Tartu to Riga

We were tired after a big day yesterday. We woke up at 11am and raced to make checkout by noon. Then I saw checkout was actually at 11. The hotel was cool about it.

The drive to Riga was similar to the drive yesterday. At one point in Estonia, road construction not only had one side diverted into a lane adjacent to oncoming traffic, but actually had both directions directed into one lane!

We entered Latvia with little fanfare. I had to convince Candace that we were in Latvia. The bus stops on the side of the road in Estonia are cute little open huts. In Latvia, its a concrete slab. It my limited experience Latvians drive crazier than Estonians, but that might just be in Riga. I saw a news story mocking Estonians for being the least friendly people in the world. Latvians might give them a run for their money. But seriously, that's overstated. People aren't the friendliest, but they're not jerks either.

Driving in downtown Riga is insane! There was so much traffic at 3:30pm. We arrived at the hotel 30 minutes after the gps estimated and it was all because of traffic in Riga. We passed by haunting brown and gray buildings as rain poored down. Latvian drivers swerved into our lane only inches from us. My nerves quickly became frayed.

We found a bar and ate our only meal of the day. The bar played rather terrible music including the 1990s feminist anthem Shut Up and Sleep with Me by Germany's favorite son Sin With Sebastian and theat ode to racial tolerance, Queen of Chinatown by Amanda Lear.

The bar had a ramp and the hotel is accessible which would have made Candace ecstatic if she wasn't annoyed by the rain. The rain divots in the sidewalk were much more manageable for the scooter. Because of the rain, we had a quiet night in the hotel, which is a couple miles outside the city center.