Having totally enjoyed Vilnius, Riga (Latvia) was just not such a pleasant experience, the old town itself is beautiful, cobbled streets and amazing archetecture dating from all periods of Latvia's diverse history...however the place as maybe predictable, was full of english/irish yobs and the whole town seemed to cater for them, with large american fast food restaurants and theme bars in abundance - To be honnest they might as well paint the town orange and change its name to EasyRiga....
Next stop Tallinn (Estonia) where I still am... for a few hours at least. A superb town, possibly one of the least unspoilt medieval towns I have ever been to... and a great bunch of people in the hostel (bunch of ex-pompey Uni students!!) which made for some long and entertaining evenings! In Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn I spent time in the Museums of Occupation which in each case tells the story of their fight for independance from both the Germans and the Russians... It provided a fascinating insight, infact I think I learnt more from the 3 museums than I had in years of school history lessons - for the first time I feel I have an appreciation for what the Iron curtain meant in reality to the people living behind it and a better understanding of the day to day reality of communism - happy to share further thoughts for anyone interested!!
Current reading material: The Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield (thanks shelley!!)
Current ipod tunes: Alison Krauss & Union Station / Killers
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You are quite safe from Michael Palin; he has stopped his trip in Dresden. Of course you could run into him during his next series!
Pity about Riga, but perhaps there are two positive benefit: isolating the stag and hen parties from our city centres and encouraging the lovely Latvians to come to the UK!
Woolly hat and duffle coat on now.
barrie
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