It was my second Luxexpress bus ride. The first one in the comfort class, meaning I had a single seat towards the back, in the comfort class area which was separated by a curtain from the rest of the bus. One thing that was noticeable which I’d describe as a con is how the overhead luggage racks on the side of the single seats (left side) are noticeably narrower compared to the racks on the right side where there’s 2 seats per row. I suppose more space for the 2 seats side makes sense, but this was narrow enough that I couldn’t feel comfortable enough having my backpack on it without feeling like I have to monitor if it’s gonna fall off so I eventually just put the backpack near my seat instead.
I entered as soon as possible and that meant a bit of a wait inside the bus before it got going. There was ambient music playing (I suppose it would be called ambient music) which kinda contributed to the sadness of leaving Vilnius. But the thought of incoming adventures made me feel better. I reclined my seat a bit, seated myself in the most, well, comfortable way I could. And followed the scenery of the ride. Noticed a building with the Toyota Gazzoo Racing logo which caught my attention and I’m still unsure about the details of. Soon I opened the lentil “bacon” chips I bought in Vilnius.
Music-wise at first it was the Lithuanian related songs before switching to Latvian related songs. I believe this is also the bus ride on which I listened to Idoly Pride songs, mostly from Trinityaile, including a few songs I was listening to for the first time. But around the border area and after heading into Latvia I definitely wanted to make sure I listened to Latvian Eurovision entries and I did have the 2025 entry play as the crossing from Lithuania to Latvia was happening. On this ride we could pretty much say I started to get into the 2024 entry, and I could indirectly connect to the lyrics in a way or two. Also I listened to the 2019 Latvian entry for the first time in a long time, and it’s actually a lovely entry, and it provided a soothing experience/mood.
Once the border was crossed, I tried to observe which differences there might be in comparison to Lithuania. The bus stop signs, while seeming the same at first, were indeed different compared to Lithuania (with the station names on the bottom written in capital case? Sentence case? Whichever word which means the first letter is capitalized, the rest in lowercase.). The signs showing directions to different places (with the blue background) appeared to be the same however. I followed the number of kilometres on the indicator for Riga lowering with time as we got closer and closer to it. Those Luxexpress maps did seem to work better this time though, but still not always instantly and particularly not towards the end if I remember correctly. I could recall catching glimpses of cycling paths with the EU signs, pretty sure it was an EuroVelo. Cycling around the Baltics sounds like a wonderful idea. The initial scenery after crossing was sort of empty meadows and agricultural fields. As we got deeper into Latvia, it was more foresty and shady, and in such parts I could observe those cycling paths.
A thing I could also notice is that a few of the stores seemingly specific to the Baltics, such as Rimi and Maxima were also present in Latvia. No Iki stores there though.
This time the free Luxexpress water wasn’t the Estonian Varska but the Latvian, I’m not sure which brand of water. Which obviously felt fitting. Eventually I used the hot drink option too (coffee), but honestly I probably left it for too late in the ride. I was trying to time it to do it late in the ride, and still have time to use the in-bus toilet, which I succeeded in (eventually). But I still didn’t manage my fluid consumption as well as I should’ve…
The arrival into Riga caught me off the tiniest bit. I followed that moving map which felt relatively up to date but it turned out it wasn’t refreshing quick enough to catch the actual entrance into Riga. On arrival, one of the first things I noticed was the Ukrainian flag on the large building on the other side of the river. There was a long bit of convergence roads (I suppose that’s the term) the bus was going through.
And then when exiting the bus, a thing I liked was how the bus station was essentially right next to the river. To me that felt unique.
I stayed relatively centrally, supposedly about 15 minutes from the bus station. There was still room for errors however, and I did make some wrong turns at times. And as I didn’t manage my fluid consumption in the best ways, it costed me by having the need to get that fluid out ASAP. A quick thinking decision was to enter whichever large store complex I might find to search for a toilet and I did find what I looked for in a centrally located store complex. The stairs, the toilet doors, and just the way the complex is built, kinda gave an older, almost retro feel to it. I don’t mean that in a bad way. In any case, I wasn’t there for the shopping, I did what I needed to do. Felt annoyance with myself for letting it come to this, but all was ready to continue more comfortably.
