I hate traveling this way. It’s so American, rushed, and lame. But hey..flights were cheap.
I got a $17 USD flight from Stockholm and a $9 USD flight to my next location – Tallin Estonia, so that’s just the way it worked and why I was in Riga for less than 24 hours.
The most exciting thing that happened to me has nothing to do with Riga. Let me tell you.
I arrived at my hostel right as the receptionist was leaving. She was really sweet, and on her way out the door. She promised to email me the building code later in a welcome email.
I dropped my bag, and excited to explore Latvia! I’ve had a long dream to explore the countries ending with -ia (Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, etc etc) and this was the beginning! Hello world!
The streets are sparse, but like eerily. It’s Friday night but I can’t tell.
I see a man running, and he looks like a demon. His head is down, his eyes angled up, arms back and running towards me.
I’m instantly prepare to use my nails and stab his eyes out. But, in less than a second, I realize he’s very drunk and I just step out of his way.
I sprinted the remaining distance to the bar without looking back.
Just 3 minutes away, I arrive to the bar area…and it’s very male. Like 97% dudes. There’s several signs around reading “‘no stag parties allowed” which is the UK equivalent of a bachelor party….I look around to see small groups of large white men staggering holding each other singing…I think to myself… Where are the women?
I chose “The Armoury Bar” because it looked upscale, unaware this was not just branding but literally guns. They have a bunch of guns for you to play with (there’s no bullets).
I didn’t even want to, but the bartender was super enthusiastic about it and spent 15 minutes showing me different guns and he showed me how to take them apart and put it back together.
There were only 2 other patrons in the bar – both American, both from LA.
I had a thought like..”how did I end up in a bar with only 2 other people, also from the same city as me? and we’re in here playing with guns? what type of American tomfoolery is this?”
All good vibes though.
My glass slippers expire at 12 AM when I’m solo traveling so I walked back to my hostel only to realize… I never received the building code.
I’m able to enter the lobby of the building, a space roughly the size of a large phone booth.
I’m using the McDonald’s wifi next door to call my boyfriend asking what can I do and to not freak out.
I emailed and contacted the hostel several different ways…so now…I’ll just wait for them to respond?
I could just find a new hotel for the night, but decided I’ll wait 1 hour for someone to respond to me in the meantime my boyfriend is on the phone with me and we’re catching up.
Dun dun dun… the same drunkard demon looking man comes stumbling in speaking Latvian and also repeating “CODE” in english, over and over and gently tapping me, tapping the buzzer, and gesturing to me like “girl, open the door” and I’m like…”dude I don’t know the code otherwise I wouldn’t be standing here!!”
Then…man brings in a lady friend, who I also noticed earlier in the night standing on a corner.
They collapse into each other, aggressively making out and in between smooches he just looks at me and repeats “CODE.”
His shoulder touches my shoulder every 45 seconds because they’re bouncing off all the walls in a passionate make out.
Then I hear her moan. Lord have mercy. I look down and I see one of his hands is swimming between her legs. Her body is being lifted into the air in short abrupt motions. He’s grunting. His shoulder is still touching my shoulder.
Not the digital sex right next to me in the phone booth sized lobby. In Latvia.
Am I engaged in a threesome right now?
I accessed the situation…I could step out into the cold at 1 AM, to get away from this – but, they’re not harming me, they’re both drunk and I could take the both of them if they wanna really wanted to tussle.
So I just stood my black ass in the lobby while they engaged in their activity, and I’m simultaneously still on the phone with my boyfriend. I’m scrolling my phone looking for a new hotel for the night.
It’s not funny, but I’m laughing as I type this.
Suddenly, they stumbled out into the street, and it’s because salvation has arrived in the form of another hostel guest. A Canadian. Someone else staying at the hostel has come to save me. Praise God.
He and I walk up 3 flights of stairs and we enter our hostel that’s in a makeshift office building. Leaving the couple downstairs, where they immediately went horizontal and continued on. I told him the story, we laughed, and go to our separate dorm rooms.
The next day, I’m in Tallin, Estonia already. I’ve been out all day and I walk into my new hostel around 10 PM and I see the same Canadian man mid-story, surrounded by listeners. He points at me, surprised eyes wide as I walk through the door, “that’s her!”
Everyone turns around and looks at me. Apparently, the night didn’t end when I thought it did.
The couple had followed us upstairs, entered a dorm, and resumed their activities!!! They woke up everyone in that room, and someone else had to physically kick them out.
Childddd, I had no idea. I slept through all of it.
The whole group is laughing in unison at the absolute horror and the comedic timing that I just happen to walk in at that exact moment. And that was my short trip to Riga.
I did also explore Riga during the day before leaving. I shopped in Old Town, sat down with myself at MiiT Coffee.
I visited the Latvian Museum of Architecture (Latvijas Arhitektūras muzejs) and St Peters Church.
While this trip was incredibly short and I can’t say I properly introduced myself to Riga, I was reminded of 2 life lessons.
Life Lesson 1
You need to be sharp, always. Not paranoid, but always perceptive. You need to catalog faces, energies, and moments. I clocked both the unhoused drunk man and lady earlier in the night, so when I saw them later… they were already a little familiar. They bothered me, maybe entertained me but I accessed they weren’t dangerous and that awareness is key!!
Life Lesson 2
How serendipitous and beautiful is our world? The improbability that feels orchestrated?
Shout out to you God. The only other 2 people in an empty bar in Riga Latvia, both live 30 minutes away from me in the United States?
A Canadian man that unlocks the door at exactly the right moment when I was about to give up.
The same man appears the next day in a different hostel, in a different country, retelling the same story, pointing at me like proof and I walked in at the perfect moment.
The end.