End of the semester. What to do? Ehm…
Of course I was going to travel!! What did you expect??
The plan was to visit any of the neighboring countries (a.k.a. Latvia, Poland, Russia or Bielorussia). Russia and Bielorussia were automatically discarded because there wasn’t enough time to get our VISA. Poland we (my sister and I) didn’t go because our time was limited and we wanted to do a longer trip around the country. So Latvia, here we go.
Before I continue (or start) with the story, I’d like to mention that I still don’t know why after 3.5 years living in Lithuania I didn’t visit any of the countries around yet. And I have traveled. Oh yeah boy I did. I expect to fix this inconvenience by the end of my studies here (2.5 years left, yey!).
-Fella please, come to the point.
Alright!
On Friday the 30th of January we took a delayed bus that would drive us to Riga (capital of Latvia). The company we traveled with, Ecolines, offers a wide variety of possible combinations and low-budget-friendly! (Plus there’s free wifi inside the bus).
The hostel we stayed in was The Naughty Squirrel Backpackers. I think it’s by far one of the best (if not the best) hostels I’ve ever been. And I’ve slept in 20 of them (approx.). The facilities (bed sheets and towels included and for free, not as in the one in Sweden) the personnel, the building itself… everything excellent! Well, if the have been winning for the past 4 years the prize for the best hostel in Latvia… I would really recommend to stay there if your are planning to visit Riga.
That night we didn’t do much. Just gaby around the city but not for a long time. It was freezing. I mean it. It felt like it was -28ºC (or so my weather app said).
New day new adventures! Over the night it snowed as hell and the next day (previous one we didn’t have snow at all) we woke up with 30 cm of snow on the ground. The good thing of this was that it would give a more winterish look to the city and the pictures would look nicer.
Our itinerary: basically we just followed all the instructions that I found in this free download Riga guide (I really recommend you to check it out).
One of the places I liked the most was the St. Peter’s church tower. It was so windy up there but definitely worth the 5€ that the ticket cost.
The weather was quite nasty, very cold and snowy. We spaniards aren’t really used to this. So we would look for a refuge where we could thaw our hands from while to while. But, as they say, «what doesn’t beat you makes you stronger».
After the whole day walking around the Old town and Centre districts of the Latvian capital, we decided to head back to the hostel where we would get a power nap (I’m so in love with them). Last night in Riga, we had to do something especial. We looked for the «typical Latvian place» where we could have a beer or two and something to it.
Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs was the perfect place to finish a trip that had been on my bucket list for a long time. Overall I really enjoyed being in Riga. It’s a truly European city (or so it is its centre and oldtown). The good thing about not being a huge city is that we could somehow visit all the interest places there.
