Trip 51: Gauja National Park, Latvia

Trip date: Thursday August 23- Saturday August 24, 2012

Sigulda and Cēsis are towns located in Gauja National Park - Latvia's largest national park. Here we stayed in Sigulda, enjoyed the sights of the park and dodged the presence of a sneaky cat.

All in attendance: Kristen and Eric

We walked to a guest house in a residential neighbourhood from the train station. The adorable old couple only spoke Russian and Latvian but a few hand gestures and a Russian thank you from Eric was all that was needed.

The first night, we arrived late enough that we could do little more than stop at a grocery store. We ate a Cili restaurant - a chain we had seen multiple times throughout our trip. Highlights included impossibly delicious kiploku grauzdini - a sort of fried dark garlic bread covered in garlic goodness.

The walls of the bedroom had a tiger-carpet-print and we had access to 100+ channels on satellite TV but the only English channels were radical-evangelical-american broadcasts. We comfortably settled for martial art movies dubbed in Italian all the while trying to coerce the landlady's cat to come cuddle with us.

The next morning we started our day before any sort of tourist information center open and began our hike with only a cartoony-billboard map for reference. We had to walk along a highway for most of the time but ended up by the Erglu (Eagel's) Cliff where we had a quick lunch on a giant brötchen.

We continued on the mossy path through the park. Never in my life had I seen so many different type of  mushrooms! A lot of elderly people were at the beginning of the trail mushroom picking. I went on a personal mushroom safari and Eric was patient enough to wait for me to take unnecessary amounts of photos.

We saw the red Turaida castle at a distance and saw the Gutmanis Cave. The sandstone walls of the cave are very soft and it's easy to make inscriptions on it.

We continued through the park and stop to see the Sigulda New Castle at the end of the day. We stopped by a wasp infested cafe and rested our feet.

We stayed an extra night at the guesthouse where a cat, who wouldn't give us the time of day the previous day, mewed adorably at our door to come cuddle. Although Eric and I don't typically have cat allergies, there was something suspiciously off about this particular cat!

Trip 50: Rīga, Latvija (Riga, Latvia)

Trip date: Wednesday August 22 - Thursday August 23, 2012

Riga is the capital of Latvia and the most populated city in the Baltic states. It lies on the Gulf of Riga and the Daugava River flows through it. Along with a picturesque old town, Riga is bursting full of beautiful romantic Art Nouveau buildings.

All in attendance: Eric and Kristen

After getting off the bus from Estonia, we walked the maze of streets and malls to our apartment flat we got through Cheap & Good Apartments.There, we met a zealous host who insisted on filling us full of of Riga Balsam liquor in our tea/coffee. He even knocked on all the other apartment doors to get everyone out to drink with us.

A quick nap and we set off in the post-rainy old town. We ate dinner at a garlic restaurant named Kiploku Krogs where I probably ate the equivalent of 3 whole garlic heads to myself.  I was not exciting enough to try garlic beer or garlic coffee. Here, Eric got a soup in his first ever bread bowl - a concept that I have grown to become desensitize to but found out that this is not necessarily the case if you're German.

Nearby to the restaurant are the Three Brothers - Riga's oldest residential homes which were whimsical and beautiful in soft pastel colours. However, due to narrow streets, all the photos I got of them were awkward but that's how it is sometimes.

We walked around the old town. We saw the Riga Cathedral and all its scaffold glory and walked along cobblestone walking streets until dark. Eric had an early night and I went to an internet cafe to look for Couchsurfing hosts for or upcoming next few stops. At the grocery store that night, I investigated these curiously packaged sweets that are found in dozens of flavours in the dairy section in all the grocery stores we encountered in the Baltic States. They almost look like ice cream treats but unfrozen. The result? Something that taste like the liquid in a cottage cheese container. Probably an acquired taste.

The next morning was much more sunny. We saw a great Russian Style Church and walked through the park near theFreedom Monument (honoring soldiers who died in the Latvian War of Independence). We ate a cozy buffet-style restaurant for lunch where the majority of ordering was done through pointing and gestures. I ended up getting a plate full of buckwheat and Eric told me a bunch of USSR-buckwheat related jokes that made absolutely no sense to me.

We walked along the Alberta iela (Alberta Street) where there was a high concentration of ornate Art Nouveau buildings. Here in Riga was the first time I saw buildings like this. Ominous faces and intricate detail ensues. The architecture in Riga is stunning.

We escaped a torrential downpour of rain in a cozy tea shop where we played chess and got a Latvian take on a traditional tea ceremony. After the rain, we took a walk along the water and stopped to have a last look at the House of the Blackheads.

One last stroll through the old town and we picked up the most delightful looking giant bread loaf to take with us on our next stop - a national park.

The owner of the apartment rentals helped up get a reservation in our next stop with the owner of a guesthouse who didn't speak English. He called everyone out of their rooms for a final time to all drink Balsam together and see us off.

We hopped on a train towards Sigulda, located in Gauja National Park.

Things to do next time:

• See Riga Central Market

Things I learned:

• Latvian money = Latvian Lats