From the block to the baltics

I've always been a well-travelled person, thanks to the generosity of my parents and their determination to take us to places other than caravan parks and seaside resorts (as children, we went to places like Iceland, Amsterdam and Bruges). And as you may have noticed, that travel bug has definitely taken hold of me as an adult, and I'm now determined to see every country of the world, every capital city and a number of other places that look amazing. Well, my mission was helped along considerably this week, as I have ticked 3 new countries off my list! When talking about going on a mini-break as a family over Easter, I initially suggested one of the Scandinavian countries (having never been) but it was my Dad who thought of Riga, the capital of Latvia. The flights lined up better and it was super cheap to go so we booked 5 days there. However, we then looked into it more and realised that there perhaps wasn't masses to do and so having zoomed out on Google maps, we realised that Estonia and Lithuania were both super close and we hired a car for a couple of days to venture into those countries as well.

The airport lounge is our latest favourite thing to do as it's basically starting your holiday with unlimited alcohol, which is never a bad thing. For our travelling day, I wore jeans, snake print top, and chunky black boots. I'd looked at the weather forecast before we went and knew it was meant to be an uncharacteristically warm week (the phrase 'it's Baltic in here' loosing all impact), but given the two hour time difference, we were set to land in the afternoon so I dressed accordingly. When we landed, we got a short taxi ride to our hotel which was the Opera Hotel & Spa and it was lovely. The perfect location - right on the corner of the old town, and the rooms was lovely too. Although, the shower was a "wet room" style (it had no door) which I hate because as the name suggests, all that happens is the whole bathroom gets soaked every time you have a shower.

After unpacking, we headed out in search of alcohol (typical Brits that we are). Walking through the city, my first impressions were amazing. I kind of went there with no preconceptions (no one I know has been to Riga and it's not somewhere that seems popular among instagram influencers) but it was a lot bigger than I expected. Every single building is beautiful and half of them look like they were crafted by Disney at one of their parks, that's how cute they were. We all kept commenting about how it reminded us of various other European cities (such as Milan, Paris and Prague) and it was surprisingly easy to navigate - we only had to use Google once! Something I did love about it in particular was how many green spaces there were. There was a river surrounding the city and canals/streams running through it, all of which were accompanied by vast expanses of park, plantlife and cute little bridges. We were keen not to walk too far on our first day, as we knew we'd be doing it properly the next, so we walked as far as a cute little square and settled down in the pub to enjoy the last of the sunshine with some drinks.

Having only taken hand luggage, I was restricted to only ONE coat (despite owning hundreds) and I decided to take this aviator one. It's super warm but also quite casual (which I wanted) and works for both day and night. Although the days in Riga were warm, the evenings were chillier so it was perfect, even when wearing something skimpy underneath. Like this black and yellow floral top which I paired with leather-look jeans and black boots. Even though it wasn't warm at this point, we still wanted to eat outside so we were wrapped up in blankets at the cutest little restaurant. When travelling to a new city (or country), I'm keen to sample the local dishes and the local cuisine in Latvia was similar to that of Prague. My first meal was very nice and the boys sampled the local cuisine too but in beer form.

We woke up to the most beautiful weather (not a cloud in the sky) and, armed with a map given to us by the hotel, we headed off on a little walking tour. I was dressed in red denim skirt, striped top with embroidered shoulders, black tights, chunky boots and, at various points through the day, my coat (when we were walking in the shade). If you google 'things to do in riga', it comes up with a big fat, not very much. But there's actually loads to see! The gold domed nativity cathedral was absolutely beautiful and a must-see (it's free to go in too) and there's loads of cute little side streets and amazing architectures. There's also a little viewing point in one of the parks (overlooking the water) and loads of beautiful churches. In fact, the 'three brothers', which Google deemed worth seeing, were three of the least impressive or pretty buildings we saw all day! I also couldn't work out which three they were, as there were actually four in a row. So you can have photos of both, on the basis that atleast one photo is of the right thing.

Having popped out of the city at the river, we enjoyed the gorgeous views of the bridges and visited the legendary 'Big Christopher' statue (who was no bigger than any standard man). We were quite surprised to see we could barely see him, especially since the map painted him as the next Christ the Redeemer! We continued our walking tour to see churches, clock towers and the most famous two buildings, the House of the Blackheads (which were very impressive).

There were SO many cute restaurants in Riga, all of them with little outdoor areas, quirky chairs and flower boxes surrounding the whole thing. For lunch, we settled on one called Table 7 (largely because it was in the sun) and the pasta that I ordered was amazing. Then after lunch, we headed for a drink at the rooftop bar on top of the Gutenberg hotel (which we only knew about thanks to the map we'd been given by our hotel, so it did us very well). The place was amazing and as far as I'm concerned, a must-do. The views of the city were beautiful, the drinks were amazing and it wasn't even that expensive.

