Life ain’t bad, not bad at all. We’ve had a great/interesting/fun filled/stereotypical weekend with Uncle Cormac from Ireland on our ‘Fiesta cruise’ to Riga, Latvia!
We boarded the ship in the harbour here in Stockholm, after which we made our way to our respective cabins to make ourselves comfortable. Not long after we entered our nice enough A-class cabin with a window, loud music started playing from the next cabin and a bunch of guys were well on their way to drunkville. At 5pm “Great!” we thought and Cormac kindly offered to swap cabins with us (however his did not have a window). “Heck no!”, Shaena said and marched down to the information counter and demanded to speak to a manager. Not long after, we were upgraded to a Luxury cabin! (which really was at a comparable standard with the crappiest hotel room we’ve ever stayed in!)
Other than that; time on the boat was spent hanging out in the kids playroom, enjoying a big buffet dinner, having drinks at the top deck Panorama Bar, people watching (lots of it!), dancing, watching Mexican themed shows and generally just having a good time!
Once in Riga we had about 5 hours of time ashore before it was time to depart again so we headed in to town and had a coffee and Shaena got a slice of birthday cake before we hit up old town. You wouldn't think so but Riga is surprisingly colorful! I had my mind set on a grey and dull but still nice and well kept old town but lots of buildings were nice and bright and painted in pastel colors and they even had a really modern shopping centre in the middle of old town. Supposedly Riga was the only major Baltic city that was spared during the Second World War bombings and hence it’s nice architecture and well kept historic buildings. Then again; in other areas of the city, buildings were grey and run down and covered in graffiti so there you go.
All in all a weekend well spent and Riga is well worth a quick visit. We’ll definitely be going on more cruises. Just hope the next one will be in the Caribbean instead of the Baltic Sea!
"Seeeese!"
Our welcoming committee when boarding the 'Fiesta cruise'
Family photo in the Panorama Bar on Deck 8
It is.
Self photo! Riga edition!
"Hey Riga! 1963 phoned and wanted its public transport back!"
Watching, waiting, commiserating
Eastern European stereotype at its finest. A run down old communist style apartment block and a LADA parked in front!
No one can blame Riga for not taking care of its homeless cats!
Cormac suffered from terrible land sickness when he got off the boat, poor guy!
Cormie and Huddy
The main square in Riga's Old Town
Family church photo
St. Peter's Church
St. Peter's Church street...obviously
A Rigan alley
Daddy and buddy
The Monument of Freedom
This street performer had created his own snare drum type sound thingy from an energy drink can (check out his foot!)
Care to guess what the Rigan street vendors hawked mostly?
Oh and guess who got picked up on the dance floor by the Rigan ladies!
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