Riga Rox!

Ok, no more desultory remarks, here's what actually transpired in Riga...

 

Hmm, I really haven't been all that in touch with the calendar since getting here, but lets do the math.  Today's Sunday the first and I arrived in Riga a week and a half ago on a Wednesday, so that must have been (counting on my fingers...) Sept 20?  Something like that.  Anyway, I got off the bus from Tallinn and slowly got my bearings.  Actually I just started walking in the general direction toward where I thought the hostel was.  I had a couple Riga city guides that my friend had given me in Tallinn (much more involved that the few pages I'd cut out from the lonely planet Europe book) and after walking for five minutes or so I decided to pull out the map and see if I could figure out where I was.  Not too bad, I hadn't overshot the hostel by too much, but I had been going off a little bit in the wrong direction.  I just had to turn down a few streets and there I was.  How did I decide on this hostel?  The allure of a dorm bed for five Lats was just too much to resist! 

When I arrived, there was a young guy talking to the girl at the desk.  She asked if I wanted a bed in the 15 person room, one of the 8 person rooms, or one of the smaller rooms.  The smaller the room, the more it cost.  Each room had one bathroom, so basically you paid a little more to share the bathroom with less people.  As it turned out, the 15 person room was also on the top floor so if you don't like climbing lots of stairs, that might be another excuse to pony up some more cash.  The guy told me to take the cheap bed -- that's where he was staying.  He was a bit dodgy, but seemed like a nice enough guy, and everybody knows I was cheap and there was never a question in my mind anyway, so obviously that's the room I took.  I didn't have any money on me yet though, could I come back in a minute?  Great, where's the nearest bank machine?  Down the street, great, can I leave my bag here for a minute?  Perfect.  So off I was to fill my wallet up with as I've mentioned a little too much Lat for the two or three nights I planned on staying...  I came back, paid for my bed (there was also a 5L deposit for the key which was a bit annoying -- really, imagine leaving ten dollars as a deposit that you won't get back until right before you plan on leaving the country...) and got settled in to my room.  Then I went out to get my bearings and check out the market halls that my friend in Tallinn had told me about.  Apparently they were old Zepelin hangers from the war that have since been converted into this huge indoor/outdoor market place.  Inside there was lots of fish, meat and dairy products.  Outside they had fresh produce and everything else you might expect to find at a flea market -- shoes, purses, clothes, sunglasses...  Some booths were just a table and umbrella, others were more permanent structures that locked up at night.  I wandered around and finally picked up my standard bottle of water, and a liter of kefir for dinner.  The sun was going down so I headed back to the hostel to see if I could find anybody interested in going out. 

Back at the hostel, it was still too early for the night life, but I talked to the guy I'd met by the front desk and asked if he knew where I could get a shot of balsam -- something I'd been told I had to try while I was there and something which would "cure my cold".  He took me to a bar in the neighborhood and had the guy make me a glass of hot black currant juice mixed with balsam and a lemon wedge -- it was pretty good and did leave me feeling a bit better =)  We played some pool, and then headed back to the hostel.  By this point there were a few guys looking to head out to the bars.  I left the guy from earlier and headed out with them. 

I should add some context here.  Riga is apparently known for its nightlife, and cheap flights and relatively cheaper cost of living draw tourists from all over Europe.  As such you do end up with an environment that begrudgingly caters to rich tourists.  Although there's no actual "red light" district, at night, the entire old town area changes its flavor a bit and you're constantly besieged at every corner by russians handing out flyers for yet another "exotic dance" club.  "Come, follow me, I take you now, I give you special entry, 5 lat and two free drinks..."  The irish guys I with said to steer clear of these places as they were all mobbed up and as soon as you went in some girl would expect you to buy her a 600 Lat bottle of champagne and if you didn't some thug would drag you back to your hostel and extort you for all you were worth.  Personally I can't attest to any such stories myself so I don't know how much of this is exageration and how much is reality.  At the first bar we went to, I met a group of 15 or so vacationers from england who'd all flown down to party for a few days with their old friends from college.  One of the girls in the group told me to watch out because her friend had been assaulted the night before just sitting outside the bar we were in.  A couple of guys had just come up to him and started wailing on him until he handed over his wallet.  She added somewhat tongue in cheek that at least they weren't all bad -- when he called after them "hey guys, can I at least have my passport back?" the were nice enough to take it out and throw it back to him.  Again, this is all hearsay, but I heeded the warnings...

