Page 2
Latvia
2006
Page 2
After oiling our gullets with a few beers at the Skyline Bar, served up by Julija our very pleasant Latvian barmaid, we jump into a taxi and head out of town to an eating house that Dez had found on his T'interweb moochings and he assures us that it's superb, he's not wrong! 3 floors of food. 1) The basement, buffet with live music. 2) Ground floor, buffet without music. 3) The top floor is posh nosh served up by a geezer in a bow tie, who looks like he'll whistle you up a quick tune if you ask him!.................................
Outside the Lido, someone forgot to take the Xmas
decorations down!
..............
The Lido is a remarkable restaurant on the outskirts of Riga,
it stands as an oasis of light in an otherwise grey and dismal urban landscape.
The building is made almost entirely of huge logs - real ones nothing fake here,
it looks like an entire forest went into the building of the place.
The interior is no less impressive than the outside, with it's labyrinth of
archways and passages linking the different eating areas. The food is superb quality and excellent value, I pay the most for my 2 course meal at 7 Lats
(about £7) but I'm a greedy fat bastard and have loads. Well I am a hungry lad! This is the thing about Riga in general
though, eating and drinking here no matter
where you go is very inexpensive. A round of drinks for 4 of us costs around 4 Lats,
taxis are cheap too but they need to be - the drivers
are manic. It's always wise to obtain a firm price with the driver before you get in the cab to avoid being be
ripped off at the journeys end.
This is the ground floor buffet area
Don't ask what it was I haven't a clue, but it was very tasty and worth every centime of 7 Lats to a
hungry lad!
The taxi drivers in Riga are suicidal. We
get one old guy to take us back from the Lido into Riga, Jeez, we almost crap our pants. 60 odd
mph at night, through built up areas on wet frozen cobbles and tram tracks. Red
lights mean nothing to him and we we're on the wrong side of the road for most
of the time - very scary stuff. "Me Dimitrij, me drive taxi forrr maaany yearrs yah! I
good driver no?" We're glad to get out of the feckin' thing,
peeling our stiff white knuckles off the grab handles isn't easy though
Steve getting friendly with the natives in the Blues Bar!
Unfortunately, the Blues Bar we arrive at in the
taxi from hell has no entertainment on tonight, so we have a beer
(obviously)
and then head off back to Old Riga Town in a slightly more sedate taxi.
An outdoor ice rink has been spotted by Dez, where for the grand total of 50 centimes (50p
ish) you can hire a pair of
skates and go break your legs. Being far too sensible for such antics at 1
o'clock in the morning I pass on the opportunity to do myself some permanent
damage, and I'm voted "Official Cowardly Photographer".
Taking the photos is bit of a challenge, because I'm too busy freezing my nuts off and,
trying to stay upright myself on the ice that surrounds the rink.
Meanwhile all the local kids are floating around like Torville and
Dean while our two drunken friends spend most of their time flat out on
the ice . Howard's
arse is now covered in white from his frequent contact with the ice, and Dez displays all the grace
and beauty of
a bilge pump. I doubt they could stay on their feet sober. I know I couldn't.
Our intrepid explorers venture forth onto the ice
Poetry in motion....Breathtaking fluidity of movement, a back spin with a triple
salko
and a double toe loop - amazin' what you can do after a few beers!
The final
Scores from our panel of judges (Me) . Dez won but only because it was his round at the next
bar...................
................Which was the Steak
House Bar just round the corner from
the Ice Rink.
Great DJ who played some really nice chilled out music here
So that's our quick trip to Riga almost over. To sum it
all up, it's a brilliant place to go if you fancy somewhere different
& interesting. The
people are friendly, the food and drink are superb and it's cheap. One
thing which can get annoying is that if you're with a group of guys, then the
assumption is that you're here for the sex clubs etc and you'll get accosted on
almost every street in the old town by young blokes and girls trying to lure you
into one club or another. It's all good natured stuff and never threatening but
if I were here for a few days or more I think it could start to piss me off a bit.
Riga is about so much more than that, it's got a fascinating history and some
beautiful old buildings. Having said all that, the undeniable truth is that the
women here are gorgeous!
There is a police presence on the streets of the old town at night but they
stay pretty much in the background until any kind of fracas develops, then all hell lets loose. We
witnessed them deal out justice Latvian style to 2 Germans lads and it's not pretty, so it pays to behave
there.
We all said we'd like to come back again and spend a bit longer here, maybe hire a car and take a run out to some of the
other towns and villages. Dez had done a great job of putting this wee trip
together, he had the place well sussed out before we travelled and we managed to pack
a hell of a lot into the 36 hours we spent there.