OK. Right. Where are we? Riga, Latvia! We arrived on Monday 27th, seemingly even before we left Vilnius - it was an amazing coach trip and then we walked from the coach station into the old town - less than a kilometre, but felt a bit longer... those darn cobble stones. We had a stroll around the old town then succumbed to the restaurant next to the hotel for dinner - we had thought there was bound to be cheaper, but after a good explore it turns out we are living next to the most reasonable old town restaurant and there was a 10% discount for in-house guests. Italian food.... yum. We sampled a bit of everything - pizza, risotto and homemade pesto on spaghetti. Thoroughly carbed up we hit the sack. This hotel was also a 'booked six months ago' bargain and they upgraded us from the 'budget economy' to the superior room so that was nice for a four night stay. James has had a cold for 3 days. Bought some awesome cold & flu stuff in Lithuania - phenylephidrine tablets. It's the stuff druggies cook up to make meth and what not. (Apparently.) Have asked for it over the counter here in Latvia and they look at us as if we're criminals - but we're not - simply fending off the dreaded man-flu! It certainly perked him up enough to head out on a walking tour at noon on Tuesday. Our tour guide was the inimitable Laura, we found out during the tour that she was raised by her grandmother in the country side (obviously during or shortly after the end of the soviet era) - so that might account for her very forthright and quite soviet way of guiding - hard to describe. We were probably the oldest folks on the tour - perhaps not the shortest but it seemed like it compared to a couple of six foot plus behemoths. But we led the pack and our guide, she was a fast walker (calves of steel). It was a 2.5 hour tour and it finished, to the minute at 2.30 pm. It was supposed to be 5 km... but we reckon closer to 10km! Her last pronouncement was "Are there any questions? And a few nervous hands went up enquiring as to 'which way back to the old town???' Easily a kilometre back to the hotel but at a much more schleppy pace (and yes, that's a technical term). We did a slide by visit of Riga's Central Market during the walking tour - which was brilliant - as most walking tours tend to point things out to visit on your own time. The market was so tantilising, we returned on Wednesday for a very slow exploration of the different pavilions. Compared to the Old Town, the market is completely non-touristy. It's where the locals do literally all their shopping - Meat/Veges & Fruit /Bread/Dairy/Fish. There's even a little supermarket stuck between 2 pavilions for anything that doesn't fall into the pavilion categories. We consider it a duty as travellers to provide entertainment for locals who were quite happy to take our money but still surprised at seeing actual tourists eating outside of the Old Town. Don't know why they're surprised - the market is seriously el cheapo - Cappuccino? 90 cents (verses €3+ in town). Cheapest beer? 80 cents for 500ml (verses €4 in town). Lunch for two including a shared soup and a shared dark beer, two cappuccinos and 2 cakes - €11/A$15. Even if markets, eating and drinking are not your thing, the buildings are worth seeing for their historical value alone. It is ironic that these buildings were originally the hangers for the zeppelins that were used to bomb Riga during WWI. They used to sit about 100 kms away but some clever person shipped them into town. They are all original roofs and one even has the mechanism that was used to open the roof and release the ship, but the walls are now much lower. They have lifts to the storage and fridges in the basement, central heating and were modern in every regard, in fact if the soviets let in well supervised tourists occasionally, they were brought here to see these wondrous markets as an example of how clever and well run the empire was. They have their own food safety lab on the premises and any unsold prepared food goes to the market's very own homeless shelter. They even have their own police and ambulance. After our excursion to the central market we returned to the hotel for a feets-up and a snooze... Aside from the obvious luxury of having a late afternoon nap, we were re-energising prior to our second-to-last cultural event - a night at the Latvian National Opera in Riga. In fact probably the first opera I'd ever heard of as a child - Mozart's Marriage of Figaro - but with a twist! Stunning opera house, great seats as it was the first thing we booked when we planned this trip six months ago - front row of a central box (crazy money - what were we thinking - €30 each! That's 3 trips to the opera in Bucharest!), talented orchestra, excellent singers and all done as if it were set in the 1970s! Think Studio 54 type costuming, think Love Boat type tropical shirts on the 'band' at the wedding scene. Fascinating to be listening to the classical music and song and watching the groovy production. And (AND!) though sung in Italian, it was sur-titled in English as well as Latvian - which was a huge, huge bonus... normally we read up the story on wiki prior so we can follow along. Even more hilarious (and not usually a problem in our usual seats...), the box next to us had some Russian dollybirds with massive trout-pout lips, dresses up to 'here' and down to 'there' and a mobster. Maybe they weren't Russian, maybe they were really nice people... But they were loud in the 1st act, didn't bother turning up for the 2nd act then rocked back in to the 3rd act late and booted out the people who'd migrated into their seats. Then talked, giggled and laughed all through the 3rd act (definitely in Russian). There was almost a mutiny in the surrounding seats until the mobster fell off his chair and all three clomped out prior to the start of the 4th act. Couldn't smell booze but they were off their (tiny) heads and out of their trees on something. Probably illicit phenylephidrine bought in Lithuania come to think of it. Well that was Riga, Latvia. Thursday was a seriously lazy day, packing, cheap but good 'business lunch' (soup and a main with hot tea) at the Belgian pub a few doors from the hotel (Kwakinn - only €8.40 for two... but no beer, coffees, cakes etc). Then a good night's sleep before Friday 'departure day'. Once more we hiked our bags to the coach stop - an easy 800m this time with not too many cobbles and before we knew it the Lux Express pulled in and we were off to Tallinn, Estonia - the last of our Baltic destinations. Another 4.5 hours of relaxed coach comfort and we cried laughing at the movie Bridget Jones's Baby - unusual that the 3rd in a series was actually the funniest so far. Really can't recommend these coaches enough. We bought a pre-paid fixed rate taxi transfer for our arrival into Tallinn as the terminal is 5 km from the Old Town - so nice to have the cab waiting for the coach arrival (we even saved 50 cents! as the fixed rate was €5.50 and the meter was €6 - bargain). First order of business in Tallinn? You guessed it - a snooze! And for very good reason...