Stuffed pig's head

Feeling rested and refreshed, we moved on to Riga. Normally, we'd have taken a cab, but we were feeling adventurous (and cheap), so took a train instead, 25 km for the bargain price of 51 Latvian santimes. (I have to question why anyone would set a fare at 51 santimes, though. 50, yes; 55, possibly; 60, fine. But 51? It makes no sense! We had to scrabble through our pockets to find 2 santimes to add to the 20 lati note that was the smallest we had.) Again, the preponderance of stone-washed denim and batwing jumpers made me feel like we'd stepped back into the 1980s. We then traipsed for what seemed like ages through various parks and streets to get to our hotel, necessitating a little nap before heading out to explore.

It must be said that PJ and I aren't the most dedicated of sight-seeers. We like museums if they have a good shop and/or cafe; we enjoy looking at architecture; and we're quite happy to sit in a bar and watch people, but we don't usually feel a tremendous need to check a bunch of sights off a list. I only had two things that I wanted from the afternoon: a visit to the house with cats on it and a Latvian cookbook. Not only did we see the cat house (shades of Danielle Dax, pop-pickers), but the rather nice restaurant below also had a real cat in it and some excellent wild mushrooms on toast.







The cookbook was in the first souvenir shop we went into, and is a gem: lots of recipes involving pickled herring or dry cottage cheese and a recipe for something called "head cheese", which involves taking a whole pig's head, removing the brains, boiling the head with vegetables, removing the skin and fat, and dicing the head, ears and tongue, before boiling again in a bag and then pressing it for 8 hours. While you must admit that it sounds delicious, I don't think that's going to be on my must-try list anytime soon. (One other problem is that many [truly tempting] recipes involve something called manna-croup, defined as the husked grains of manna grass, used for making porridge. I didn't see any supermarkets while in Latvia, so I wasn't able to get any. It sounds like a thickener, so maybe corn starch or polenta would work as a substitute -- any opinions, oh Peace Corps workers?)

We continued to wander the streets, took photos of the key buildings, and then attempted to locate a recommended restaurant for dinner, only to find the block it was on had been demolished. Damn! Feeling lazy, we opted for the deep-fried plate in our hotel's 11th floor skybar, which was jolly nice and had a fabulous bar as well as great views over the city. Sometimes, laziness really is the best policy.