Howdy,I just got back from a trip to Prague this weekend. Yep, I’ve been traveling quite a bit. This was following a trip two weekends ago to the Latvian capitol, Riga, and preceding a trip in about two weeks to Oslo, Stockholm and then Herrang. I’ve reached my critical tolerance of where I’m living in Germany, so now my only focus is traveling as often and as reasonably far as possible.
So, what do we know about Prague? Well, you can read about it in Wikipedia, but that you could have done before I brought it up. Same for Riga too. What I knew was, no one I spoke to had any idea where Riga was, but everyone I spoke to said “You’ve gotta do Prague.”
Both cities are beautiful, and both have a very simple charm. Prague was a bit rougher to get to, as we road tripped over, and Riga was a short (inexpensive) flight. In both cities, English was widely prevalent, more so in Riga, where all signs were posted in English. I still tried to speak Latvian or Czech where possible (in the correct city, of course) and in Latvia, it seemed to be slightly more warmly received. Everyone seemed pleasantly surprised by my efforts, which is good.
Both cities were also overrun with loud British party-goers, strip clubs and sketchy taxis, though in every case Prague is by far the bigger offender. Prague had the neatest “Millenium Falcon” styled bar, which was literally assembled of spare automobile and aircraft parts. Sadly, I have no photo as my camera was absent, but the best description I could give is: It is the type of bar that makes it easy to imagine oneself occupying a Star Wars era space vessel. It is also the type of bar that makes it easy to understand how European Night Club fires manage to kill hundreds of people at a time. I’ve been in some really cramped bars, but this one takes the cake.
Riga had by far the nicest club, and the nicest club goers. While we were able to strike up conversations in both places, it was much easier in Riga. Also, the people we met in Riga were actually from Eastern Europe, while we met no Eastern Europeans in Prague. In fact, I think I saw as many Americans in Prague as I do when out on the town here, which is a surprise.
The weather was surprisingly good in both places, and the currency exchange was the opposite. Overall, I had two great trips, and here are two nice photos that should cap them off nicely. First of Prague, and the second of Riga. Hopefully more to follow 
First, we have a pig on a diving board, in Stare Mesto, Prague… The Old Town.
Next is a picture of Sunset, around 11pm, on the second longest day of the year, in Riga, Latvia. The furthest north I’ve ever been, on the solstice
