Tue 22/07/08 07:06

I took some people’s suggestion that Riga was the place to be, and packed up and left Tallinn yesterday, and I don’t that I made the right decision. Riga is nice, but Tallinn really seemed to be a little more comfortable. What I mean is that Riga is basically a working city, with an old part (old city) and people are walking everywhere, where Tallinn was more like a tourist part of the city, that was restored to it’s original “glory.” Riga is nice don’t get me wrong, the people are more friendly than some of the other cities that I’ve been too, in fact it appears that they are maybe a little too friendly.

So last night I met a guy in the hostel and start talking… I can’t remember if I started the conversation or he did, but we end up going to have a beer. We’re sitting just talking about things that strangers talk about, when the guy behind us starts to add to the conversation. He’s an older guy that’s lived all over the world, New York, Tel Aviv, and Paris. So anyway, we’re talking and he moves over to our table, then a girl sits at the table that he was previously at, and she starts to get into our conversation… about 20 minutes later she’s sitting at our table. I really like when people can connect. :) What was funny was that the older guy that joined our table first was really rude to the girl. I think that he thought that she was a prostitute or something… don’t know, but they yelled in Latvian at each other a couple of times.

The older guy was an illustrator that has been published several times (10) and is really interesting to talk to. I enjoyed his company so much that we met up with him today for beers, and we’ve decided that everyday at noon we meet to have a beer. Now, this isn’t just me, the friend that I met in the hostel, Sam, is from Australia and a talker… nice guy. Just so you know that it’s not just me there. Anyway, today Sam and I met Maris (older illustrator) for a beer. Maris brought a magazine that his work was featured in, and then we made our way to the book store and he showed us his book. It was really impressive, they had his book in the front case, with text that I can only assume was something about being a local artist. Anyway, I bought the book.

Last night I was just wandering around and decided to go to the ATM for some cash, put my card in the machine and do all the things that I need to, the sound of the cash being dispensed was heard, then nothing. No cash, no card, no receipt. This morning I went to the bank hoping to get my card, and they said no. They said that it was international policy that if there is a problem with a card, that it must be sent back to the bank that issued it. So what that means is that I’m in Riga, Latvia with no money. I called my bank this morning and after a $30 call I managed to get them to send me a replacement card asap. They didn’t want to do it at first, but I kind of pleaded and if they were telling the truth, I should get the card either wed or thursday. We’ll see though.

There seems to be a lot of prostitutes in the last two countries I’ve been to. In Tallinn I was approached by two very drunk women in a span of about one hour asking me what I was doing… don’t know if that makes them a prostitute or not, but it’s the first time that meeting women has been that easy… so I’ll go with “prostitutes.” There is also a girl in the hostel that seems to be “off” she just starts laughing for no apparent reason, I woke up and for some reason sat straight up in my bed, she was staring right at me. It kind of weirded me out a little.She was really strange though, she must have gone to her locker about 25 times. It was like someone who is neurotic and constantly does the same thing over and over. Sam says that she is a prostitute that works out of the hostel. Oh, and Maris said that he thought the girl that came over to our table was probably one too.

That’s it for now, I’ve got a bunch of days before I can leave Latvia so the blog/journal will probably be kind of boring.