Known for: Having a currency stronger than the British pound ) GBP

This week see me in Riga, the capital of Latvia in eastern part of Europe.  Sadly this city has been hotspot for Brits who visit this city for their Stag do’s / Bucks parties as alcohol is quite cheap and local women are drop dead gorgeous. I had also read that the Latvians aren’t as found of Brits, as the Brits are of their women and as a result some bars do not allow tourists in (Even if you are of the Asian persuasion in my case lol).Unfortunately for me, I was stuck in a plane with at least 3 different stag groups. One of the groups were extremely rowdy, trying to create what they called a “party atmosphere” with their slurred northern English accents, unfortunate looks and lack of respect of other people. One of them even had the nerve to tell a Latvian man to his face “we’re going to F*** up your town something stupid this weekend …”. There were also young children within earshot of this bell end. For those don’t know what a bell end is… check it out on urban dictionary 😛

I don’t normally speak negatively about places/people but this kind of behavior has to be publicly shamed and discouraged. I’m all for stag do’s but being a public nuisance is a different thing altogether.

Plane ride aside I quickly (along with my travel crew of 3 other people, Ann, Ada and Kev) navigated our hotel in the city of Riga. My initial perception of Eastern European cities was one of war torn cities in the rebuild stage…(damn that Eurotrip movie!) however to my surprise Riga City’s centre was very clean, modern and quite pretty with the mix of old and new architecture throughout the city. As we landed on a Friday night, the locals we passed were extremely well dressed and you could have easily been mistaken into thinking you were in Paris or Stockholm or some other cosmopolitan city.

Our Friday night landed us in McDonalds satisfying our hungry bellies (yes Big Mac’s tastes the same in Riga as it does in London and Melbourne!) and chatting about why the local kids we’re staring through the window at us. We deduced that it was either

a)      They thought PSY and his crew were in the house and wanted us to “Gangnam style“ (so 2012)

b)      A little curious – as not too many Asian peeps pass through the city.

c)       Combination of both!

The Following day we took a bike tour around the city to see the sights both around the city centre and also the surrounding suburbs to see the “Real Riga”. The bike tour was more bike ride than tour so I cannot unleash too much trivia knowledge for you this time round! The one thing that was explained is that Art Noveau is very popular in Riga, so much so the city centre (Albert street) is a UNESCO heritage site celebrating the collection of Art Noveau buildings. I think the distinguishing feature of this art style is the decorative pieces on windows & balconies which differ from traditional  architecture. Ok you got me… I got no idea on art… but at least I tried right?!

The other main site is the Freedom monument which pays tribute Latvia’s independence from Russia (Geez I hope I remembered that correctly!) Sitting atop the monument is ‘Milda’ holding three rings representing the three regions of the country. The Opera house is another landmark building in Riga. It is a majestic building which sits next to one of the city’s park and on a summers day it is a popular venue for newlyweds (wedding photos) and sunbathers/people watchers alike. We watch about 3 different newlyweds take photos in the same spot within an hour!

We also managed to eat some traditional Latvian grub which was described to us as pork and potatoes! Nonetheless we tried the local food at a traditional “pub” which had let’s just say a very unique atmosphere to it (smelt too much like tinkle for my liking!) but the locals there were HUMONGOUS! I guess the pork and potatoes must work after all.

The nightlife in Riga is surprising diverse and we didn’t come across any stag groups at all. I’m guessing they must have been busy exploring the seedier side of town! Riga has numerous hole the wall bars and some very plush clubs. We checked out “The Club” (original name right!?) I must add this place had THE BEST music I have heard in a club for awhile and it was good the ENTIRE night. It played commercial house/party anthems… the kind of songs where everyone has heard it on the radio and probably know the words too. We met a few locals, who were very friendly, but the music was kind of loud (and damn catchy!) so we figured it was more fun to speak a little less and dance & drink a little more!

http://www.theclub.lv/

After a serious zumba-type workout we slowly stumbled back to our hotel… but something was a little different with the night sky… it still looked like 9pm! Either way it was a good opportunity to take some panoramic photos (at 3am) and some selfies for good measure!

After almost missing breakfast the following morning what better way to recover from a slightly boozy night but to head to the local beach!

Jurmala is the town’s local beach with its own outdoor beach bar and some of the best beach shore I have seen in Europe. The water was a tad murky but it was too cold to swim anyway! To get there it’s a short 20 min train ride of the city’s central station (near the opera house). Ticket costs around £1 one way. Almost everyone who catches this train is a local so it’s fun mixing in and amongst the local crowd. Turns out the day we went it also coincided with big cycling event which gave the beach town an awesome buzz.

Riga has opened my eyes to how beautiful and underrated Eastern Europe is. Of course when people think Europe its more the western countries in the spotlight, but for those who have time and are a little curious definitely check out Riga! I hear the neighbouring country of Estonia is just as pretty and I one day hope to check it out for myself.

Paldies!

JD