the camera under a napkin. (Really, no photos in a buffet restaurant?)

There was no shortage of places to have a Guinness, but I picked Paddy Whelan’s. As you can see, we were sopping wet, but no matter — another Guinness in another country achieved!

The next morning we walked to the transit station and hopped a wifi-enabled bus to Tallinn, Estonia for the second segment of our journey.

As always, thanks to Damon for photographing the trip. Make sure to check out all his photos from Riga.

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