A weekend in Riga

Mr. Bear and I decided to take a quick weekend break and take a weekend cruise to Riga in Lithuania. We both figured we could use a break (me from school and him from work) and explore our Baltic meighbor.

 To be honest, I didn't know a lot about Latvia but a day spent in the country's capital gave me an idea of the country's history.

The city is known for its Art Noveau center and has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. While the squares in the old town was almost empty, we had the opportunity to explore this proud city.

Latvia has a sad but proud history; the country has been occupied by one country after the other. Our visit to its National Museum took us through a quick tour of what the Latvian people had gone through just during the 20th century. The country was signed off as part of a 10-year pact between Germany and the Soviet Union and was assigned to the Soviet Union.

The Latvian culture and tradition is a mixed of Baltic and Russian influences. While the official language is Latvian, majority of Riga's population speaks both Latvian and Russian. We found it this out the hard way when we needed to buy some medicine for motion sickness (the sea was quite choppy when we travelled).