Latvia

The 8-hour road trip, complete with plentiful stops, lead to Riga, Latvia. We drove through the town over the bumpy cobbled stones, arriving at our destination around 8pm. The sky was still bright because well, the sky never gets dark in the Baltic countries apparently. 

So, if I am to be brutally honest, while completing my travels Latvia was probably my least favourite country I visited; in saying this, I did visit some very beautiful countries/places, to which the standard was extremely high. However, I will enlighten you as to why this place wasn't among my favourites.
1. The weather. Now I know this is no one's fault and it is out of my, your, everyone's hands but without a doubt, the weather can either make or break your holiday. And while it didn't break the holiday, as I still enjoyed Riga, it did dampen my doorstep. (Although, as you can see in the photos we did luck out at times and managed to capture a handful of beautiful sunny moments on camera).
2. The accommodation.  For some reason, the accommodation in Riga was the hardest to find, despite the Baltic countries being very reasonably priced. We opted for an airbnb, and the host of the apartment had lead us to believe he was happy to meet us outside his apartment and help us carry our bags up the 5 flights of stairs- this did not happen. We also had a lot of trouble getting onto him due to phone troubles, but luckily the lovely girl working at the youth hostel called him for us. The host never showed up to help us carry our bags and simply told the hostel worker our key was under the door. To this day I don't know how we would have known this had we not had someone who spoke Latvian help us; a most disappointing start to Riga.
3. The old town. (The first picture of this post) It wasn't nearly as beautiful as Tallin and a lot smaller. However, the actual city of Riga was quite large, and definitely bigger than Tallin.

So now that I've said the negatives, Riga was still an extremely interesting place to visit- as is almost any place in the world that you've never been. Four of my favourite things that we did in Riga were;
1. Going to the opera! I have never done this before and I got to see one of the most famous operas, Rigoletto and even though it was in another language it was just so fantastic. The interior of the building was just magnificent; such a special experience.
2. The KGB museum and tour. I consider myself a little bit of a history nerd, as for those who do not remember the past, are condemned to repeat it! While I did learn a lot of European history in school, I never got to study communist Russia and all that happened, so this was very interesting and informative. I even got to see where the USSR kept their prisoners, i.e. those who had even a little bit of money.
3. Art nouveau buildings. These buildings could be found all throughout Riga, but especially on one main street and it was breathtaking! The architectural beauty is just out of this world. The craftsmanship and creativity is just amazing. Even luckier, the sun was shining as we walked the street.
4. Big bad bagels. These bagels just reminded me of New York (home to the best bagels in the world). I have never eaten so much cream cheese in my life, and then instantaneously regretted it (damn being lactose intolerant). Definitely worth going if you love a good bagel, and let's be real, who doesn't love a good bagel?

^ The beautiful opera building, gardens and interior.