Latvia: Fried garlic bread and Black Balsam

So since the last post we have made our way from semi-sunny Tallinn to semi-sunny Riga in Latvia. Managed to be the most under-dressed people in an otherwise classy bar in Tallinn on our last night, some pretty awesome views of Tallinn at night...

Finally... a decent glass of red!

After a very short 4 hour bus ride, highlights including Tom falling down the stairs of the bus due to being overexcited about his pack of Cheetos, we arrived in Riga. Riga is quite similar to Tallinn, with a lovely little Old Town, but it has much more to see outside of the Old Town. There is a Soviet area, a street art area, Art Nouveau area and the old Jewish ghetto. One of the main highlights has been the amazing food and drink - and how cheap it is! A particular favourite was 'Shots Cafe', which had over 120 shots on the menu and most were less than a dollar. Tom has taken a liking to Latvia's national drink, Black Balsam, which tastes like Jager but twice as bitter. It's as gross as it sounds, but apparently a shot a day keeps the doctor away so who are we to argue? Tom should be as fit as a fiddle for the next 6 months (at least).

Latvian garlic bread - deep fried, covered in garlic and served with aoili... hello heart disease!

Tom having a moment with his first Chicken McNugget meal of the trip

Tom having another moment... this time with fried potato pancakes, bacon and sour cream. Perfect hangover cure!

The culprit of said hangover... Black Balsam

I have had a fantastic time exploring Riga's Central Market - huge zeppelin pavilions full of fruit, veg, cheese, bread and meat. Managed to buy enough rump steak and veg for 7 meals (feeding us, an Irishman and a Chilean) for about $9! The men were having withdrawals from lack of red meat so an emergency steak was required.

Feeding the meat-eaters, with some veg thrown in for good measure

Central Market fruit and veg stalls

The meat pavilion... fun trying to buy things without speaking a word of Latvian. May explain why I bought enough meat to feed an army.

Yesterday we ventured out on a day trip to Sigulda, which is a lovely town about an hour out of Riga in the middle of a national park. We caught a rather small cable car across the river then wandered through the forest up to a 13th century fortress with Eddie (a.k.a. The Disappearing Irishman - has a habit of wandering off but can always be found eventually!). Amazing views all round.

The Disappearing Irishman and Tom in a cave near Sigulda

Perhaps too much Latvian garlic bread for Tom? 

View from Turiada Fortress in Sigulda

Today we are off to Vilnius in Lithuania. Farewell Latvia, the land of giant food portions and dirt cheap alcohol, you will be sorely missed!

Estonia: St Petersburg BOOO!! Tallinn YAY!!!

Well after spending our 8th and final night in possibly the shittiest hostel room in St Petersburg we made our way to Tallinn in Estonia, which was a delightfully pleasant change, despite the 7 hour bus ride (1hr of which included crossing the Russian border into Estonia). Our last night saw us buy a $3 bottle of Vodka and smash out some serious Uno with a couple of Brits and a Brazilian! The vodka wasn't as bad as one would imagine but most definitely could not be considered to be "good".

1/2 litre of Vodka - 1 litre can of beer plus a regular can - $7, thanks for coming!

Tom sampling Russia's largest/cheapest can of beer!

Our trip to Estonia started with us walking to the metro station in the pouring rain, finally getting to the metro station, catching it to where we needed to be and then not being able to find out bus stop - like most of Russia the signage for our bus could be described as... "non-existent"! After about an hour of walking around in the rain, we both made it to the bus, exceptionally wet, rather annoyed and very much ready to leave Russia. The border crossing from Russia to Estonia was typically Russian, not a word of English to be seen and ONE very disgruntled looking woman taking care of an entire bus worth of passports!

We arrived in Estonia semi-dry and ready to relax in to a city that was a) smaller and b) friendlier than St Petersburg and we were not let down. It's like stepping back in time to a medieval village, full of cobblestone paths and buildings that have been there since the 1400s.

After continually being conquered or invaded Estonia won their independence from Russia in 1991 - weird looking monument to celebrate and by the sounds if it, it is universally hated by Estonians

KG smashing out some K's by the Estonian coast

Supposedly means "peek in the kitchen" (insert story of meaning here) - I translated it to mean "Kick in the Cock"

Artsy photo of Tallinn Town Sqaure

Doorways weren't massive in the 1400s - bastards!

Whilst in Estonia we also managed to head along to see Lady Gaga supported by The Darkness. Despite promoting 2 supporting acts with the show starting at 7:30 it actually turned out that The Darkness were the only supporting act and only "supported" for 30 mins, so our arrival at 7:45 meant we missed most of their set, but we did get to see a 15 minute version of Love On The Rocks With No Ice, absolute money. Lady Gaga was absolutely amazing, insane stage show and an epic performance! Definitely worth the money!

Justin Hawkins from The Darkness

Lady Gaga's absurd stage set up

It's currently our last day in Tallinn before we head off to Riga in Latvia tomorrow, by far the highlight of Tallinn for KG has been the amazing yoghurt she purchased at the local shopping centre, the look of excitement eliminates the need for any caption...