Riga and Sigulda , Latvia

We arrived in Riga really early in the morning because the bus ride from Vilnius to Riga is only 5 hours. We stayed at this really fun hostel. When you enter the hostel you are first in a bar and then you can open the bookshelf to reveal a staircase which leads to the dorm rooms. Really cute! As we were so early they let us have a nap on the floor of the kitchen. Yeah I know I am all class!

After a nap we had a look around town. When we were in Vilnius we meet this Aussie guy who told us that the exchange rate between Australian dollars and Lats was divide by 3. However we did not check which way he meant to divide by. So I was a bit shocked when I withdrew 200LS from the ATM and they came in 20LS bills. After a bit of shopping at the supermarket the penny dropped! LATS are equal to the pound! Silly of us for not checking. Needless to say i did not plan on spending all that cash in our 3 days in Latvia!

After looking around the town we went to the Occupation Museum to learn more about the history of Latvia and the other Baltic states. I could not believe how long they had been occupied for and that they only became independent 16 years ago. The Museum was really interesting and I would recommended it to everyone!

This house is next to the Guild Hall. When the owner of the house was not allowed to join the Guild Hall he turned the cats around so that their butts faced the Hall. It is now one of the big jokes of Latvia.

The Freedom Monument!

That night we went on a boat cruise down the Daugava river. Treas was conceived that the bridges over the river were used as example in our textbooks in first year uni. I have to admit my memory is not that good.

Treas and one of the bridges.

The next day wee took a bus to Sigulda to see the national park and go canoeing. The town of Sigulda is really cute and we stayed with this family in their spare granny flat. Sorry I didn't take any phones of canoeing cos I was worried about my camera getting wet.

Canoeing was great fun but it was very cold and wet. After canoeing we took a bus back to Riga and then got another one to Tallinn, Estonia. This time Treas convinced me not to take a night bus. He just wanted a really nights sleep for once. Fair enough! So we got to Tallinn at 11pm. We meet these really nice people on the bus who were coming back from some European Union teenage conference. One of them got her dad to give us a lift to the hostel! How nice is that!