Riga - Day 2

Today I again went to the pancake house for breakfast, as it was very cheap, and was intended to be my meal out for the day. I finished my book at the pancake house - Black Swan Green - which I thought was really great. I must admit I empathized with the main character, and unpopular thirteen year-old boy going through the difficulties of growing up. I went to the dome church and paid to get in - but there was also a museum attached to it. Mildly interesting. I next went for a long walk to see the Art Nouveau section of the city, which Riga is famous for. Riga is regarded as having some of the best Art Nouveau architecture in the world. It did not dissapoint, although quite far from the old town, the buildings are quite remarkable and I took lots of photos. For lunch I decided to go out after all. I chose to go to Rama, a Hare Krishna cafeteria as it is very cheap. The Indian food I had there was very good, and quite cheap for Riga. Since I had by this time seen almost everything I could in Riga, I headed back to the hostel for some more ideas. I ended up going to a museum that was an ancient house, and that diplayed how someone would have lived a few hundred years ago. It was quite good. I then went to the war museum, which sadly does not have English subtitles and thus dissapointed. Needing to pass the time, I went to a cafe where I ordered a Riga Coffee, which is coffee with Balsam in it, the Latvian national liquor. I did not like it. By the time I finished at the cafe, I still needed to pass more time, so I went back to the hostel and asked the lady at reception. She suggested I go behind the train station to see 'Little Moscow.' I did, and encountered the biggest market I've seen outside China, primarily selling huge boots, and saw run-down buildings. I have a feeling the Russians aren't doing too well here. By this time it was 5:00, so I went to the supermarket, bought some stuff for dinner and ate it outside on a bench. At the hostel, I watched the movie 'Deja Vu.' I also ended up playing a game of chess with a fifty-six year old man who was also staying at the hostel. He was very nice, although I'm curious as to why he is at a hostel. He was a very good player and beat me. After the movie was over, 'Hostel' was put on. Seems like a cliche quite honestly. I safely ignored while talking to people, and ended up going out before the movie finished. I ended up at the same bar as yesterday, except this time I was very drunk. Beer now makes me physically ill if I have too much. For part of the time at the bar there was an Indian - American man who was hammered. All that he could do was look at all the ladies and attempt to talk to them. He also said he didn't understand how he had spent 200 lats ($400) at the strip club he went to yesterday, as he had no memory of it. Although I only got about four hours of sleep as I write this, I feel strangely refreshed.