more on rīga

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.

easter in latvia

Last Easter I was in Vietnam, which doesn't celebrate it, and so I had a bit of a short long weekend. This year however it's an entirely different proposition. Sweden celebrates Easter with eggs, bunnies and witches and the usual 4-day weekend. (This isn't quite as good as Norway which has a 5-day weekend, but never mind, four days is enough).

After chatting to a friend from work, Feodor, I was invited to go to Rīga, Latvia, with him and a few others. This is very Australian thing to do I think: hit Europe and waste no time in trying to see as much as possible.

A few minutes later I was on airBaltic's site I found what I was looking for: a 5kr flight direct to Rīga. Five krona is around $1, can't do much better than that! We stayed in the "Metropole" hotel, famous in Rīga for being the only hotel that stayed open through-out Soviet and Nazi occupations of Latvia. In fact these occupations of Latvia have not been as disastrous on the local infrastructure as has occurred elsewhere.

Rīga comprises of "Old Rīga" which is pre-1900's and "New Rīga" which is 1900's onwards. Old Rīga is world heritage listed as it has well preserved examples of buildings from the 12th to the 19th century.

After the advent of gun-powder, city walls went out of fashion. In Rīga they turned land freed up by this into a series of canals and parkland. So the old town is now surrounded by wide cobble stoned boulevards with trams rolling along them, parkland and canals. It really was a picturesque town.

Over the canal, and past the freedom monument, is New Rīga, which has it's own architectural delights. In the early 1900's there was an art moment called Art Nouveau, or really when you are talking about the German inspired version it's called Jugendstil. It incorporates lots of long flowing lines, flower-like designs, and in Rīga there are faces incorporated into the designs. An example of this architecture in Melbourne is the City Baths.

The weather went crazy over the weekend too, and put on a real show for us. It snowed like it was the middle of winter.

The snow only served to enhance the city's beauty further. Did it matter that I don't have any clothes suitable for snow? Not really - when the worst of the came we could always pop inside for a beer.

Being a Baltic state, Latvia has a reputation for cheap alcohol. Although it's far cheaper than Sweden (2 pots cost me $20 in Sweden last night!), it isn't any cheaper than Australia. One Latvian lats is equal to $2.5 - not very favourable for the Australian tourist. Not that it deterred us. Some good nights out were had :-)