Riga - Day 2

I got up this morning and went to breakfast with the two other people staying with me in my room. One of them is Anna, a german girl, and the other Karen, an English lady in her forties. We went to a crepe place that was recommended in my book and that was cheap and good. Since Karen is only in Riga for one full day, she expecially wanted to go Rundale palace, the seat of the Duke of Kurland. Me and Anna also decided to go with her, as I love castles, and it is a day trip. We headed over to the bus station and bought tickets to Bauska for 11:00. Since we had about forty minutes until the bus left, we went to the massive market behind the bus station that is located in several former aircraft hangers. After wandering there for a while, we returned to the bus station, and caught the bus. Bauska is an hour away, and when we arrived we got a taxi to the palace, which is 10 km away from Bauska. The palace itself reminds me of a smaller, run-down version of the Schonbrunn in Vienna. They are doing restoration work on the outer facade, which should return the palace to some of its former glory. Inside is a mixed bag. On the main floor they had a truly dreadful exhibition on roses, and many of the rooms on the upper floor where devoid of stuff. The palace still needs work. The garden is quite nice, but as in the rest of the palace, is undergoing restoration, so parts of it are overgrown. Overall the palace was nice, but needs a few more years of work to qualify as great. We had to wait for a bus to get back to Bauska when we had finished the palce, and when back in Bauska, managed to just make the 3:00 bus back to Riga. When we got back to Riga, Karen wanted to see a couple of churches before she left, so we briefly went to two, but did not go in, as Karen felt offended that they charged an admission fee. In one of the squares we stopped for a drink. I ordered tea, as I am a bit off beer at the moment. After the drink we headed to Lido, a restaurant that was recommended to me by the Americans I met in Vilnius and by Karen, who already eaten there. It was greasy Latvian food from buffet. Since I was famished it tasted very good. When we had finished dinner, we went to a bar and had a few drinks. At the hostel, they were showing the movie 'Man on Fire,' which I watched until it finished at around midnight.