I wasn’t having a slow walk around the city on the way towards the apartment. But I could already feel a difference in vibes from the city compared to Vilnius. The way the streets were arranged, the architecture. I walked past an anime shop, and it turns out this was just a turn away from the street where my apartment was located. As I walked past it, someone happened to leave the shop in a cosplay outfit which was cool to see.
The apartment building itself – distinctly black, feeling very new, or certainly polished. It actually felt a bit like a building from the UK, maybe London? Could be that I’m spouting embarrasing nonsense since I’ve not been there yet.
And as an additional wonderful coincidence, at the bottom of the very building there was one of the few all vegan restaurants in the city. I truly didn’t know beforehand that both the vegan restaurant and the anime shop would be so close to the apartment, so I was happy about these surprises. I watched the clip provided by the apartment showing how to enter, followed the steps, and successfully got in. Whenever I’m in such a centrally located place it’s always a special feeling opening the windows and checking out the views. This was one of the first things I was doing, along with the rather usual inspection of the apartment contents. I was really happy with what I had. And wonderfully, the TV looked to be the exact same type as the one from the Vilnius apartment, meaning I could continue my exact same activity of watching anime on the large TV screen.
I was in need of food so I… went downstairs and had a meal. Ok technically outside the building but still. While waiting for the food, it was pretty cool and unique to think I’m basically sleeping at the higher floors of that same building. After the meal which was an oven baked sausage with vegetables, including fries, I was ready to start exploring. Ok, that feeling when you eat too late in the day remained for a bit more time but gradually it went away.
Started walking around, I suppose aiming to go through the same streets I rushed through earlier. I recall what looked like the entrance to a park. When I entered a park with the Latvian flag I ofcourse thought of some Eurovision artists whose country I was now in. Very quickly I learned that Riga is just filled with beautiful buildings. It was one of those places that basically wherever I looked at in the central parts of the city, I would see a wonderful building worth taking a picture of. Amazing parks as well. It was magical walking along the park next to the river. Distinct shape of the fountain. The river, boats, the walking paths and greenery of the park, accompanied by the bridges made for incredible images and scenery to walk along.
Coming across the Institut Francais building was a moment, because it reminded me of the days of studying French and even taking the language test from the institute (in Cr*atia ofcourse). And the building really was grandiose. Stumbled upon what looked like a really Japanese park scenery, until I got closer and realized it’s a Chinese pavilion.
Headed into a direction leading towards the river. Ended up approaching what didn’t feel like the most pedestrian friendly sidewalk and crossing. Eventually realized the sidewalk ended on the side I initially went through so there was no choice but to cross. Waited ages for a green light which wasn’t happening for too long. Eventually I crossed on red while there were no vehicles around. Then walked through what felt like an industrial, port-like street, which then transitioned into being a really busy road. Kinda wondered what was I doing walking around here. Adboards which included Hesburger and a grocery store I believe. Eventually got closer to a good look of the river, and a nicer pedestrian zone along the river. Small red benches there too which I used for a bit. Had thoughts about going to the library but I was too late for that since it was closed at this point.
I was looking to go towards the old town at this point. There was a zebra crossing which seemed to be leading towards it. In front of me a Japanese couple, one of them taking pictures of the street in front. Entered that street and soon took my picture as well. Quickly came across the Danish embassy. And noticed the church modernized their ways of asking for donations with the usage of QR codes.
Eventually reached the town hall and absolutely fell in love with the two orange buildings and their distinct shapes. Went around to have a closer look at them multiple times. There was a dog sculpture on the Riga text which was cool. Sat at a bench and enjoyed the moment. On the square there was some sort of moving carriage thing where I suppose people were having alcohol and were being ridden around and having fun? Felt too extroverted of a thing for me.
