Now in Latvia...

So, now I have a bit more time. We just arrived here in Riga. It is 5.30pm and we will probably just eat in the hotel cafe since we are a ways outside of the downtown and the World Hockey tournament is taking place here...which makes it pretty hecktic. Riga is a pretty large city and with large cities comes some poor places. There are remnents of the communist era, our hotel is in that category! There are large run down apartment complexs behind the hotel and we are located in more of an industrial area.

Everywhere else weve been has been pretty nice though. Our first night we stayed in a castle and got a tour of the grounds. In the middle of the night I was woken up by 2 men waking the grounds while singing very loudly in a foreign language. It was a fun night and after our welcome dinner everyone pretty much crashed due to jet lag.

On the second day, we were unable to see the Amber mines which was a shame, so our local guide took us to an amber museum instead which wasnt as cool. I didnt buy anything, but got a sense for what type of things to look for elsewhere on the trip. I did not care very much for our local tour guide as she was not very helpful at times and seemed to not know what she was doing most of the time. It was a crazy experience getting into Russia from Poland later that day as well, which is where she meet up with us. It took three hours and one of the women on the trip had recieved a stress test which involved isotopes before the trip and therefore set off the radiation machines so that delayed us even more! It was quite an experience and Russia does not mess around.

In Svetlegorsk, we were able to walk along the Baltic seashore and watch the sunset, which was beautiful! We combed the beach for interesting rocks and tried to find amber peices...I think I found a very small piece but I cant be 100% sure! I still think it is cool though. Then we had dinner in town at a nice resturant where only one waiter spoke very broken English, so by default he was the one to help everyone in our group of 25 people who decided to eat there...poor guy. I could tell he was embarresed at times about his English...but we were successful at ordering something and were unsure exactly what we would get...so it was an adventure and the food turned out to be excellent.

Lithuania was very nice too. It was a long bus ride to get there as my last entry states, but we were able to meet up with our local guide...2 or so hours late...and still get a small tour of Vilinus. We ate dinner at a very nice Itallian place because the Lituanian place stopped serving food by the time we got around to eat. I was ok with it though cause we got pizza and pasta and all good things! Mmmm...cold pizza for breakfast!

Now though...I am going to go eat dinner and hang out around the hotel. I am excited for Tallin, Estonia tomorrow...We have 2 nights there so I will try and call.

Til then, Goodnight.