Latvia: Riga, Sigoulda

Once again I have gotten behind, nonetheless I will attempt to update you on my grand tour. Note that I will plagiarise most of this from Rox, he does such a good job of blogging.

So from Klaipeda in Lithuania we hitch hiked up to Riga which again was a little too easy (aside from an almost 3hrs wait in the rain and hail, but you can't be a real hitch hiker without getting wet). Riga was pretty neat. Saw the Occupation Museum of Latvia which was really good, its still amazing what these people went through. Although Mrs Ayers did a fantastic job of teaching us about World War II in 5th Form History I never truly grasped the significance of it all or the effect it had on normal peoples lives, it was just dates, places and statistics. Going to museums like this one really make it real, which I guess is why we travel, to better understand... stuff. On a lighter note, Rox being a chicken in Riga Old Town:


We went on a sneaky day trip out to Sigoulda which has a National Park with lots of nature and castles. The nature was very Baltic (birches, oaks etc ['etc' as those are the only tree names I know...]) which are slowly getting some good autumn colours going. Here is a view of the main castle, possible built or used by the Teutonic Knights.

While we were exploring something really amazing happened... well, something really amazing form a bunch of kiwis from the land of birds and small harmless reptiles... we saw a snake! and I got a photo! and we chased it! Such an adventure.


So that was Latvia... I feel a little bad only spending 4 days in a country, and I apologise to all Latvians for that, but the World Cup semis are approaching and my money is finally starting to run low, so we had to really get Latvia done and move on to... ESTONIA.