Hi bloggers!

What a week we had in Riga! Never thought I would be so amazed by this city. Nice people, great food and awesome parties! Because I don’t want us to forget our crazy experiences I’m going to talk about nightlife. Oh yes, we had a blast!

Because this was the last stop on our tour we wanted to end in style. So the last night we decided to hire a limousine. Rigalimo offered us their white Chrysler for a special price because we were visitors to the city.

As we wanted to relax before we started our night we went to Islande SPA Beauty and wellness. We treated ourselves with some foam and herb massages. After our massage we went in the Jacuzzi with some champagne. A manicure and pedicure followed and to end our hair and make-up was done by some professionals.

Before we went to the club we wanted to eat and drink something as you can’t party with an empty stomach. We chose to go to ‘7 seas’, a bar and restaurant in the centre of Riga.  It had a nice summer terrace but unfortunately it was too cold to sit outside. Nevertheless the interior of the restaurant was just as nice as the exterior. After a nice meal we went to the bar to have some drinks before taking the limo to our next stop.

With our Riga VIP Club Access we were allowed to go to several clubs. With this pass we got VIP treatment in every club so we didn’t have to wait to get in and we always had a table especially prepared for us. Life is good you would say!

First club we went to was Club Essential, a stunning club with several rooms and music genres. Second and last club of the night was Push club. Push Club is internationally known because it has clubs all over the world. There were performances of several dancers and we experienced an amazing fire show.

Although we had a splendid time I’m happy to be home again.

Ilse xxx

Sources:

http://www.nightlifeinriga.com/night.html

http://www.islandehotel.lv/Spa_and_Gym.aspx

http://eng.meeting.lv/nightlife/musicclubs.php

Riga: culture

The final stop on our trip was Riga (Latvia). If you like architecture you can definitely appreciate Riga. There’s an old town, Vecriga, where there are gothic churches and medieval townhouses. Then in the Central District of Riga there’s Art Nouveau style. Next to architecture Riga is also known for the highly-esteemed Latvian National Opera. The first operas were staged back in the 18^th century and today it’s one of the prides of the city. There’s also the Riga Opera Festival, which takes place every June. It’s the highlight of the year for lovers of performing arts. The Opera House is also used for modern ballet performances, theatre, classical music concerts,….

Riga is influenced, just as Latvian, by the Latvian folklore and by the people of the country. There are many Christian rituals to be found throughout the arts. Also the language is one of only two that have survived from the family of Indo-European languages. Around half of the people of the country speak it as their primary language.

As far as food goes, smoked foods are very popular. Also dairy products, eggs, potatoes and grains are often used. The leading beer is Aldaris. If you are into cooking there is a food industry fair “Riga Food” which is the biggest fair in the Baltics. Every year the trends of the food industry are shown. The fair highlights novelties and presents a number of serious and trustable enterprises. You can go an taste new products, watch professional chefs,…

Riga offers a lot for its tourist there’s a whole bunch of Fine bars and cafes to discover in the lively contemporary  center.  But my friend Ilse will tell you more about the nightlife. So for information about that you can read her blog.

I would like to thank you for reading our blog every week and I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. I would definitely recommend all the places we have seen.

Talk to you later

Stephanie

 sources

http://www.riga-life.com/culture/culture.php

http://www.dailylatvia.com/articles-culture.html

http://www.bt1.lv/bt1/rigafood/?link=10100000

Riga - climate -

Hello there!

Are you ready for our last bunch of experiences in a new not very known city? I hope so because we’ve had the best clincher of our trip!

Our latest stop is Latvia and in Latvia we’ve visited Riga.

We’ve chosen this city because I’ve read an article a couple of years ago about Riga in which they talked about it and recommended it to everyone.
(sources: http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/2907/Magazine/article/detail/454762/2008/10/16/48-uren-in-de-Letse-hoofdstad-Riga.dhtml)  

The city isn’t comparable to Hong Kong but it’s quite a romantic village.

I’m going to tell you something about their Climate in this blog so that you know when is the best time to go to Riga.

In the article I’ve mentioned before they wrote that Riga is very nice to visit in autumn, not too cold and certainly not hot for people who don’t like sunny destinations. The city is very romantic in autumn with all its leafs flying around. In Riga winter knocks earlier on the door than here with us. At the beginning of November the temperature is able to sink until under the freezing  point and it stays cold until the end of January. Some find it creepy but others think it’s lovely to have short days in that season of the year. If you know the Daugava you will be very enthusiastic when you hear that in the Winter this place changes into a BIG BIG ice rink!

At the other hand Riga knows its fabulous hot summers which start in Mai- June. Then you can count on a temperature of approximately 25 degrees and above all not very much rain.

In Riga we visited the Gulf of Riga, a body of water which is very known in the city. In the winter the gulf has its gold days and each winter a part of the gulf is covered with ice. Often the gulf is completely frozen (approximately 60% of the winters). At the other hand, in the summer the gulf knows its hot days were the temperature can rise to 26-28°. What are you waiting for?

Well dear readers, we've reached our latest destination and now it's time for us to go home after a long period of travelling. We hope you enjoyed our weekly blogs!

Xxx

Melissa

Sources:

http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/2907/Magazine/article/detail/454762/2008/10/16/48-uren-in-de-Letse-hoofdstad-Riga.dhtml

http://www.estonica.org/en/Nature/The_Baltic_Sea/The_Gulf_of_Riga/

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riga

Buildings in Riga

Dear followers,

This is our last stop of the trip and so it will be my last post on this blog. I really did not know anything about this city so I searched for it on the internet. On Wikipedia I found some important buildings that we must have visited before leaving the city.

In this blog I am going to talk about some different popular buildings in Riga. One of the oddest shaped buildings is the Riga radio and TV tower.  It is the tallest structure in the Baltic countries and the second tallest in the European Union. It was built between 1979 and 1986 by USSR. Its highest point reaches 368.5 m, which makes it the third tallest tower in Europe (after the Ostankino Tower at 540 metres) and the Kiev TV Tower at 385 metres and the 14th tallest tower in the world.

The second building on our list was Latvian Academy of Sciences. The Academy of Science the official science academy of Latvia and is an association of the country's foremost scientists. The academy was founded as the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences.

Riga Arena was the third building to visit. Arena Riga is an indoor arena in Riga, Latvia. It is primarily used for ice hockey, basketball and concerts. Riga Arena holds a maximum of 14 500 people and was completed in 2006. It was built to be used as one of the venues for the 2006 IIHF World Championship, the other being Skonto Arena. It has been home to the Kontinental Hockey League club Dinamo Riga since 2008. During the years the Arena has also hosted many well-known artists from all over the world.

What we also must not forget is that Riga is one of the largest centres of Art Nouveau, with more than a third of the buildings of its Central District built in the style. The main street for Riga’s Art Nouveau district is Elizabetes, which intersects Brivibas Boulevard. In addition to Elizabetes Street, Alberta and Strelnieku Streets also feature impressive examples of the style. In total, there are over 800 Art Nouveau buildings in Riga.

I hope you learned a bit more about the cities we have visited on our blogs and enjoyed reading them.

Shari

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riga

http://www.emporis.com/city/riga-latvia

http://www.ranker.com/review/riga-radio-and-tv-tower/1910268