Christmas in Riga
На русском. 🇷🇺
The flight was early in the morning. It was only an hour and a half to fly, but there is a +1 hour time zone difference, so by half past nine local time I was already out of the airport. The city is compact, it took me about 20 minutes to get to the old town by bus.
The weather was foggy with drizzling rain.
In 2011-2012 I lived in Riga next to St. Peter's Cathedral. I went to my old house the first thing. Everything was the same as before, but the wooden horse near the entrance had been replaced by a new one.
The old town is full of tourists, I walked the streets until noon and then stopped for lunch at Lido. In my opinion, Lido (at least the one in the old town) is one of the best fast food places. Quick, inexpensive, and most importantly very tasty and authentic. I especially liked the hot drink with sea buckthorn and oranges. Grilled meat and pickled herring are also above all praise.
Then I reached the central market and plunged into the native “Soviet” atmosphere.
I stopped near the center, check in was from 2 p.m.
In the evening a light fog descended on the city, I went for a walk again. The night lights looked dreamy in the haze.
In the morning I want for a walk in the old town again and then decided to visit motor museum. It is located on the outskirts of the city, unfortunately it turned out to be closed.
Me and my old friend Vasily agreed to meet in the evening. Finding a bar wasn't trivial, many of them were closed for Christmas. We walked until we came to Belgian bar, we've been there a few times in the past, fortunately it was open.
We've met our former colleague there by chance. I haven't seen him for about 12 years. Such a surprise! Back in the days we enjoyed raspberry hoegaarden in this bar, now it was gone, so we had classic hoegaarden instead.
On the third day the sun finally appeared on the blue sky and I decided to visit Jurmala. But when I got there (half an hour walk to the train station and then half an hour on the train), the weather turned gray and cloudy again.
The sea shore was busy with a lot of people walking. It wasn't cold with only a mild wind.
I walked a few kilometers along the beach, it was getting dark when I went back to the train station. I walked around Jurmala "peninsula" and headed to the station in Lielupe. The path wasn't great, at first there was a trail through the forest and then a road through the town, sometimes without a dedicated walkway.
Originally I planned to walk to a striped lighthouse in Daugavgriva, turned out the distance is around 20km without public transport. I had to settle for a photo of that lighthouse on the horizon and leave a visit for later.
Next day me and Vasily have planned a game of padel. That's a game with ball and rackets, that looks somewhat like tennis or squash. I was playing for the first time (with skills transferred from ping pong) and successfully managed to lead three teams (which I joined) to a defeat! :)
After sports we had a few mugs of local Cilpa beer. Tasty, I can recommend!
I was flying back on Friday evening, I still had a day for a walk. I decided to get closer to the lighthouse, that I've only seen from a distance.
The bus from Riga to Daugavgrive takes about half an hour. But walking to the lighthouse turned out non-trivial. Google maps misled me into a logging industrial area with a dead end and closed gates. I already thought to abandon hope and get back, but decided to check OpenStreetMap navigation. There was a hiking path around the area leading to the sea shore. It was very foggy, the lighthouse was barely visible. There were seals and ducks near the end of the pier.
For a few minutes the wind have removed the fog and a neighbor pier with another lighthouse became visible.
I spent some time in old Riga before the flight, dined at Lido and visited the Christmas market again. I tried grilled oyster there, it was prepared with cheese and spicy sauce. I liked it, but the oyster taste was barely recognizable. :)
I really enjoyed the trip, despite foggy weather and lack of snow, I managed to get some Christmas mood. The city is very bright and colorful in this time of the year. I was especially happy to meet old friends.