hi everyone and welcome to europe in december 2020 has been an eventful year prior to exploring some
lesser-known destinations in mexico for ten weeks i spent the years earlier months in eastern and
southeastern europe from my beloved and gritty belgrade an equally impressive Nis in serbia
to my coveted sanctuary in belarus not to mention the statuesque Skopje and the picturesque Ohrid
in my most surprising destination of the year north macedonia over the next four videos we'll
be exploring two cities in the baltics which are often ignored by travellers in europe tallinn
estonia the pretty sibling of the region brings you everything western europe offers at christmas
and then some whilst riga in latvia tallinn's up front and straight to the point counterpart
brings with it a wealth of incredible architecture and mind-blowing food along with a harrowing past
consisting of power and conquest unwarranted occupation and ultimately independence christmas
magic chocolate box old towns ginormous markets and a history you may not know anything about
it's time for part one prepare to fall head over heels for riga
hi everyone or should i say hello or good day that's right we're in riga in latvia on
a very cold monday afternoon in december it's freezing and today in this video
we're quite simply exploring the quite beautiful and honestly quite surprising
riga old town and just to clarify a few points before we get started i've actually been in
riga for about a month now i was in isolation for 10 days then i was working then i was sick
so i'm only getting a chance now to come out and film so on that note let's get going
right keep in mind that this is corona time so everything is closed latvia is
in a state of emergency but we can still explore right and we're starting off by
a medieval restaurant this is rozena iela is street in latvian a bit like ulica in russian
and to start off with you know i think a lot of people don't know much about latvia and honestly
i didn't know a huge amount before i came here so it's been interesting to learn and
it's one of the three baltic countries along with estonia lithuania latvia is the middle one
and the history in latvia is quite honestly beyond insane ridiculously complex it's kind of
on a level of complexity that i would compare with someone like serbia and i think you kind of need a
degree in latvian history to fully appreciate and understand it okay behind me is an example
of the awesome architecture on offer in riga blue sort of old style ye olde kind of feel
it's a restaurant i think alpen rose it's got like the christmas decoration around the outside
christmas is coming let me know what you're doing for christmas people and i was gonna say in terms
of latvian history there's a really good link i'm putting down in the description below if you want
to know more it's actually the website of the kgb museum we're going there in the next video people
and it really gives like a comprehensive detailed account of history both during the war and
post war this streak was um used in the russian version of sherlock holmes unbelievably and
i think in other movies it's like double to paris and doubled for places in sweden um yeah
amazing it has got that kind of chocolate box feel that's one way i would describe riga old
town it feels very much like sort of salzburg in austria i was there earlier in the year
and also yeah like i said places in paris you know cobblestone streets these cute quaint
little shops and narrow streets it really is kind of europe's hidden gem in a way at least for me
right now that you've got some information about riga and latvia we're turning the
camera around and going exploring a lot of the architecture in the old town is art nouveau
in style and these three buildings are kind of an instagram girl's dream you see a lot
of girls coming here at the weekend doing their instagram shoots these are the three brothers
quite simply because they're three different styles of architecture built at three different
times so you've got one which is green very narrow one a pale yellow with the date on the
facade 1646 and then that one there is extremely different in terms of style
wowsers so just goes to show the um stages of development architecturally
in riga right i've taken a seat outside this closed restaurant deserted riga during corona time
and in terms of recent history obviously latvia was part of the soviet union i'm talking sort of
in the last hundred years it was the latvian ssr the latvian soviet socialist republic along with
estonia and lithuania as well but the history of latvia is obviously more complex and in depth than
that it was part of the hanseatic league going back to like medieval times it's on the bay of
riga so of course there's a great history with shipping and trade and fishing that sort of thing
and the hanseatic league was basically a collective of cities in this region that were
once under german control that work together in relation to trade and fishing and industry hi hun
just been to a bakery down there one thing about latvian food that's very
important to know is it's all about bakery products and bread
particularly rye bread with dill and cardamom seeds everything you will see
in the supermarket bakeries will be rye bread rye bread rye bread it's everywhere and also they sell
zefir in that shop i had them in mint you might remember these small marshmallowy strawberry
and other flavor things absolutely beautiful very common in russia belarus and the baltics
okay this is another popular tourist spot in riga excuse the workmen in the background this is the
house of the blackheads built in the early 1300s it was once a guild for merchants and fishermen
and it was destroyed in the second world war which is a common theme you all find in riga it
was rebuilt in 1999 and the um was once the home of the president he moved his offices here in the
early 2010s i believe before we moved to riga castle and we got a christmas tree over there
and the bridge in the background goes over to the other part of riga there's a library over there
we'll go over there in a second night is falling which means the christmas tree lights are going on
it's exciting christmas is coming i'm not morning much of a christmasy person but this year