Seeing as our hotel was a spa hotel, we figured it'd be rude not to go for a little swim. Little was the right word too; the pool was more of a large bath and they'd definitely made their spa more about the treatments than about the pool. However, it was lovely with a definite 'roman bath' vibe and I wore my lemon print bikini.

Getting ready for night two, I wore black floral embroidered skirt, pink embroidered t-shirt (you see a theme?), black tights and black boots. We started the night with some predrinks, having bought all the holiday essentials at the local shop (vodka, fanta, pringles etc), and then headed out for dinner. Again, I went with a local dish (beef stroganoff) and it was amazing.

After a lovely hotel breakfast, our hire car was dropped off and we jumped in and headed to Parnu in Estonia. I had planned to wear this floaty leopard print skirt with black roll neck top but the weather was even nicer than it had said it would be, so I wore this sunflower crop top instead (with usual chunky boots and aviator coat). The drive was about 2 and a half hours, going through beautiful countryside and despite having brought our passports, there was literally no border at all; it just had a tiny 'You're now in Estonia' sign. When we reached the seaside town, it was even more beautiful than I hoped and although it was deserted (being out of season and all), it was so pretty!

We then headed off in search of lunch and began to worry when everything said 'thanks for a great season, see you in summer 2019' (seemingly the whole town shuts until June), but we managed to find a lovely restaurant just along the coast. Obviously it would've been rude not to order fish when by the sea so I had the salmon.

The Baltic sea, by name, suggests it's absolutely freezing and you would not want to paddle in it at the beginning of April. However, I thought that while I was there, I should atleast dip my toes in. The verdict is - it was no colder than the sea in England in August. Plus, we had a lovely couple of hours sat on the beach (Aidan, who hates to sunbathe, entertained himself by making a sun dial) so I had plenty of time to warm up, as well as start to get a tan (!!!).

After another scenic drive back (although the rush hour traffic we got stuck in was less pretty), we got ready for another evening out. This time, I was all in black and white, in black and white skirt, white long sleeve top and black lace bodysuit over the top (a trend that it's fair to say, my parents didn't understand). After a bit of wandering around, we stumbled on this adorable underground, cave-style restaurant which reminded me of a bar I went to in Prague. It was a lovely setting and we enjoyed Aperol Spritz', antipasti and then a lovely chicken dinner. Note to self; don't ask dad or brother to take photos without expecting a hilaaarious selfie on there too.

Day 4 and we hopped back in the car, this time heading south (for only an hour and a half) until we reached the Lithuanian town of Birzai (again, barely noticed we had crossed a country border). It was super cute and tiny and home to a lovely castle that is now a museum. We explored all the different floors, being taken from the prehistoric era to the modern day and even though all the plaques were in a different language, we still got the gist of things. We then bought ourselves a picnic and enjoyed it in the sunny main square. For our day venturing into Lithuania, I wore black "treggings" (leggings that are shaped like trousers so they're a bit more structured but made of a super comfy fabric), striped wrap blouse and usual chunky boots.

When visiting the other day, we'd loved the rooftop bar and restaurant so much that we'd made a reservation for dinner for our last night. I got ready in striped skirt, black tights, black boots and new white top with cape sleeves. Before going to dinner, we had a drink in a bar that filled a lot of one of the little squares, where they were playing live music (she sang Valerie at least 3 times in 20 minutes though??). We had planned our reservation time perfectly as when we got there, the sun was just starting to set so we had the most amazing views! We also had the most amazing food; canapes, followed by steak, followed by some seriously pretty puddings.

Our flight home on Friday wasn't until 4pm so we still had plenty of time to enjoy the bits of Riga we hadn't done yet. To match the sunny weather, I wore jeans and this mustard yellow slogan top that says 'sweeter than honey', which was super cute although I did keep having wasps and bees wanting to be my friend (not ideal). We'd seen Riga by foot a lot so we thought it was time to see it from the sky, and headed up the clock tower of the St Peter's church, where there were gorgeous panoramic views. Only €8 too so again, I would recommend doing it if you're ever in Riga.

Despite the fact that it was only like half 11 in the morning by this point, we decided it was time to start drinking (which we basically spent the whole holiday doing, oops). We picked ourselves another cute little sunny spot and enjoyed some drinks (beer for them, cider for me) and then slightly later on, some pizza too.

We then got picked up for the airport and waved goodbye to Riga and our Baltic adventure as a whole. It's been an amazing holiday, a lovely break with my lovely family and I'm successfully closer to my travel goals. Despite saying I wouldn't go on holiday with my family again after I turned 18, I soon realised this was a terrible plan and have now vowed to go with them whenever I'm invited (and sometimes even when I'm not), until I'm old and grey. I can't wait to see where the Littlehales book to go next!