Took the coach to Latvia this morning. It left at a sensible time of ten o’clock, so we could sleep in. Pretty uneventful journey; two stop and a passport control later we were in Rīga, and it looks much more Eastern Eurpoean than Estonia was. Lots of big grey buildings and tower blocks all over the place. It’s like I was expecting Tallinn to be like I think. It does get nicer when you get into the old town though.
We had a room booked at the Placis Hostel, and the only instructions were to catch the number four trolleybus from Merķela Iela to the Teika stop. We found the start point on the map and got on the bus, but had no idea where it was going, so spent the journey scouring signs for ‘Teika’. Eventually found the place to get off, but we weren’t on the right road, so ended up walking for ages looking for it. It didn’t help that there were no street signs. We found a map in a phone booth in the end and found the place, which was actually the Placis Hotel, not Hostel, but is still cheap and is pretty nice.
We then went back into town for dinner, which was very good food, outside a nice restaurant near St. Peter’s church, which seems to be the hangout for the local goths. Then we went off to look for an internet cafe, which we’ve obviously found. Tomorrow it’s off to Lithuania to meet Shay, who is coming up from Poland.