Baltics Part 3: Riga, Latvia

On the final leg of my Baltic trip, I went to Riga, the capital city of Latvia.

We took a 4-hour bus ride from Tallinn. I swear it was like a movie.

Not because something dramatic happened, it's more because of the snow!

Tbh, we were already pushing our last bit of energy in Riga. With the cloudy weather and all, we thought just chilling around the old town would be more than fine.
So that was exactly what we did.
We were soo lucky because in the evening the snow started to fall.
I swear I felt like I could look at that forever!
The lights of the christmas market, the festivities, the food, the (not crowded) crowd, and the snowfall?!
Was I in a set of a Hallmark movie?

Despite not being famous for its Christmas market, I have to say that I experienced the best Christmas market in Riga, it was perfect almost like a scene from Hallmark movie.

That was definitely the highlight of my Riga trip.

The most important part of my Baltic trip is the fact that these countries felt like one of the safest places in Europe, I believe.
I wear hijab and I look Asian, it did not help with my luck of feeling safe in some places in Europe.
Despite not receiving constant racist treatments, I did experience it (mostly in Western Europe).
But that was not the case in Riga (or any other Baltic countries that I visited).
If you asked me 3 years ago, I would hesitate to go to Baltic countries because it was not popular (for Indonesians, at least). 
Some shopkeeper asked me where I came from and they would just say something about "if my country had that much sun, I would never leave".
Such good people.

My impression of Riga is just how resilient Latvians are.
Historically, they have been through a lot. We went to see their monument of freedom and when "Flow" the animated movie won Oscars, I saw (on TV) that the Latvians celebrated the win in that monument!
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We walked around the old town. We also stayed within the old town.
We went back to The Netherlands after 2 days in Riga, it was indeed a nice trip.
That is all for my Baltic trip! (Can't believe I finished writing it ~1,5 years after the trip was over).
But hey, this blog is where I keep my memory alive.

Watch me finish all my travels story okay hehehe