I've returned back from Riga last Sunday but got bogged down in work and forgot to update the blog. The trip was one of the best short breaks I've ever been to. It's comparable to the trip to Romania culture-wise and that's quite a statement.

The best decision I made was staying at a B&B instead of a hostel. I wanted to go to Latvia to meet people and to learn about the recent history of the place and the Home Stay B&B was the ticket to long discussions about Latvia and everything else that happened to fall into the middle of the conversations with Ric and Diga the hosts of the place.

Autumn is probably the worst time to visit the place because it was grey, quite cold, got dark early and there wasn't any snow. Luckily it wasn't raining except on the last day which I spent indoors anyway. On the first two days I went visited all the main attractions of the city centre, on Saturday I went to Sigulda and I spent the whole Sunday enjoying a Latvian Family.

Thursday
St. Peter's Church - the view from the top was well worth the cold wind blowing in my face
Blackheads building - One of the nicest buildings I've ever seen
Dome Square - Dome square is dome square is dome square is I don't know
The Occupation Museum - I found this interesting even though I'm not usually a big fan of museums. The only pity was that there's so little about the independence events, the thing I was mostly interested in.
In the evening I spent the whole evening chatting and drinking Latvian beer with the family I was living with in the B&B. The beer wasn't bad but the chatting was better.

Friday
Alberta Street, Elizabeta street etc. to see the art nouveau area. Even though I know almost nothing about architecture it was very nice.
Freedom monument and the bridge with the padlocks. I saw the change of the guards.
Cat house and the three brothers - Some more buildings
I went for lunch at a garlic restaurant. All the items on the menu here are with garlic including the shots of vodka and the ice-cream. I pity the chefs who work there. In the evening there was a doom metal concert at the depo. Attending a Latvian doom metal concert wasn't in my plans but this was too good an opportunity to miss. The bands that played were Year Zero, Vic Anselmo, Frality, Aldevia, Ocularis Infernum.

Saturday
I went to Sigulda, a village 1hr by train away from Riga, to try the bobsleigh. The adrenalin rush was only second to the skydive. The 45 or so seconds going down the track were spent hoping that the driver knew what he was doing. It was fantastic. After the bobsleigh I went up the cable car and went for a walk in the forest on the other side of the cable car. In the evening I returned back to Riga and went to the Lido. It was difficult to get there because at first I thought I could walk there, but I soon realised that it wasn't that near and the Moscow district didn't look like the most inviting of places. The variety of Latvian food made the hassle to arrive worth it.

Sunday
I spent the whole day with Diga and Ric. In the morning I went out with Sara their Alsation dog to the lake, then in the afternoon the extended family joined for a Sunday lunch. This was a real opportunity to talk for hours about Latvia, mingle with the locals and taste the food. It kept going on from 2pm till 8pm until I had to leave.

All in all it was a very active weekend, so active that I didn't read a single page of the book I took with me A murder in the central committee and I had to write the whole diary after I came back – which is also part of the reason for the delay in the update.