An objective was to get some Latvian candies and something to drink. I knew that if I’d choose to go into a store around this area, it would be more costly than I’d probably find in other parts of the city, but I went ahead and entered the mini Rimi on the square anyway. And although they didn’t seem to have a bag of Serenade I was looking for, they did have a chocolate bar with a Serenade flavour. I was happy to be walking around the Riga city center and having some Serenade.
As I went away from the square, came across what looked like an exhibition, including a tower with a Latvian flag. Didn’t stop to read through it or look in detail but I also have a picture from it that talks about a refugee boat from Sweden. Nearby is a rectangular shaped form with different shape types that also had a few downstairs which led to nothing.
As I went away from the old town towards the area close to the train station, one could see large buildings which seem to be offices and hotels. But they’re colorful and still nice to look at. In front of them the tram line. The existence of trams being an additional big differentiator between Vilnius and Riga. I was thinking about getting public transport tickets for Riga. But seeing as I was staying quite centrally, it also didn’t feel like there is a huge need, even though it’s always good to experience public transport in a new country. From what I could tell, the busses seemed to be of the same manufacturer (and I suppose model) as in Vilnius, just with different paint and language of announcements. But I never actually ended up using any Riga public transport so the impression might’ve been wrong.
Walking towards the train station area I got introduced to the Riga underpassages. Good thing there were signs showing where the exits lead to, even if I wasn’t quite sure which ones I wanted. I guess whichever ones led to nicer places to walk through. Someone sang in Italian in the passage which felt appropriate for a donation.
Exited the passage and soon came across a Stockmann store. Very fancy looking entrance with a bridge. Might be the first time I crossed a bridge over water to enter a store. I first assumed it could be a Swedish store due to it sounding kinda related to Stockholm. But it’s instead a Finnish store which also has stores in Latvia and Estonia. How come not in Lithuania too?
I was impressed with the large selection through the store. Still didn’t find that bag of Serenade however. But I did get multiple flavours of Latvian Long Chips, hazelnut Laima candies as well as things for dinner. And small tofu bars from the fridge which I was happy to find cause I was looking for a vegan “Kinder Pingui” type of thing for a while, unrelated to the trip, and this felt like the closest thing to that. I put those things into the newly purchased Stockmann bag. Definitely didn’t feel like cheap shopping but I felt good nonethless. Dusk was starting to do its thing. I loved the feel it was giving to the city.
Once I was back at the apartment, I had something to eat and watched the latest episode of Dr. Stone on that TV screen and felt happy with life.
Day 10
A plan for today was to wash most of my clothes and afterwards let them dry. Fortunately I could set up the washing, just go down the building and eat a nice breakfast, and by the time I was done hopefully it would be ready for drying and I could go out and explore.
That’s basically how it unfolded. I was happy to discover it was a cloudy 17 degrees morning. I had a matcha cappuccino with pea milk, which was a first. Both the matcha cappuccino part and the pea milk. I chose the pea milk both for the protein amount and the novelty. And to add to the new things I tried, I had an avocado toast, which indeed I didn’t have before. This one was also cheesy, with extra vegetables. Loved all of it.
Then I went back up to the apartment to let the clothes dry. And I continued on towards the nearby anime shop. Other than checking out the manga offerings which is always interesting to do, there was a specific thing inside that I was curious to check out and potentially try out.
I went inside, carefully inspected all of the offerings. Always happy to see yuri offerings which they did have. Even an Assault Lily figure which I wasn’t expecting due to feeling like it’s a really niche series, even among yuri. And I didn’t expect to see the Inside Mari manga, a series I just happened to see that one YouTube video essay on recently, which I also thought is extremely niche due to its thematic. A good amount of Oshi no Ko. Madoka Magica, Yuru Camp. Frieren, including the volume 1 which I don’t have yet. I have volume 2 (but in Italian). Fruits Basket deluxe editions. As I sort of expected, didn’t find anything Silent Witch, I supposed it was too early in the season for it to be stocked up.
