The 2 L's - Latvia and Lithunania

Hello all,

After all the hype - Riga, Latvia is so wonderful, it's so beautiful, blah blah blah, it just had to be a disappointment.

How you can trust a city where you not allowed to lie on the grass in the central parks, is beyond me. I was asked to move on by a policeman, but 2 student looking Latvians were fined! On the whole I found it pretentious and superficial. Lots of beautiful woman walking around as if they're too good for the world, and some not so attractive men. I went to the beach and approx. 50% of the woman were wearing make-up! I ask you!

The old town is full of great buildings and I did meet some cool people including 2 Syrian guys (students at Riga university ) on the train back from a national park with a valley, some caves and 2 castles.

The hostel I stayed in was pretty friendly and I went out one night with an Aussie girl to a jazz bar and then a pub/club. Amazingly out of the 5 girls in my dorm, 3 of us were born but no longer lived in Hong Kong! Very unusual.

So Latvia leaved a lot to be desired. However, I was only there for 4 days so the rest of the country could be lovely. Nearly half the people who live there are Russian, but the atmosphere is very different to Russia.

An overnight coach to Vilnius, Lithuania on which I met 2 US guys who run a hostel in Poland. We hit it off and ended up staying together in Vilnius. They had been there before so that afternoon/evening we walked around the old town together and went up the hill (fort) to watch the sunset.

Vilinus rocks! The old town is quirky and beautiful, apart from the lines of communist appartment blocks in the distance.

A section of the city declared itself a republic of Uzi. It's essentially an artist, hippy commune with buildings covered in drawings (we were asked if we wanted to paint something), a couple of sculptures and a cool pub which plays live jazz in the evenings by the river. They even have their own constitution which apart from normal things like "you have the right to live by the river Volga" also gives dogs the right to be dogs - unfortunately the same can not be said of cats.

There are masses of parks so Vilnius is green, beautiful, full of stunning old buildings and statues and some new ones too. There is a bust of Frank Zappa's head. No Lithuanians know it exists, only tourists go to see it! But the story behind it is cool. A student who thought Frank Zappa was a legend wanted to make a statue of him. So he petitioned the governement for funds. They eventually said no to money but gave him a location if he could raise enough money himself. Unfortunately he could only raise enough for the head! But its a testament to persistance, belief and a broad-minded country.

We went out to this basement bar which looked cheap but was cool, with some Lithunaian friends of the American gusy. If you want to smoke something a little more potent, then you go through a side door into a raised back room, before returning to your drinks. They even delivered pizza!

The people seemed laid back, fun, ready to enjoy life, odd mix of commuinist/capitalist values. All in all, great place. Highly recommended for a weekend getaway to all those living in Europe. The best of the Baltic.

I was only there for 30 hours! before bus to Poland..... starting to get a little weary. Am in Gdansk at the moment. Go to Warsaw tomorrow and then have a flight to Copenhagen on Tuesday. Going to stay with my friend Peter from NZ. Going to be great! I know I said I was going to do this all overland, but when the bus and the flight cost the same but one takes 2 hours and the other 40, you know that convenience is going to win out ; )

Take it easy
kx