Up again at 6 am we focused on going out and doing some sightseeing of things we might have missed during our arbitrary stroll through the Old Town the previous evening. The town was almost empty and so we could take some great pictures as the sun rose. Kuniko led us around the other side of St. Peter’s cathedral to find a statue depicting several animals standing on each other’s backs – the Town Musicians of Bremen. From there I led the way to Riga Castle, but the castle itself was not so dramatic on the outside, and it was currently being guarded by several soldiers so we thought it might be better to move on. A ways outside of the Old Town there was a street that was recommended for the baroque facades of the houses lining it, but there were only a few buildings that looked interesting and the rest were pretty standard.
It seemed like we had covered just about everything we wanted to see, and we still had a good day and a half left. Maybe it was Old Town burnout, but we went back to the hotel feeling a little down. Unlike the past two hotels, breakfast was included in our Riga hotel price, so we joined in downstairs. There was a big tour group there (Germans, I think) and so we competed with them for our food. I really liked the pork sausage meatballs they served, and Kuniko enjoyed the raspberry jam to put in her yogurt. The coffee machine was an automatic one, but due to the high volume of guests at that time it was always running out of something causing big delays. It was tricky to finally get our coffee going.
Although our cultural and architectural sightseeing was finished, I still had some foodie sightseeing I wanted to do. We started off at the huge Riga city market south of town. Just across from the bus station where we arrived, the market is housed in and around five giant hangars that used to house zeppelins in the previous World War. Now each hangar contains different categories of food, with a very slight overlap here and there. One was mainly fresh meats and butchers (we saw carts loaded with pig carcasses rolling towards the cold rooms), another was for fish and cured seafood, also there was one for gourmet produce and foods, and one for breads and cheeses. The last one was under construction, and I’m not sure what that will turn out to be. Outside and between the hangars were individual stands selling fruits and vegetables, and also food stands selling pastries, clothes shops and junk shops. The whole area was lively and it was exciting to walk through. Inside one hangar a woman was selling distilled honey spirits, and you could buy it by the shot, the bottle, or the giant bottle. We bought one shot and split it, and it went straight down to my toes – wow! The lady was used to the reaction and just giggled.
Outside on the way out of the market was a small tank on a trailer selling what I thought was beer. After we bought it and drank it turned out to be kvass, a mainly non-alcoholic drink made from bread that was very refreshing. Kvass was big in this region, but that was the only time we had it.
In this area I also tried to find a Dynamo Riga t-shirt. Back when I was a San Jose Sharks hockey fan a couple players came from Riga and played for Dynamo, and so I thought since I was here I should try to pick up a shirt. Surprisingly, nobody was selling them. Certainly it was off-season, but there was no team shop anywhere and the department store and sports shops both came up empty. One clerk recommended a tourist shop on the other side of town, so we filed away the information for later.
We decided that instead of going out to eat tonight, it might be fun to take a break from restaurants and buy all the elements of a picnic from the market instead. Kuniko and I enjoyed walking around choosing different things. I chose two cured cuts of fish – one yellowtail and one salmon that were beautifully aged and tender. Kuniko picked up some braised pork chunks that were nicely browned on the outside. We also bought some fresh fruit – some pears and apples that looked especially delicious. At a nearby supermarket we found sparkling wine made in Riga as well – so it was a completely local meal. After some internet research we found that drinking alcohol outside was illegal in Riga, so we had to adjust the location of our picnic to our hotel room, but it was still something to look forward to. We dropped off our haul of groceries back at the hotel, and then went once again into Old Town.
Our mission this time was to try some local beer. Local wine was out on this trip (with the exception of Poland), so we focused on local beers and local cheeses usually. Near our hotel was a promising shop called “Easy Beer” but when we arrived at 11:52 am the staff turned us away. I asked when they opened and she said they opened at noon but they weren’t ready yet. As she told us this she actually had a sneer on her face – like a movie villain or something. We just thanked her and moved on, but I was surprised that they were so rude about it. Maybe dealing with English-speaking tourists all day makes you grouchy.
Not twenty steps away we found a place that was open, with outdoor seating, and that was advertising a small local beer tasting set for just 8 euros. We sat down and looked at the menu and it said that they in fact had a large set and a small set. I briefly considered getting the large set, but thought that it was just lunchtime and I didn’t want to end up staggering back to the hotel later. We ordered two small sets, and it turned out that the small sets consisted of four full-sized beers each. We ordered a plate of onion rings to try to balance out all the alcohol, and then set to work. The local beers had a lot of variety and again were very easy to drink. Only one was hoppy like American IPA style. It was nice to sit on the side of the cobblestone street sipping beers and watching the growing number of tourists walking by. Riga is also by the sea so it is sometimes a port of call for cruise ships. We saw groups of Japanese tourists as well – it was strange to hear Japanese spoken after so long without hearing it.
With our “tasting” complete, we staggered off to Freedom Square and tried to track down that elusive Dynamo Riga t-shirt. Somewhat miraculously, we found one at the store recommended by a local. It was the last shirt in the shop, it was in my size, and the design was just what I was hoping for. We also picked up a cheesy keychain to add to our Christmas tree at the end of the year, so it was a great success.
Still buzzing from the beers we went back to the hotel and had a party in our room with all the good food we had bought earlier. We drank the sparkling wine with the fish, meats and fruits, and even tried the local liqueur, called Black Balsam, but it was pretty nasty. No need to bring a bottle of that home.
It was still only early afternoon, we had consumed a shot of honey spirits, four beers each, a bottle of sparkling wine (and a nasty swallow of Black Balsam), and we were ready to keep the party going. We went back to the center of Freedom Square, and sat outside a very swanky restaurant called Kollonade. With a couple of glasses of prosecco we watched people walking by and kids playing in the park, and it was a nice relaxing time. Afterwards we bought a couple of ice creams at Laima, and then sat out on the grass in the shade of a tree next to a small series of waterfalls in the park and chatted about tomorrow’s plans. While eating the ice cream I suddenly remembered that I had read that the donuts from the Riga Market were highly recommended, so we somewhat unwisely went back through the market in search of donuts. We were successful, but ended up wearing a significant amount of the powdered sugar as we tried to eat it outside with a breeze blowing.
So it seemed the wise thing to do was to head back to the hotel and call it a day. I was surprised to see that the time was only about 6 pm when we got back, but we had no trouble falling asleep (as you can probably guess) and we slept soundly through until the next morning.
