ince I had already seen the majority of Riga yesterday today was a time to finish up what I missed yesterday. Yes you can see Riga in one day without going to all the museums and just hitting up the churches. But today was more of a rest day. I needed some down time as the next couple of days was going to be very busy. I’ll be changing hotels almost each night.
So I woke up at around 7 a.m. and laid in bed until about 8 a.m. when it was time to go downstairs and have breakfast. I made my usual toast and jelly and had a ham and cheese sandwich as well.
I then decided it would be a good time to visit the Academy of Sciences a 15-story building built during the Soviet era. It is nicknamed Stalin’s Birthday Cake. The best part is you can go to the top of the building without paying a fee. I saw a group of three ladies coming down from the stairway. And then whenever I enter the viewing area there was only one other person up there who was a worker maintaining the walls of the building. I took several pictures and made some videos. By the time I was done another group of people came up. They asked me to take their picture which I did and then I got them to take my picture. As it turns out they were from Innsbruck, Austria. We chatted a little bit and then I was on my way.
I decided it would be good timing to go to the Riga Central Market as I had to walk past it in order to get to the Academy of Sciences. So I started on my way. I spotted a church nearby and decided I would like to investigate it. It was not one of those big tourist type churches rather it was just a small Orthodox Church. As I entered there was a man who asked me to take my hands out of my pockets. Normally I keep them in there as a matter of protecting my wallet and cell phone. I keep my wallet and cell phone in my front pocket to deter pickpocketers. In Orthodox Christianity it is considered rude to have your hands in your pocket as you enter in a church. Somehow I can see their point and in some ways I feel like that Christians have become two lakhs and not showing respect when entering the house of worship. Now in the 2010s it is not all that unusual to see someone drinking coffee during worship. This is something that you would never have seen in the 1980s. It just seems like we’re just becoming too casual and worship and need to show our Lord respect. So I get the Orthodox way of thinking.
Since I had already experienced a Orthodox worship service before I was kind of familiar with the chanting and decided it was time to move on to other things period plus having my hands outside of my pocket made me a bit uneasy because I’m always afraid of pickpocketers.
The next place I was to visit was familiar with pickpocketing. It was the Riga Central Market. All the forums that I had looked at said that pickpocketing could be experienced here. I kept aware of my surroundings and I was pleasantly surprised that after my experience at the Central Market I was not pickpocketed.
The Riga Central Market is somewhat like a farmers market where you can find all manner of Goods inside of the old Zeppelin hangers from World War I In the area where they sold fish is all very fresh fish as in you could still see the fish flopping around in the display case.
I did see suitcases there which I could have used to come back home as the wheels on my suitcases were in bad shape. But I wasn’t sure of the quality of these suitcases so I decided to pass.
I got back to my room and decided now would be a good time to try and figure out where the bus stop was to catch my bus to the airport tomorrow morning. The bus ride is a good 30 minutes so I want to make sure that I get to the airport in time to go through security and make my flight. Luckily my hotel is located just a few hundred feet from the bus stop so it should be no problem tomorrow morning. The hotel staff recommended that I buy a ticket from a convenience store beforehand as I will save a little bit of money and we’ll have the hassle of trying to buy it from the driver.
I came back to my hotel room and lay down a bit before going out again. My next objective was to find the 1991 Revolution Museum. But first I decided I needed to get something to eat. A check to Google for burger restaurants. I decided on Corner Burgers which had good reviews. It was a 6-minute walk away. I found it with no real problems. I ordered a cheeseburger fries and Sprite. Of course the Sprite was in a glass bottle and it’s never enough for me especially whenever I’m eating salty fries and a burger. I was the only one in the restaurant and the staff was friendly and took my order. The burger came with a lot of vegetables on it which I promptly removed. I’m not sure if I should try to explain to a restaurant staff that I don’t eat vegetables or if it’s just good to take off the vegetables that I won’t eat whenever the food comes. Usually I choose the latter. The food was good but as One reviewer has pointed out before the cheese was liquidy. It’s almost as if they use that jalapeno cheese you get with corn chips at Mexican restaurants. But it was good nonetheless. Afterwards I decided to try and find the 1991 Revolution exhibit. I had a little bit of difficulty finding it but eventually I located it. It’s in a nondescript part of town almost hidden behind some alley.
The exhibit itself is free and has some great Soviet artifacts from the 1990s.
I was somewhat familiar with the Revolutions in the baltics. I can remember Lithuania declaring their independence and the Soviets closing the border with Poland. I had always seen Lithuania is kind of the one that leads the rest of the Baltic States. I wasn’t sure how Latvia fell into this but the museum opened up my understanding of it. As it turns out a big part of the Revolution was The barricades. That is the opposition students around important Latvia areas including the television tower and other media Outlets so as to not let the Soviets seize them.
Afterwards I shopped around for souvenirs. When I am traveling abroad always like to get a shirt a patch and the flag from the country I visit. It’s always difficult to find a shirt which I like and that will not have damage after washing period too many times these tourist shops sell low quality shirts whose lettering rubs off during washing. I am willing to pay a little bit more in order to get a decent shirt.
Next I literally stumbled upon the Popular Front Museum. I don’t think it’s mentioned in the guidebooks that I have but it was well worth the free admission fee in order to see more history about the 1991 Revolution.
After doing a bit of more souvenir shopping I went to the main Square wear a bright orange Volkswagen minibus was parked. Apparently it was a promotion by Banana Car is a ride sharing service in the Baltics. The young photographer was taking pictures of young ladies who had volunteered to have their picture made. An older woman who did not speak English very well tried to explain to me how the photos were to appear on the company’s website. I kept hanging around to see if I might be chosen to have my photo made but I really think that he was just doing it for young ladies as the subjects. I made several pictures of the Volkswagen minibus as I found it so unusual for iconic car to be parked so near a historic site.
At some point during the day a young man asked me for money.
At some point during the day a young man asked me for money. Normally I would be sympathetic to him but he had already asked me yesterday and I had given him 1 euro. I could see where this was going and I had told him that he asked me already. He tried to come back with oh I did not ask you already wishing that since I told him “bye bye” to signify that he needed to leave. Normally I’m not too blunt with people but in this case I saw what this kid was trying to do that is live off of the generosity of others rather than actually trying to get a job that I was kind of perturbed at him. Plus it is kind of unusual to be asked by the same person two days in a row for money. There are plenty of other visitors to Riga and I am very surprised that he asked me twice.
I managed to get a flag a hockey jersey and a patch among other things. I came back to the room to rest and check social media. I decided to go out to eat again and chose Pizza Hut. On Tuesday they had a buy-one-get-one-free special but unfortunately that special was only available on Tuesdays. So I got a personal pan pizza with garlic bread and a 7-Up. They brought the garlic bread with either a garnish or Salad I wasn’t sure. The bread was kind of small and I am disappointed I paid 2 Euro for it. The pizza was good. It was American Style with fluffy bread and plenty of tomato sauce something you cannot get on normal European pizzas. Normally European pizzas are flat with very little tomato sauce period mostly it’s just cheese and bread and not very filling.
I’ve got a big day tomorrow as I will be getting up early and catching the 9:40 a.m. flight to Helsinki. I’ll visit Helsinki the rest of the day and part of the next day before heading to Tallinn via Ferry.
Looking back on today I think I could have gone to another area of Latvia nearby but sometimes you just have to have a slow day in order to rest and recuperate before heading off to another destination. If I ever come back to the Baltics I’ll be sure to visit any other places that I might have missed. The baltics have been very good to me and it wouldn’t be a bad place to revisit some time in the distant future.