Strong winds? Check
Slightly dodgy weather? Check
It is a relief to discover that at the same lines of latitude some things remain the same and our day trip to 'The Baltic Riviera' had just enough of the English seaside resort to make us nostalgic. Nevertheless, you don't get stiletto heels and designer sunglasses to quite the same extent in Bognor Regis. The resort of Jurmala is full of stunning summer homes and nice restaurants and we had a lovely lunch overlooking the beach, before doing our best windswept impression on a long walk up the beach. Heading back to the hostel, we had a very decadent evening of Poirot, which got me too scared to walk down the corridor alone...
The following day, we wanted to head to the National Park area of Sigulda, but missed the train by one minute, so had to wait for 2 hours for the next one. This gave us a great opportunity to explore Riga's covered market - the largest in Europe which is absolutely full of meat and fish and in which, it is incredibly easy to get lost. We finally made it to Sigulda and walked to the castle, where we had a picnic of sardines, bread and apples.
After a further wander, we took a cable car across the gorge to a little village called Kirmulda. We went for a scramble through the woods there, humming 'We're going on a bear hunt' as we went. Returning to Riga, we headed back to the hostel for tea of bacon, eggs and cabbage (a surprisingly yummy combination) and watched more Poirot, with the light off, which was a mistake...
Our final day in Riga was spent doing important things like laundry and buying a fish. Seeing how big a part of our stay the fish tank had been, we decided to buy Karlis a fish on the proviso it was called Bob. Thus Bob the fish was bought and entered the House Hostel fish tank. At the time of writing, he was still alive.
After a late lunch of Russian dumplings, we headed to the station to catch the bus to Tartu and enter country number 12.
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