Damn this is a long time ago, but I will do my best to remember the first time I walked through the streets of Riga. 

And I actually do :D. Riga – to me – seems like a Chameleon of a city. Depending which part of town you are and when you are there, it feels like you could also be in Paris, Berlin, Budapest even Amsterdam. 

And when I walked through the wide, carved-out streets for the first time, I experienced Riga from its most picture-esk side. The sun turned the huge stone buildings – some of which still proof of the Sovjet Era – first into an orange glow, before the city was overcome by a cool, clear blue and pink sky, radiating between the impressive, simplistic buildings. 

My hostel was absolutely lovely and the next day I explore more of the city during the obligatory free walking tour. For the first time during my trip, the weather was really bad, which is probably the reason I don’t have the best memories on Rigas old town. 

It just seemed so touristic and crowded, and a place that people would mainly go to drink cheap beer and sing karaoke. 

This is not to say, that Riga is not beautiful. The city is home to numerous historical buildings and also offers several different architectual styles and an interesting history. 

But looking back at my days in Riga, I definitely felt, how magical Vilnius has spoiled me. 

Nevertheless, I really loved the big market halls. Four huge buildings on the edge of the city centre which are former cepelin halls, now inhabit one of the biggest markets in Europe, with each hall standing for a different “theme”: 1. Meat 2. Fish 3. Bread and Pastry 4. Vegetables.

In the evening I still walked through the streets of the Art Nuveau district, which is famous for its “Jugendstil” architecture, before I went to bed. 

The next day, I went out of the city and explored one of the biggest ethnographic villages in the world! Located about 30 minutes by bus from Rigas centre, the museum is boasting over 150,000 different historical artifacts stored in 87 historical buildings over 87 ha – yes, I wikipediaed it.  It´s one of the most comprehensive and oldest open-air museums in Europe. 

It was amazing to explore the huge area and I realized how much I missed a moment of peace like this. 

After a while, I was sitting in the grass and enjoying the sun on my face, infront of a old watchtower –  watching over the lake infront of me. In this moment I realized how happy I was to taking on this adventure. 

In the evening I met up with another international student in Estonia, which I met via Couchsurfing. The evening was a lot of fun, but then something incredibly happened – I got asked for me ID when asking for a beer. 

I was obviously shocked and now have another reason not to like Riga. 

On my last day in Riga i decided to take a chance and – facing my horrible sense of orientation  – go on a bike tour to the 25km away Jurmala, the resort town for Rigas elite and in the past for many communist officials. 

As nice as the bike path was around a week earlier in Nida, as underwhelming was the bike path leading my out of Riga, which was switching between leading my over a passengers walk, next to a loud grey street and  leading my over the loud grey street itself. 

After around 40 minutes however, the way settled next to a train track (which was less grey and loud and actually had some plants) which was basically leading my all the way to Jurmala. At a certain point I somehow managed to leave the bike path and ended up on the main street again, but since the whole structure of Jurmala is idiot-safe (a German word of which I don´t know the exact translation, meaning even idiots manage to understand it) and eventually I arrived on Jurmala without much delay nor further difficulties. 

And as ugly as the bike path has been (okay maybe I exaggerate a bit) Jurmala was definitely worth it. But how do I describe Jurmala…

Saying it would be beautiful, impressive, relaxing, touristic would all be not entirely correct but neither entirely false. Obviously you see it in the pictures anyways, but because of my aspiration as a writer I will try to describe it the following :p :

Consisting of a specific kind of old wooden houses, of which are some beautifully renovated and some are slowly falling prey to the effects of nature and time, Jurmala gives you the feeling of being in a Western movie, rather than on the Gulf of Riga. Apart from that, statues and pavilions, as well as luxurious housing complexes and villas share the city with hotels and less impressive homes that are slowly falling apart (some of them seemed abandoned and might be from Soviet times). 

It feels like Jurmala is in decay and revival at the same time, while being a tourist attraction at the same time. 

In this atmosphere I was also trying my next specialty: Bread Pudding. Yeah I nearly did not order it because I was quite sceptical myself. 

But the brown paste, consisting of rye bread fruits and cream actually tasted great. Fortune favours the bold. 

After taking a swim at the 30km long beach, I was heading back to Riga (by train) and arrived in the celebrations of the 30 year anniversary of the Baltic Way, one of the most amazing events in European history (link article). 

There I also met Gints, my buddy from the University of Tartu (and lives in Riga) and together we watched traditional dances arts and singing, also about the Latvian folkstale – a knight called the ¨Bearslayer¨ who fights a dark black force till eternity (there is also a musical about it) – while Gints told me more about Tartu and the student life (which made me even more excited for it). 

Unfortunately he had to leave soon so we said our goodbyes after walking around the city for about 1.5 hours and I decided to go to XL Pelmeni – the most amazing place on earth. Unfortunately I discovered this buffet venue for dumplings just on my last day in Riga, but I used my opportunity to the max and even though I was a bit nauseous after around 30min, I was – in this moment – the happiest man on earth. 

Eventually I ended my time in Riga like I started it – walking through the streets impressed by the architectural wonders rising in the sky next to me, while the sun slowly sets the city to sleep. 

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Epilogue:

When it was already dark and I was heading back to my hostel I reached the main square on which a choir an orchestra was playing just a few hours ago. Some people had remained and put a chain of candles on the ground, symbolizing the baltic way. 

Children were running around and teenagers, mothers and seniors were holding each other on their hands singing songs that celebrated independence and the pride in their country, while their faces were illuminated by the candles on the ground. 

I was very moved by this, because it showed me, how being proud of your country can look like. 

Those people were not degenerating other nationalities or cultures. Those people were not betitling themselves as the best country in the world. Nor were they putting themselves below other countries or cultures. 

They were simply proud and happy about their existence. They were happy to have Latvia and live in it.. They were saying proudly: I am Latvian. This is my country, my community. 

And I think especially this feeling of uncompromising community which is not characterising itself by shutting itself off from the world but by actually being open for everyone, is something that was striking me and something I believe many other countries can learn from.