When we arrived we were surprised to see the modern hotel and fancy cable stayed bridge.
We decided we needed to roll into Riga in style so we had a limo pick us up to take us to our hostel in style! I picked the color.
The city had a very bizarre feel. We saw lots of fancy cars (like the one above, as well as much less fruity nice ones) and the appearance of lots of money, but at the same time it was pretty common to find an old dilapidated (we said that word a lot while we were there) building sandwiched between two nice buildings.
Adding to my series of anti-American graffiti, here's a defiled billboard depicting two of the world's most honest and ambivalent leaders. 
We eventually checked into our cute little hostel. The people working there were super nice and we had a beautiful view of an old building being torn down. Ahh nothing like the serenades of eastern European towns to wake you up in the morning!We spent our day wandering around town. Here's the Freedom Monument erected for Latvian independence.
Later we ran across what appeared to be a bizarre piece of art until we realized that we weren't the only ones on an eastern European vacation.
The interior of St. Peters church:
We saw this cool statue of what we can only interpret as the food chain, but one thing was missing. The chain goes as follows:1. Cat eats chicken
2. Pig eats cat
3. Cow eats pig
4. Blake eats cow!
Here's the old town wall that surrounded Riga:
Ratslaukums Square in the old town:
After a long day of sightseeing we had a meal of traditional Russian and Latvian cuisine. After that we ran to Skonto stadium to go see a free football match. I know what you're thinking? Skonto? Free? Well you'll only be further baffled by the fact that this was the semi-finals of the Baltic championships pitting hated rivals Skonto-Riga FC against Riga FC. We all came expecting to have to drop 500 Lats on tickets for such an epic grudge match but lucky for us we stumbled upon a coupon for free tickets (good work Kathleen).Now before I begin this next story I have to back up to explain one of the many bizarre stories from our adventures. At some point Jason was talking about cooking or something and how he enjoyed ginger. Apparently there is such thing as a ginger shredder. Courtney, my girlfriend - and Kathleen, my loyal good friend naturally turned the word ginger into anti-redhead hate speak.
So when we showed up to the stadium, our expectations were high and we found the stadium nearly devoid of life. When we walked up with our tickets torn out of the news paper one of the bouncers (who was so enormous he had satellites orbiting his massive frame) inspected our newpaper tickets much too closely. I made the mistake of making a joke along the lines of "I hope we can find a place to sit." He apparently was not amused and in particular seemed to hate me. This person was given the nickname as The Ginger Shredder. This is a blurry photo Courtney took. It was likely blurry because she took it in haste since he already seemed like he wanted to kill me ...
Despite the fact that my life was perhaps nearing its end, we enjoyed the match as our heroes masterfully won a convincing victory.
The crowd went wild following the final whistle.After the dominating semi-final victory (and after Jason got us lost thus ending his first and only shot at playing navigator), we went to a pub that had a little frog obsession. I know what you're thinking ... I know a few people who were all into frogs. They were really trendy for a while. Ok, take that weird friend and multiply it by a billion:
After a round here we were sufficiently creeped out and we then set out for our hostel, stopping only for a couple beers (which were recommended by a very smelly convenience store patron) and a bottle of Riga's finest sparkling wine. Naturally we savored the wine:
We then called it a night. But the party was not over. Munich was right around the corner ...Next Post: Oktoberfest! ! !
3 comments:
Blake, your description of the frog bar is brilliant. And of the ginger shredder and his orbitting satellites... good times.
However, that sculpture does not include a cow, it's a donkey. So Blake eats ass! Ha! (Gross.)
Not that I'm dwelling on such things, but, had I not gotten us lost, we never we would have found the awesome 24hr convenience store to sell us delicious champagne and beer. So basically, I am hero!
Seriously though, I think Riga was my favorite part of the trip (actually tied with the first 5 hours of Oktoberfest). Those non-mans who weren't on this splendid trip should go ASAP!
Also, I forgot to give you props on the sweet pic from St. Peters with the light from the opposite window. Nice!
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