What piqued my curiosity beforehand were the gacha machines with small figures/keychains. And there was even an Oshi no Ko one. I bought the tokens for the machines. Tokens could be used at different machines in this specific area of the store, but turns out they also had an additional area with an outer entrance which has some more machines, but for using those machines, you had to exchange the tokens. I went to the other area and in the end chose to exchange my tokens cause this area had a few more Oshi no Ko machines that I was more interested in than the single machine in the other area. Other than the gacha machines, this area felt like it had more of a focus on figures and other types of merchandise, but there were additional books as well.
The machine I chose
So I got my correct tokens and I put them in the machine, but oops I was probably turning the machine on the wrong side. I got helped out by a staff member and got my item out. Didn’t open it till leaving the store but I could see it was an Arima Kana keychain and I was happy with that.
Then I just continued on with exploring without a particular plan. Or in fact I had an idea where I’d go for lunch but that didn’t have to happen right away. Walked along beautiful buildings, including one large orange/gray one that I had a hard time taking my eyes off and that I just stood in front of admiring and taking pictures of from different angles. I think I have a soft spot for old orange Riga buildings.
It was a Sunday, but not an uneventful one in Riga. In a central park I stumbled upon what seemed to be some sort of an elderly dance festival which was nice. Nearby there was some sort of food street festival. Loads of people around, relatively loud music. I likely wasn’t looking hard enough but I could only see one stand selling vegan stuff. And interestingly there was a stand labelled “0% vegan” right next to it.
Mentioning music reminded me of that one person in a car that was driving around the center playing really loud music, so loud almost as if they were intending to be a public service announcer. Like you could hear it from 2-3 streets away. And they were also circulating around for a few minutes so as I walked I later heard the car again. Unsure on which day this was but yeah, that happened at one point.
Went around the park near the opera and near the freedom monument. A bit of an awkward feeling to take pictures of places that are guarded. One of the notable buildings I walked by was the art academy. I was on the way to find the restaurant where I’d go eat lunch.
I got there, and there wasn’t a lot of people inside. Someone was on a table inside though, speaking in English. I sat at one of the tables and kinda just waited, probably a bit too long, to be served till I realized that probably wasn’t gonna be happening and I needed to be more “proactive”. Eventually I took the menues by the counter and decided what I’ll get and made an order.
I don’t want this to sound like a complaint about slow service though. The vibes of this place were just incredibly chill. That includes the interior, the staff, the music being played. I payed for the food when ordering so once I got the food, which I enjoyed, I was just let be. To be fair that kind of service feels like the norm through the countries I was in (nobody asking questions and just letting one be). But I suppose something about the calmness of this place was unique.
More random exploring followed. I believe this was the point when I headed towards a street where there were signs about works being done yet I still went through it anyway. And I crossed under a railway bridge, where there also seemed to be works going on.
Eventually ended up being near the river again, with a view of the library on the other side. The sky and clouds around it made the atmosphere feel as if I was looking at a volcano or something. Then I crossed the bridge to do a bit of exploring around the area of the library.
I wanted to go around the library after crossing. I lowkey knew/expected that it would be closed, yet a tiny part of me was slightly hopeful entrance might’ve been possible anyway for whatever reason. But as I got near it, I could see there was basically no one around, and the entrance was indeed closed. Nonethless it was still a pretty cool building to go around and see up close. And in front of it there was a nice book monument and a vase art piece.
I then proceeded to go to the large park nearby. It was also sort of along the way (if not a slight detour) if I’d wanna go to what seemed to be the largest supermarket around, and that was sort of the idea. I loved the bunch of Latvian flags near the start of the park.
Going through the park, I was just really impressed. The large size, the different paths, tiny passages. There were lakes, rivers, bridges. Ofcourse areas to sit around in, playgrounds. I was really impressed by the orderliness and scale. I only went through parts of it. Feels like one could spend a long, relaxing time just going around this entire park. When thinking about the central parks along the river, I was left with the impression that Riga is doing amazing when it comes to their parks.
I sort of wondered if there was maybe a hidden extra pedestrian bridge over the river nearby other than the one I crossed on but that wasn’t the case. What I wanted anyway was to be able to take pictures while crossing each side of it. And as I crossed back, strong winds did their thing and I loved it, even if eventually it did become a bit chilly.
