summer trip 2013 - part 4/5

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like all the other cities in this region, riga has a town hall, some important churches and some monuments.. and i get easily tired of these things.. i tried meeting a CSer, but ended up lost and with a dead phone.. so mid afternoon i got my things, found myself a hostel and went for a nap..

at night i met another CSer and checked out the nightlife, like some cool rock bars and a traditional folk bar recommended by a friend from there, called ala pagrabs, which is pretty awesome (we were almost fooled by the humble entrance!).. we also found out that the clubs there are very segmented and strict about their public, mainly in 3 'categories': latvians, russians and tourists..

before taking a bus to estonia the next afternoon, i decided to go visit jūrmala, just 30 minutes by train from riga, where supposedly the longest beach on the northern side of europe is situated. i don't know if it's the longest, but it's dozens of kilometers of fine sand, with a calm sea where you can walk tens of meters into and the water won't even reach your waist..

if on one side there's the beach, on the other there's river lielupe, where you can see people going on ferry tours, fishing, swimming or just hanging out and enjoying the relaxing atmosphere.. the latter being my choice..

i got to tallinn pretty late, almost midnight, and i was welcomed by my CS host and her friend in the new city center, then we went to a park next to vabaduse väljak (freedom square), had some beers and headed home, which was 30 minutes out of the city..

after a lazy morning, we went to the medieval old town, had (again) some beers at snelli park, then climbed toompea hill to see beautiful panoramic views of the old city.. in the evening we were tired, but had some drinks and got on a bus to meet some people in the city, but then…

on our way, we started talking to some guys on the bus, and when they were leaving they said they were going to this university party.. we all spontaneously jumped off the bus "just to check it out".. turns out it was an awesome, huge freshman party, with one of the most famous estonian hip hop groups, a-rühm (not that i care), and we had a freaking blast!

we deserved nothing but doing nothing after the crazy night we pulled off, so we stayed home, watched lion king (yeah, that was the vibe), and at night we had dinner at a friend's place in the city, then went to some more chill bars, and came home around 5 in the morning, where i managed to sleep for 20 minutes before leaving again to take my ferry to my last destination: finland.

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