after 2020 i am look at the nice christmas tree and um i'll grab start doing christmas
music and videos on i look at the light on the buildings it's really special
there's the house of the blackheads once again interesting building lots of interesting
architecture in riga old town i love it just walking up another quiet cobble street that's
the thing the cobbled streets are awesome in the old town and um i was going to say in like about
more recent times and the things that have kind of struck me about riga is about the people and
language so i've read different percentages that you know a certain potential people in
latvia are latvian obviously because of soviet times there's also a percentage of russians
and it's very interesting how younger people particularly younger people and younger adults
speak three languages it's ridiculously impressive you know latvian russian and english and um
particularly older people like older taxi drivers you'll hear them speaking russians hello,
thank you (in Russian) and um the thing i would say as well about being a digital nomad
a lot of people ask me this question you know what's latvia like in terms of being a digital
nomad i've got to say it's one of the best locations in europe the wi-fi is fantastic
and the thing about english the one way i kind of judge a country or a city about whether it's
good for digital nomad is about the english level and whether i've actually had an english student
in latvia and over the last four years guess how many i've had zero the language level the english
level is absolutely incredible so you won't have an issue despite the fact that you know it's very
important to learn another language when you come to another place and i really enjoy doing that but
i can't deny that you know being able to speak english with people is a bonus
i'm hiding down a little back alley now because of the wind but i'm showing you now saint peter's
church absolutely awesome very high grand church in riga you can't miss it it's all
over the city i think you can get up there it's like a 72 meter high panoramic view of the city
awesome obviously it's closed at the moment corona time and i believe it was built just like many
churches in cathedral just like in mexico many of you are my mexico viewers it was built over a
very long period of time in different stages and i understand it was destroyed on many occasions
first it was blown up by lightning and as with the house of the blackheads it was destroyed by
artillery fire during the war look at the spire it's so high with like the weathervane
thing on the top i guess but be great to go up there when corona is not happening right we're
going down to the river now to check out one of my favorite things in the world which are
trams okay useful information time really silly thing but you know one of the things you really
come to a new country or city you think oh where are the supermarkets where are the
convenience stores okay nothing i don't know if that's pronounced correctly probably not
is like the main convenience store remy or remy express is the main supermarket
wow look at the sunset amazing and that building that the sun is setting behind is a library
we might go there if we get time in another video i'm not sure no promises but it's shaped like a
castle crazy and yeah that bridge over there goes over to the other side of riga there's some uh
skyscrapers over there in the distance
where are they there they are somewhere not exactly skyscrapers like medium size
there's a bus you got trolley buses and lots of different styles of tram old ones newer ones
fascinating i'm gonna go check out the sunset behind the library and get a good photo
this is really geeky but it's just like in minsk in the subways you've got obviously the steps and
also in asia i've seen this as well like the uh things you can wheel things with wheels on down
hey
anyway these tram shots i'm showing you actually from a few days ago because it's just so windy
down there i can't speak and talk and wind at the same time if you know what i mean but
yeah these trams why do i find charms so special it's probably because in london there aren't any
[ __ ] or there are there's ones in the south of london but they're very modern and they haven't
got that historical aspect i think the ones in really date back to 1901 as i said there are
older ones like blue and white and then you've got the more modern ones similar to belgrade in many
ways where there are diff or different trams from different periods and if you're a transport geek
you know something like trams it will just blow your mind so ending this video down by the river
and watching birds fly around in the sunset waiting for the christmas tree lights to come on
and it's cold and there's no denying that this video has been incredibly difficult to film not
only because of wind because of cold because of freezing weather and also things being closed
but that's old news now this is 2020 things are closed but places and things may be closed but
the world is open a lot of people are reluctant to travel to go outside even for obvious reasons but
we can still do it and it might seem crazy coming to rica in december but that's life you can still
marvel at the europe's you know largest example of art nouveau architecture you can still walk around
an awesome old town colorful beautiful and quaint you can still look at trams we can still find
enjoyment in things despite the conditions we're in so um thanks for watching that's riga part one
part two is coming up which i'm gonna be honest with you i already filmed before this one so
that's youtube life right it's a banger history overload and the third one as i
said will be from the central market and then we'll be going to talon in estonia for one
special last video in the baltics before we move on so uh hope you've enjoyed this
video and i'll see you next time let's get home into the warm i'll catch you later
horrifying harrowing and heartbreaking and even though my grandmother wrote a
book about her experiences and her treatment at the hands of the soviet union i still feel
like there's always been of a missing link and i've had a bit of naivety and ignorance
you