Headed back through the old town. Eventually found myself once again around the train station area. It’s kinda been a reference point for getting towards the apartment. By the time I was there the Stockmann was closed. So I wanted to check out what’s the Origo store. Before that I stood within and looked around the compass direction things that showed the direction and distance to various different cities. It was cool to see they put the indicators for zodiac signs too.
Turns out this is essentially a store inside, or rather right next to the train station. So since I found myself in the train station I went ahead and walked a bit around the station. It basically blends so much with the shopping center that I can’t really say too much about it. Different shops were being closed or getting closed due to the time I came there. I didn’t go towards the platforms or waiting rooms.
One thing that was open was a giant Rimi, so I went there to get some things for dinner. Naturally thought of Idoly Pride Trinityaile while going across a place called “Trinity”. It’s actually something very near where the apartment was.
Day 11
Something I should mention about the apartment is that it had a Nespresso machine. Now I never owned one, and fuck Nestle anyway, but the capsules/pods were provided as well. Therefore I found myself using the machine through the days in Latvia, mostly for a quick coffee before heading out.
I noticed the pods had numbers. Wasn’t fully sure what they meant but I assumed it was intensity (and I think I was right about that). I mostly sticked to 3 or 4 ones. Wasn’t sure how to use the device in the first place but it was quick to figure it out (I suppose I figured it out?) from a few short videos. The coffee it produced was good, although my standards are probably low since I’m usually the instant coffee type.
Another thing to mention is that the TV wasn’t only used that one time I watched the Dr. Stone episode. I also used it a few other times to just open up a Silent Witch episode and watch the OP/ED.
On this day after leaving the apartment, I headed in a direction I haven’t explored yet. I was kinda aware this meant I headed away from the center. Still found nice buildings. One place with the word “moon” and heart shapes in its name so naturally I thought of how I made an earlier picture of watching Silent Witch on the TV during a line mentioning the moon.
Reached a tiny bit of greenery surrounding a pretty nice, medieval looking church. It was nice to look at the church from a bit closer. This was the point when I chose to turn around and head back towards the center.
On the way back I came across what looked to be a Laima shop. I was really close to spontaneously entering, hopefully finding those Serenades I was looking forward, and possibly more stuff. For whatever reason I ended up not entering though. Instead I kinda just chose to get more sweets in a general store later on. In hinsight I wish I went to the Laima shop. I’d probably be able to find something that would make me really happy to see. Because later on I realized those Vaverite hazelnut candies also seem to have a cake version, and there’s a squirrel on the packaging for the cake. And now I went ahead and translated the word vaverite into Latvian and oh wow it actually means squirrel in Latvian. I did not know until now…
As I got back to the center, I walked (again) through one of the parks and looked for the bicycle monument. Then I headed to a place serving cocoa with various blend options for different purposes as well as some things to eat (mostly cakes I believe). I got my cake, cookie and cocoa and just tried to relax as much as possible in this chill place. The concept of this place is something I don’t recall coming across before, and I loved it.
For the rest of the day, the wish was to do more “structured” sightseeing, in which I’d make sure I more or less know where I’m going and what I’ll come across. I wanted to go through some of the more highlighted streets in terms of art nouveau. I thought I went through a good amount of the more highlighted areas already spontaneously but I was definitely still missing out on more wonderful buildings. I found myself in one of the streets just as a tour group was there, so if I wanted to I could’ve just stood there and listened to an English tour guide. One thing this meant was that I wasn’t the only person in the street just going around these buildings in awe, looking at them for too long and taking pictures of them. One building that particularly caught my attention was the Belgian embassy. Or rather this might’ve been an embassy of multiple countries including Ireland and Belgium? Whatever it was it was stunning.
Speaking of embassies, before this I went by the Russian embassy. Noteworthy is the fact there was a police car parked around it, and on the building a picture of P*tin which doesn’t convey him in the most positive way. And the street is cheekily named the Ukrainian Independence Street, as it should.
After leaving the beautiful art nouveau street, I came across more black buildings that made me think of the UK. Or is that just a wrong impression that I have for whatever reason?