I eventually left with the Irish guys from my hostel and we headed over to another bar/club.  Oh, actually, I just remembered, I was pretty hungry at this point, so before I even really joined them at the first bar, I ran off looking for anything to eat.  While waiting at an outdoor beer garden type place and considering a bowl of soup, I bumped into Adam -- an american guy who I probably haven't mentioned yet since I'm recounting all of this somewhat in reverse...  I briefly met Adam at my hostel back in Helsinki.  He and two of his friends from Virginia were taking 8 months to travel around the world.  We exchanged email addresses and since Helsinki we've bumped into each other a good four or five times.  This was one of the last times and once again it was only for a minute.  When I told him I was looking for anything to eat, he suggested the McDonalds right down the street -- I said thanks and hurried off in that direction.  Anyway, as I was saying, we left the first bar and headed over to "Pulkvedim" -- or something like that.  I never could get the name of the bar down, but it was my favorite one there and at the hostel everybody just referred to it as the "left-right-left" bar, because well, that's how you got there.  As you headed out the hostel you just went left, then took the first right, then again the first left.  Unfortunately I wasn't going there from the hostel, I had no map on me, and I had no idea where I was, so I was kind of at the mercy of the irish guys to get me back home again.  Don't get me wrong, they were nice guys, but at the same time, after meeting them and seeing a lot of the other tourists, I can understand why I spent a lot of my stay defending myself from accusations that I was just another "sex tourist".  I kind of thought it would be funny to have a shirt made up that said "I am not a sex tourist!"  These guys were going up to every girl and trying to talk her up.  Of course every time they had any luck, five minutes later you'd hear the tall one yell "scatter".  Apparently that was code which meant he'd finally figured out they were talking to "working girls" and it was time to move on before some thug showed up.  Thus went the walk to this second bar.  As usual, when we arrived, one of the guys started talking to two girls having a smoke outside.  They were aloof, but he was persistent.  Personally, and I was a bit irritated myself and just wanted to go inside.  Somehow it came out in their conversation that she had spent some time in Germany, so I switched over to german and although she said she could only remember a little, she instantly warmed up a bit more to me.  I know, it's a cheap trick, but it seems to work.  Suddenly I'm not just another english speaking sex tourist, I'm an english speaking sex tourist who speaks another language =) 

When we finally made our way into the club, I headed for the dance floor and for the last time bumped into my fellow americans from Virginia.  Finally, some guys who understood the value of a little subtlety!  I spent most of the rest of the night just having a good time on the dance floor. It was fun to watch the dynamics between the locals and the tourists and very easy to tell who was who.  Actually, I hadn't known this before, but somebody mentioned that for some reason there are a lot more women than men in Latvia.  I don't know how true this is, or what the real statistics are, but it did appear to be the case.  Latvian guys, much like the guys in Helsinki, also seemed rather reluctant to dance.  As such, it was a good bet that any given guy on the dance floor was probably a tourist...

When I went over to the bar to order a drink, I had the good fortune of bumping into Linda again -- the girl from out front.  I said hi and as I went to order a drink, she gave me some advice, "when you order a drink, always ask before hand what the price is.  In Riga there are always three prices, the one for friends of the bartender, the one for locals, and the one for tourists..."  Then she tore a red slip of paper off the wall which had a price list and gave it to me telling me not to let me charge more than what was posted on the list.  I thanked her and ordered my drink. 

Later I saw her again on the dance floor dancing with a guy.  I was impressed because he could really dance!  He seemed somewhat possesive and I asked her if he was her in German if he was her boyfriend to which she responded yes.  We stayed on the dance floor for a long time, and when they left to get some fresh air I followed to thank her for being nice and to try introducing myself to the guy.  Outside I introduced myself and he gave me a pretty dirty look.  I think one of his friends had just been in a fight with a tourist and had some blood on his fist.  I couldn't help wondering if it was one of the guys from my hostel!  I was getting nothing.  I went back in and it seemed like my group was getting ready to go.  I went back out and gave it one more try -- they were sitting down on the curb across the street so I sat down next to him and told him I just wanted to say he had a really nice girlfriend and I wanted to thank her for being so helpful to me.  Somehow this time he loosened up a little bit and we all started to have a nice conversation.  It was great!  This was exactly what I was looking for -- an opportunity to meet some locals.  We finally went back in, ordered a round of drinks and sat down at a table and talked for a good hour or so.  His name was Kris -- he had been pretty big in the skateboarding circuit, but it had been a while since he'd really practiced or competed and he had a competition coming up that weekend.  After talking a while, it came out he wasn't actually Linda's boyfriend -- she had only just met him one time before herself!  Anyway, it was fun.  I asked what they were doing the next night, but they were busy working, so we exchanged emails, but never did see each other again.  Either way, it was nice to have a chance to talk to people who lived there and get their perspective rather than just hanging out with other tourists. 

Robert is here with his son now and we're going to go for a bike ride, so I'll continue this more later.

Ciao...