Latvia Day 2 - Your Mala? No, My Mala.

Holy shite time in class flies by. Here I am back in Manchester, finally nestled all snug in my bed, when the weekend's upon me and to Ireland I head. So let's finish off the Latvian stories.

When we left our heroes, they were having lunch and sightseeing on their first day in Riga. I think the pictures tell the sightseeing stories. And, I don't think anyone is really that interested in hearing stories about Halloween Friday night in an Eastern European town, submarine nightclubs, bars named after the Latvian word for "breasts", a club scene that doesn't *start* until 1am and ends at 6, what apparently turns out to be a world renown prostitution market and dance clubs packed from A to Z filled with the most unblelievable looking women you have ever seen. As a mature audience, I think you agree that those stories get old, so let's just zip ahead to the next day.

So at about 1:00pm we rubbed the sleep and sin from our eyes and embarked on a simple project of finding a restaurant where we could "have lunch by the sea."

Our comical tour guide Eugene said he knew of such a place and so we followed him - not to the sea actually - but to a train station. Apparently there was another town by the sea in which there may be more restaurants, because God knows how hard it is to contain oneself to a single lunch. So, off we went on our little adventure to Jurmala (your-mala).

I jest, but I was actually pleased we were going on this little journey. I mean, with Gene at the helm we were most certainly assured of getting lost. Plus, if there’s anything more exciting that getting off a plane in a foreign land, I think getting on a train in a foreign land may be it. Jurmala is kind of the Latvian equivalent of the Jersey Shore, about 30 minutes by train and nestled nicely into the Baltic Sea. We wandered down a long boardwalk type path that in the summer is probably teeming with Latvian tourists on holiday. Bars, Cafes, Restaurants, Shops – all the things you’d see in a classic American Beach Town like Cape Cod. Of course, Cape Codians know that autumn and winter are no time to be walking down a boardwalk, and Latvians are no dumber, so many of these places were closed. It was now 4:00pm and Vittorio's 24 hour long dream of “lunch by the sea,” made more difficult by the 1:00pm wake up and the fact nothing seemed to be open, looked bleaker and bleaker. The beach was gorgeous, though bloody cold, and we played around down there a while. If there’s anything good about a cold beach, it’s that frozen sand is much easier to walk on.

We had just about lost all hope for "lunch by the sea" when a little Lebanese place appeared out of nowhere. It was warm, inviting and friendly. There were plenty of couches facing the picture windows and we chose one right out front where we could concentrate on nature and less on the people cuddling and making out on other sofa. And so we indulged ourselves with overpriced Italian wine, expensive piroshkys and a giant apple hookah. We sat inside this beachside cafe watching the sun set over the Baltic sea and felling generally content about everything life had to offer. And when the sun had departed and the wine and beer had been drunk, we smiled fondly at our little personal play pen in Jurmala, basked in a happy glow. Such is life that if 1 year ago you had asked me to name 100,000 places that I would spend Oct 29, 2005 watching a sunset, Al Thome Restaurant and Bar in Jurmala, Latvia probably would have been behind JJ's Pig shop in Little Rock, Arkansas. But that's the real beauty isn't it? Who knows what's behind each door so just keep your eyes open and play along.

Yeccccchhhhhh, enough melancholy and sap already.

Let's just say at some point time marches on and we said goodbye to Al Thome and made our way back out into the dark and cold where we coaught a train back to Riga. And like I said, no one is interested in more stories of hot blondes, booze and dance clubs, so we can leave it at that.

And, since these entries strecthed pretty long, and Sunday was really no more than a day of more exploring, picture taking and general merriement, we will leave Riga behind simply with recommendations to spend a summer holiday visiting the country, along with Estonia and Lithuania.

Now, off to Galway and Dublin. Back Monday. Have a good weekend.