Unicorns, a chocolate factory and the best Cuban bar outside of Havana. Riga, Latvia
ith no good train options to speak of, the easiest way to get from Tallinn to Riga is by bus. They’re big, comfortable and inexpensive. I think it was only a four-hour ride and plenty of things to look at out the window. Or, you could probably have a better time renting a car and stopping along the way at some of the sites I read about, but we missed just taking the bus.
Rigas Old Town seemed familiar at this point, sharing similarities of Tallinn and other Medieval towns; the formula of cobblestones, stores for the tourists selling amber and jewelry, restaurants with wooden medieval people pointing the way to dark cellars that serve overpriced ‘authentic’ medieval fare on heavy wooden tables.
1. Things to see
If anything was different from Tallinn it’s that some of the buildings seemed better preserved, more colorful, more quaint. There was also an old church with bronze animal statues scattered about – a unicorn, lizard, owl, and merry-go-round to make you dizzy. Downtown Riga seemed playful whereas Tallinn more business-oriented to the ships of tourists that disembark each day.
Wandering around town we came across a river, some small wooden boat tours and thought it might make an interesting diversion and photo opportunity. It was inexpensive and a 60 min ride along the river sounded promising. However, in the end, there wasn’t much to see or photograph – the boat just took us out to a larger river where we saw a few cruise ships lined up, a bridge, and the small city in the distance, in this case, it wasn’t worth it but did give us a chance to just relax for a bit.
The Laima Chocolate factory is also worth a visit on rainy days, it’s the largest producers of chocolate in Latvia, of course, we had never heard of it – however, we made our way (unfortunately without an umbrella) and spent a few hours inside tasting chocolates, looking at vintage wrappers, and taking all sorts of interactive photos of ourselves. The idea was that when we got back to the hotel we could download our photos, but their system didn’t work. So… meh… It was still a fun visit and the gift shop had good priced chocolates.
We also stopped at the Riga Skyline Bar, an upscale eatery high in the sky that offers excellent views of the city. The booths near the windows, of course, were all taken, but not to worry – in the bathrooms you’re free to take some great photos from the giant floor to ceiling windows (if you don’t mind taking photos in bathrooms) 😉 We ordered a drink, sat for a while and then continued our walk through Riga.
The next great find was another trampoline! I guess it’s a thing now, in parks, to set up 10 or 12 oversized trampolines and then charge per 10 minutes. This session proved as fun as the last one. We did in another city. Trampolines never get old, but the poor girl working the booth looked awfully bored.
Then came a flower garden, more of the old town, sleep and repeat the next day. Along with another period dinner with oversized glasses of beer and enough food to feed a host of clones.While Medieval towns don’t get old that fast, one does wonder what’s outside the walls and what the rest of Riga and Latvia are like. If I had more time I would have wanted to rent a car and just drive around the country for a week.
View from Sky Bar
Blue house
Around Riga
Flower garden
Merry-go-round
Bright houses
More around town
At the chocolate factory
2. Nightlife
The brightest point for my travel partner was finding a Cuban Bar, that served the best drinks outside of Havana. They made something called a Havana Sazerac
- Havana 7 y.o.
- Absinthe
- Peychaud’s bitters
- sugar
- water
- orange peel
that kept us coming back night after night. The Caipirinha, Negroni Sour, and Mojitos were great as well. It was just a dive bar with mismatched furniture, flags with Che Guevara and a bartender with a very long beard – but it was the best find in Latvia.
Cuban bar
Havana Sazerac
3. Spend
You can pretty much count on the same kind of things for sale here as Tallinn and other medieval places; jewelry, amber, earthenware and pottery, period dress, and whatever they think travelers might fall for.
4. Food
The food was pretty tame, a bunch of international restaurants in the old town area open at night. We were eating at a hamburger place and noticed an older man following us, turns out he was sketching our portrait outside while we ate, and then tried to sell it to us.
More foods!
5. Getting Around
Feet.
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6. Costs
Riga was exceedingly cheap to eat and drink in. If you want to stretch your budget you can spend more time in towns like this. Even further, if you stay out of the tourist area.
