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Like any country Latvia and its citizen's had their funny quirks. Most prominently was their Russian influenced accent. This gave us hours of amusement, it was like being stuck in the dodgier scenes of a Bond film (particularly when we went to Voodoo Nightclub!). The currency in Latvia is the Lat. The Lat is an abnormally large amount of money as a single unit. i.e. It's over AU$2.50, around euro1.7, and more than 1GBP. Said with a burly Russian accent, and being such an abrupt word (lat!), we endlessly amused by the demanding sounding way the locals would ask for payment. How much for a coffee? One lat! How much for a beer? Two lats! How much for a bus to the airport? Ten lats!

Early in the trip I was approached by a shady looking character in the street; he was selling postcards. I wanted a postcard, but when I asked how much, it was one lat for 12. I really only wanted one. As I had no idea what a Latvian "cent" was (Lonely Planet informed me later that it's a santīms - which is pretty much French for "cent" but anyway..) I wasn't really in a position to argue him down. Bugger it, one lat it was.

Lonely Planet also says the Latvians can be "standoffish". This was most evident on our last night in town. We were having a few drinks in the hotel bar. When it came to closing time, the bar staff closed the bar and turned off most of the lights. They didn't come over and inform us the bar was closing - they just closed it around us. We couldn't really be bothered moving so we just stayed there talking. After another hour or two of us sitting there and security watching us and saying nothing, security then turned off the rest of the lights. Again they could have just asked us to leave, but no, they didn't. We stayed and kept talking, by about 3 or 4 in the morning the security guards fell asleep watching us! See what I mean about it's like being stuck in the dodgier scenes of a Bond film?

Mind you, if we'd really felt like partying, the Latvian party drink is coffee with balsam (or.. Riga Black Balzams). No sugary red-bull and vodka for them, it's straight out black-as-tar and bitter-as-hell balsam and black coffee. In a word: awful. Though I'm sure like any good alcohol, you'd get used to it pretty quickly ;-)

Oh, and a note of warning to prospective partying tourists. Latvian bars and club impose "Face Control". A very Orwellian of saying, if they don't like your face, you're not getting in. Like normal really, but just a funny way to say it. Face Krontrol!! Far better than unimaginative "members only" anyway.

Finally I'm not sure why, maybe because they knew I was coming in from Sweden by my phone number? Maybe because vikings are cute... err... sort of.. below are the do-not-disturb and please make up my room signs in the Metropole hotel in Rīga! Bizarre.

I quite like the Latvian flag - it's not straight out red and white, it's a dark red or maroon and white. I've heard it called "Latvian Red" too.