driving to riga today
raaaaaaining
ran to car with my duffel on my back, got nice and wet
sleet started falling at a few points - was on the windscreen and the streets were like six inches deep in water - nearly soaked some pedestrians?
viking village
walked around a bit, completely empty except for some cute fuzzy bunnies
place is falling apart, would look good with lots of people
more fuzzy bunnies
nice boat in the river, couldn’t get close
had lunch
oven-baked dumplings from a bag mushroom and cream and red onion on rye bread, was delicious
I had a coke, she had a hot chocolate
drove to riga, stopped at the latvian border - via ikla bistro (TripAdvisor) - they bought the border checkpoint and turned it into a bistro/convenience store. had hot dogs and bought hilarious chocolate
- onion chocolate
- garlic chocolate
- pepper? maybe chilli?
will cover chocolate in a future post when I eat it.
nothing much else happened I don’t think
got to the hotel, checked in - the room was tiny - I don’t know what they were thinking but there was about 20cm of room on the left hand side of the bed, the foot was clear but everything else was surrounded by bare brick in a not very “designer” looking room. More like “we carved the smallest legal space out and sold you with nice photos” - the photos are shit - for the room we were given anyhow.
RMB had a chat with them - unsurprisingly in the nearly-empty hotel they let us upgrade for 5EUR/night to a much nicer (properly-sized) room with a balcony the size of a postage stamp and a bath.
went to dinner at Milda (TripAdvisor), a lovely place to dine, lovely staff and decor
cider! for the things
- rmb had dumplings for entree - came served like oysters in individual dishes
- I had beef heart tartar - it was delicious - hadn’t had it before
soup!
- porcini soup in bread bowl - bread bowl had fruit (raisins and cherries/cranberries maybe?) - lovely soup, and the bread added some rich sweetness at the end
main was boiled potato dumplings with meat filling, bacon and sour cream over the top - was lovely and not overly doughy - just the right amount of stodge and thick tasty potatoes.
robyn had filet mignon with sweet potato puree and an approximation of chimichurri. it was well cooked, the chimichurri was a little odd, but not surprising given the locale. the sweet potato puree was a little too smooth - almost airy - which is very strange.
honey cake was rich and tasty, almost had a christmas fruit cake richness to it - golden syrup tending towards molasses. nom.
service was amazing, friendly and helpful, their timing was great and they didn’t get in the way