My next thing was getting something for lunch and I sort of felt like having some Japanese food. From some quick research while sipping that cocoa, Riga maybe wasn’t the best in terms of Japanese restaurants, but I chose to go to a place with a highly rated (vegan) tonkatsu ramen. Along that got myself some ramune as well as edamame as a starter. Didn’t order edamame in a restaurant before so oops for a while I was eating the entire thing including the peel. Till I realized I was provided a bowl specifically to remove the peels which made the experience better ofcourse. I knew edamame came with peels, don’t know why I was keen to eat the peels too though.
I enjoyed the ramen too. Eventually a pair of Japanese people, talking in Japanese came to the table next to mine. From what I could tell they seemed satisfied with the food so I suppose that was a good sign for the restaurant.
Continuing with further exploring around the area of the restauarant. Pleasant greenery and elegant buildings around. One hotel there is called “Monika”. I was near the river. So I wanted to find a nice place by the river. I went by some restaurants and shops, but then hit a dead end.
So then I turned back around. Since a bridge over the river was right there, I crossed that one. This was a pedestrian/bicycle bridge, and obviously people crossed through with bicycles as well as by walking. And I could feel the wind being more intense on the bridge. I thought that if I’d be cycling there I’d probably internally complain about the wind.
Right on the other side is a large Swedbank. Turns out just next to it one could play basketball. Large bank building, stairs to go around it. What was much more interesting was a wavy humanoid sculpture. And nearby were some benches so I relaxed on them with a view of the river and the Latvian flag.
Went through the Independence square where I eventually also sat for a bit. I found it very picturesque. However my phone battery was getting dangerously close to running out by now. I had to be more mindful of the battery and maybe take a bit less pictures but that was a really hard thing to do in this place. And I still had one specific place I was keen to see which was the “cat house”.
Over there a group of tourists. Once again a tour guide speaking English. It was a charming building that I was happy to come check out.
Afterwards stumbled upon a colorful building that basically gave me strong Eurovision vibes. On the first day in Riga I had the realization that this was once a place in which Eurovision 2003 was held, which was interesting to think about and wonder how Riga looked like at that time. This one colorful building had flowers on it which reminded me of the flowers in the graphics of that particular contest, and it was also a colorful, playful style of graphics, which kinda fits with the building too. It could be completely unintentional. But it would’ve been cool if it was inspired by the contest or if its even an actual homage. Or maybe it was there like this before 2003 and the actual contest graphics got inspired by the building? So far I didn’t find out.
Then next to one of the landmark churches I came across cute dragon and unicorn sculptures. Went through that central park by the river again because it’s incredible and time here was running out… Went up through a bit of a waterfall in that park and managed to get impressed by that park once again. On the way back towards the apartment I could see that one Warsaw looking building that was on my mind as a possible thing to sightsee in Riga, but time was more or less running out. The weather getting more cloudy, atmospheric, giving my pictures from those moments a lovely vibe. I once again went to Stockmann, in order to get those extra candies I thought of earlier, and potentially things for the bus tomorrow as well. I did get an additional bag of Vaverite. And a Riga coffee protein bar. Treated myself with a cola drink I for some reason thought was Latvian but it’s really not actually. Tasted great though.
Cries in amazing Vaverite
Day 12
Today’s bus was departing from 12:30pm. I needed to pack everything to be ready for that. I also needed to take out the trash. A video was provided from the host on how to get to the location for leaving the trash.
Another ending came. I had a wonderful time in Riga. But once again, I couldn’t be too down about it because the next part of the adventure was about to come. I had another amazing breakfast from the restaurant downstairs. It included a Belgian hot chocolate. The restaurant vicinity was a great convenience for this situation of having just enough time to eat before needing to go to the bus station.
I realized the Riga market is right by the bus station actually. Had no time to go around that however. I made my final pictures of the market and river from the side of the bus station. The place where I found that pizza machine was the Riga bus station, not Vilnius.
The bus was ready and waiting by the time I came towards the platform.
October 8, 2025
These keychains are adorable!!