In December I went to Riga with Triin to see Iggy Pop & The Stooges concert. At first we didn't believe that he is actually coming to Riga, which is quite close to Tallinn. Like Iggy Pop!
We went there by bus. It was too dark and cold to hitch-hike. Unfortunately.
Monday
We got to Riga at 10 pm. We had accomodation through CS (www.couchsurfing.com). Our hosts, Maija and Richards came to pick us up at the bus station. They had a really cool kind of a underground appartment on Tallinas iela. We felt like at home. The appartment was quite big. And they had two the most adorable cats in the world. And I usually don't like cats that much. Lucky and Kitty.
We talked to Maija and Richards for a while and then went to the Old Town. We were really hungry. Since it was quite late, it seemed that there was no place we could get some food. Except for McDonald's. And we didn't want to go there. Eventually we found a place called
Stella pub near the
Dom
e Square (Doma laukums, Šķūņu iela 19,
www.stellapub.lv).
They are open until 3 am. And they serve food after midnight! We had something to eat and drank couple of beers. There were some guys playing drums and some girls playing with fire chains. It was cool.
After this we went looking for a place called
Belle Epoque (Beautiful Era, Maza Jaunavu iela 8). I had been there couple of years ago and I knew that they had cheap beer. It is a quite difficult place to find, because it is situated on a really small street. So we decided to follow the screams of drunk people. And there it was!:) We were outside smoking and some guys came to talk to us. The dialog was something like that: "blablabla" (Latvian) - "Huh?" - "Where are you from?" - "Estonia" - "Huh?" - "Igaunija" (Estonia in Latvian) - "(something like) fuck off".
They went away, came back and asked whether we would like to have sex with them. We refused.
We went downstairs. It was exactly as I remembered. Everyone was wasted. Especially the bartender. He was so wasted that he sold us two beers for the price of one. Which was 1.40 EUR for 2 0.5 L beers:D We had couple of beers there. Some guys tried to talk to us, but we didn't understand a word what they were saying. Then we went back home.
Tuesday
We woke up and had some noodles. Then we went looking for shoes for Triin. Maija came with us at first. We went to every skateshop in Riga. She didn't find anything. Then we went to the Old Town. Did some sightseeing. But not a lot, since we have been to Riga before. Main places we saw were Sv. Pētera baznīca (St. Peter's Cathedral), Rīgas doms (Riga dome) and probably some more places. I just know the names of the places. We just walked around and then went home to prepare ourselves for the concert.
We talked to our hosts, played with the cats (which was the main entertainment) and drank beer. It was really cool that our hosts came to the concert too. They were as excited as we were. When we got to Arena Riga, the first two guys we saw were Estonians. There were a lot of Estonians there. We drank some more and waited for Iggy to show up. And then he came. I was surprised that everybody was so calm. Some people screamed, but I didn't get the feeling of a punk concert. Iggy was really good though. They didn't play my favourite songs, but it was ok. The main hit was "I Wanna Be Your Dog". They played it twice! It was basically the only time people were actually jumping and singing along. It felt so good to finally see Iggy Pop.
After the concert we went to a shop and bought something to eat. Then we went back home, smoked
shisha (waterpipe), drank whiskey and chatted. It was cool. Since Richards is a
devoted snowboarder, we talked about extreme-sports and watched a snowboarding video. And then went to sleep.
Wednesday
In the morning we got up, ate some noodles and packed our bags. And again went looking for shoes. There were plenty of shoes, but all of them were made of suede. It seemed quite pointless to buy suede shoes in December. So she didn't find anything. We met Maija and gave her the keys and said bye to our host. Then walked to the Old Town again. 
We went to Jack Daniels pub (Kalku12/14) to eat and drink some beer. I think we tried all the main Latvian beers. And this place had really good pasta.
After that we walked some more. We found some places like Laipa Suveniri, which in Estonian means "souvenirs of the corpses" (we bought our souvenirs from there), then the Galerija "Lita" (also on the "corpses" street), which means "the bitches gallery" and so on.
Every Estonian knows there's a somewhat famous café called Perse. In Estonian perse means "ass". We didn't go there, unfortunately.
Then we went to the bus station. Since we had some time, we went to the nearby market. This was sort of a unique experience. In terms of really bad smell.
When we got on the bus, we instantly could tell who was Estonian. The first thing all the Estonians did, when they sat down, was taking out there laptops. Everyone except for us (we just left them home:)).
We arrived to Tallinn about 10 pm. I think we went home.
Conclusion
Our hosts were great. I love CS and HC. We asked them to come to Tallinn in the beginning of January, when there was an extreme- sports festival called Simpel Session. They came and had fun. Maija and Richards are the coolest Latvians I have ever met. If I will go to Riga again, I'll probably stay at their place.
Latvian beer ad: Bauskas and Aldaris. At least I liked those. I think Triin wasn't a big fan of Bauskas.
Skateshops: The main skatshop is called Boards.lv (
www.boards.lv).
Addresses are: Bruņinieku iela 29/31, Mazā Monētu iela 4 (Old Town)
