After late landing from Bulgaria, we had a very brief night back in London to feed Lord Fred, then set off the following morning for Riga, in Latvia, to see in 2018.
When we landed in the early afternoon, the thermometer showed a high of 0 degrees, and a light snow was falling. This was not going to be the warmest of trips. However, there would be a bit of luxury on this trip - given how cheap Latvia was we decided to stay at a Radisson Blu Hotel. We dropped off our bags, then walked into the old town to explore.
The Christmas Markets were still going, so 2017 was by far our most Christmas-market heavy season yet. We got a cup of mulled wine and a cup of the local winter drink - mulled black balsam. Black balsam is the Latvian national liqueur, a cherry-ish flavoured drink based on vodka, and mulled it was delicious, even edging out mulled wine as my favourite mulled winter drink. I also made sure to try some cod on rye bread too (Rach didn't).
We were still tired from the Bulgarian trip and travel, so headed back to the hotel to sleep, to escape the cold and recharge to stay out until the midnight fireworks. We headed out again around 6pm, by which time it was completely dark, to a traditional Latvian bar called Folklubbs, which is probably one of the best bars we've ever encountered on any of our trips. I was surprised to find Riga full of excellent beer, probably topping Prague for its range and quality. And Folklubbs was the best in Riga we found. We spent a good evening at seats at the bar, trying different bar snacks and beers. It was a cosy yet cavernous underground bar that you could spend an entire day in quite happily.
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| New Years Eve at Folklubbs |
On that note, some of the best discoveries in Riga were dark rye bread with garlic butter - a rich, dark garlic bread - and Lativian garlic mayonnaise - an exceptional sauce for dipping potatoes, or anything really.
We emerged not long before the countdown and headed down to the waterfront to see the fireworks. It was a strange celebration at first. We couldn't join in the countdown as it was done in Latvian, but when it (apparently) got to zero, no fireworks came. There was a burst of music, which we later assumed to be the national anthem, and then a minute or two later came the fireworks. Unfortunately, the low mist and cloud obscured a fair bit of it. But it was still a nice way to see in 2018.
We emerged not long before the countdown and headed down to the waterfront to see the fireworks. It was a strange celebration at first. We couldn't join in the countdown as it was done in Latvian, but when it (apparently) got to zero, no fireworks came. There was a burst of music, which we later assumed to be the national anthem, and then a minute or two later came the fireworks. Unfortunately, the low mist and cloud obscured a fair bit of it. But it was still a nice way to see in 2018.
We walked back with the crowds through the old town, and were able to admire some of the buildings for the first time properly lit up. Despite its unattractive name, The House of the Blackheads is an impressive and beautiful building in one of the central squares that is even better lit up. Riga has a very pretty old town, and given the time of year we mostly saw it by night.
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| House of the Blackheads and the square |
Virtually everyone in Riga speaks English, Russian and Latvian from childhood. Somehow, Toms was able to tell whether someone was Russian or Latvian just by sight - an impossible task given both are generally similar looking - and even he couldn't explain how.
One of our favorite stories involved the Cat House. This building had a statue of a black cat on its roof. The story goes that a wealthy man was trying to join the local guild but was rejected several times. He got so fed up with how he was being treated that he bought the building across the road, and put up the cat statue. To show his displeasure, he positioned the cat so its read end (with its tail up) faced the guild. This caused a court case, which the man lost, forcing him to turn the cat around to face its head towards the guild - as it stands today.
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| Cat House, image courtesy of Google. |
Riga also has some very impressive Art Nouveau buildings. In the late 1800s and early 1900s Riga was booming, as one of the major port cities in the Russian Empire. The richer people began to move out of the old town, and built new apartments and buildings just outside the old town. Unfortunately, none of the photos we took worked!
The food and drink generally in Riga was very, very good. We spent much of our last day walking around, enjoying the Art Nouveau buildings and looking for good food. We made sure to go back to Folkklubbs, this time to also try some of their sweeter dishes.
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| Back at Folkklubbs for more |
One of the best tapas we've ever had was in fact in Riga. We spent our last couple of hours before departing at Easy Wine, a bar where you self-serve as much wine as you wish using a prepaid card, choosing from around 30 different bottles. We had some exceptional tapas there, on particular the goats cheese and honey on toast, and the pesto, fig and avocado on toast.
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| Easy Wine |
Paldies, Riga!
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