Made it to Riga in the early afternoon, stopped at the Cili Picas (a restaurant conglomerate spread throughout the Baltic States) with pretty poor pizza and coffee. The hostel, per Tu-Vac's recommendation was the Argonaut Hostel run by his friend Karlis. Kicking place, generally clean, free espresso and tea and internet, large open space with a flat screen, and beer available in the fridge for 0.60 LAT....It turned out that this would be my home for the next four nights. I originally planned to make this stop about 2 nights, until I was introduced to Olly and Jonny, two of the Aussies on the first night!
Met them in the open area when I first walked in and turned out that we were in the same room for the next 2 nights. After checking in, I wondered the Riga streets and came across many historic churches, a castle, the Daugava River and the Freedom Monument (Erected in 1935 during Latvia's brief period of independence between the wars and is know locally as Milda. It has been a powerful symbol of anti-Soviet resistance and served as the focus of gatherings in the late 1980's during early stages of the drive for independence. Not sure why the Soviets never tore it down. Now it is a shrine to national independence for Latvia).
That night, Olly, Jonny, three other Aussies (Brett, Omar, Heath), and a couple others, all went out to dinner, drinks, and than some night clubbing. Turned out to be a pretty fun evening on the dance floor, especially when the dancing changed from techno magic to breakin-too, electric bugaloo.....yes, that's right, a circle was formed and the breakin moves and stalls were happening in the center...it even got so bad that I pulled out the Back Spinner into the Moving Caterpillar...poor showing, but fun times!!!
The next three days, the five Aussies and me hung out in the city, cruised to the Baltic Sea, observed the Latvian Women (which notched its way ahead of Lithuania), Occupational Museum, and a road trip by van across the country....here's the low down on the road trip:
Brett is of Latvian decent and had several family members leave Latvia in a hurry at the time of World War II for Australia. One of the family members stayed in Latvia at the family house, which was in Leipna, located about 250 kilometers to the east of Riga (really close to the Russia border). Brett's father had been in Latvia ten years ago and was able to track their history to this town, but not able to find the relative. With this in mind, Brett was set to find his relative, or at least make the effort to the town and go from there. The six of us rented a sweet Astro Van and kicked it all the way to Leipna along paved, dirt, gravel, and pot-holed highways. About 3 hours by van and we arrived in Leipna.
We stopped off at the market and Brett worked his magic by illustrating to the two ladies his family tree and circling the relative living in Leipna. The ladies spoke no english, but understood and made some phone calls. Within 5 minutes, the market was full of most of the town and people were talking quickly to each other to try and assist Brett. It turned out that they knew where the relative lived and two young high school kids, who spoke a little english would take us their and act as translators for Brett and hopefully relative. It worked, the relative was there and he invited Brett in and than took us to the house where they grew up....it was pretty wild moment and one that I will not forget, but more importantly, a story and reunification of this Latvian/Austrailian family...so cool!!!
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