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yup.. gotta blog about Riga this time. for those out there that doesn’t really know wat had happened.. let me explain.. haha..

” Riga is the the capital of Latvia, is situated on the Baltic Sea coast on the mouth of the river Daugava. Riga is the largest city in the Baltic states.”

so wat actually happened was, from wat i heard, some fella forged the Malaysian passport to enter the EU and make us ‘The original anak Malaysia’ have difficulty entering the country. Anyway, it is something special there.. It doesn’t really feel like Russia thou, even thou they shared almost the same history. Latvian are different, they do speak Russian but most of their words either end with ’s’ or ‘a’ for example, station becomes ’stations’ in Latvian.. well.. u get wat i mean..

these are some pictures taken in Riga.

me in front of the historical building in Old Town of Riga. I think it is some museum. didn’t manage to enter it as i had limited time and there are a lot more to see. Too bad that i couldn’t make it to the anatomy and history of medicine museum tat time as it was a weekend.

this is the central station of Riga at night.. the place is brightly lit. the currency is definitely something worth talking about.. i brought a 5 pounds note to the money changer and i got back 4 Lats plus.. and 4 Lats are in coins, of the size of our 10 cents ringgit.. Lol..

well.. and suddenly felt like blogging about some food that i had consumed since my winter holidays till now..

these r the 2 fishes that i need to dissect and cut for the ‘chinese new year’ steamboat..

all the beers that Eric bought when i was there in Sunderland.. we must had been crazy that time. Ok, we didn’t actually drink much that day, i had only 2 bottles. hahaha.. but i think his Taiwan friends sapu most of them i guess.

this is the Irish breakfast my friend’s cousin, Nigel, prepared for us during our stay there.. urm. there is this grilled bacon and tomatoes, eggs and the black pudding was hidden down there.. it actually tasted like Haggis, maybe in different shape. i had put the link of wikipedia here for it.. try clicking if u wanna find out more about that..

“Black pudding or less often blood pudding is a sausage made by cooking blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled.”

this is the self prepared steamboat. hahaha.. well.. don’t think that i brought that ‘boat’ all the way from Malaysia to Russia, it was from a China classmate of mine. hahaha.. well u can see the fish there.. self-made meat ball, and pork ribs.. hahhaa.. and it lasted 5 hours..

this is the stuffs that they sell in the mini-market in Sunderland.. they have practically everything and maybe even better than Malaysia! totally enjoying life there.. I actually stood there for sometime deciding whether i should buy some back to Russia.. well, i didn’t, coz i don’t wanna b too kiasu or suagu like i never see maggie and ‘????’ before…

yup.. again.. hahaha. and this time i’m going to land of our former penjajah… England! and of course some other destinations as well. too bad i have only 12 days holidays. so it feels more like amazing race, rushing here and there, trying to make the best out of every little thing. and this time the traveling partner is my friend dhani, with whom the history is kinda complicated to be explained here.. anyway.. if u read the last post, u will already know that i had some problem traveling from Moscow to Riga.. but as soon as we stepped on the plane in Lidosta airport in Riga, our adventure begins! this time, first destination is….

1 :: London

was really happy that it was a sunny day when i first reached London. big buildings, bright sun, green grass.. that is all u need to really start a trip and to boost my spirit for this holiday!

tats me and my travel mate. lol.. don’t we look small there..

the london eye

the tower bridge - personally i think that it is kinda sad that a lot of patriotic fellas’ heads were hang here.. but no doubt, it is a good piece of architecture.

sometimes all you need is just stop and look at it.. nice view.. have a kit-kat.

night view of the london street from double decker… did some serious window shopping too :)

2 :: Sunderland

we took a bus from London to Sunderland. Eric’s base.. the journey was kinda long and it was so cold there.. well.. according to the Sunderland head of mafia there, we ‘russian fella’ brought some real winter to Sunderland. Went to some mini-market to get stuffs for laksa. haha.. basically had a nice time there visiting him, gotta know his life there better. it is a cool place except for that stupid drunkard who stared at me.. but i think i already got use to it in Russia. Lol..

this is the so called ‘winter garden’. was really windy that time..

3 :: Newcastle

Reach this place to catch a bus to Edinburgh.. too bad that i have only few hours here.. Anyway, met up with Sookchiung for the first time in 5 years.. hahaha.. really would like to spent much time there..

grand structure huh? kinda like the buildings as well..

4 :: