Latvia

The campaign rolled onto Riga on the Monday. Unfortunately missing any chance of a weekend out. So it was to be a few sedate days cruising around the old town, and checking out the locals. The old town, like the ones before was really cool. Lovely Churches, spires and buildings to wander around and soak up the history. Like all 3 Baltic countries, Latvia has had a tough past to say the least. Invaded by the Soviets in the Early part of the 1900’s, then the Germans stormed through in WWII killing 75,000, only for the Russians to retake the country after the War. They had it for 40 more years until there independence. They have been taking a hammering from all sides, this leaving the country in a rather poor state. But since its independence in 1991 and entry to the EU in 2004 its been all go.
On the Tuesday we had a good look around the new and old towns, also managing to get every piece of clothing we all owned cleaned for around £35. We then decided to have a quiet pint in a hostel bar in the arvo, and returning there after dinner to continue only due to the mad cheap pints going for around 50 cents! One drink lead to 10, and the next thing you know we had flagged the return trip to Rolling Thunder and decided to crash at the hostel the night, only being a flight of stairs away. I can’t speak for all present that night, but I’m fairly sure we were not the most popular chaps in that particular 12 bed dorm. After we tip toed in, Tom Clancy style, I managed to smash a pint on the floor (all over our jeans we discovered), sleep in some other chaps bed (Who returned in morning, angry) and both Clint and myself locked our selves out on separate occasions, mine being a little more embarrassing, clothed in my only unclean underwear! To top this off we checked out 2 hours late. All for a grand total of about £8 each. Thanks Riga.