The captain comes onto the speaker"Alright ladies and gentlemen we have started our descent, we will be arriving in Tallinn in 15 minutes"
....
"April fools"
Great, a comedian pilot...it could be worse, I remember flying home from Vancouver on Westjet when they were marketing themselves as the "fun airline", pilots actually would routinely deliver the worst one-liners you could imagine.
I go to the currency exchange and get just under 20 lats for my 30 euros, its painful to know that they use a currency comparable to pounds, but I'm relieved that at least the prices don't match the UK, my bus ticket into town costs 30 lat cents. The hostel is right on the Daugauva river, and its a sunny clear day. There is NO sign to the hostel on the front of a building, but I eventually find a small buzzer with a Koala next to it saying "Frank's", I buzz and am told to go around the back, I have to be buzzed in past two more locked doors before finally getting up.
Frank's has the highest rated hostel in Riga and they go the extra mile to keep that ranking, when I get in they offer me a free beer at the bar and a guy called James gives me a map and gives me a quick run down on the town. They're organizing a pubcrawl starting at midnight tonight, but consider my 6 am start today I'm not sure if I'm up for it.
My big dilemma today is whether or not I will spend the 30 lats (or 30 pounds) to go shoot AK-47's at a Soviet bunker, that's a lot of money, about 50 euros, plus I would have to buy a later bus ticket so tack on another 10 for that, for the cheap thrill of being in a dilapidated concrete structure to shoot guns at paper targets. Still its got great bar story telling potential, so I'm a little torn, I guess I'll see....
I spent the afternoon walking the city centre and have covered most of the main sights, I step into St. Peters Church where a choir is practicing, I pay the 2 Lats to ride the elevator to get the view of the city, the photos will hopefully look good, but 2 lats for a lift ride seems a little sharp. I then walk to find the bus station in case I want to change my ticket tomorrow but get lost. I stumble by luck into the Central market(which is supposedly Soviet era but doesn't look much different than any market I've ever seen), and then by even greater luck use the force to take a right turn at the exact moment to lead me to the bus station! I then circle around aimlessly in the old town and past the freedom monument where 2 sentries stand at attention, and past a park with some medieval structures whose names and history I don't know. On my way back I pass the Dome cathedral and take a step inside, they also charge an entrance of 1.5 lats unless you are there to pray. I feel that lying in a "house of God" can't really bring good Karma, and the church doesn't strike me as anything special so I head back.
The hostel looks right on the water offering some incredible views, I buy a beer and sit myself down at a free internet station where I started to type all this....
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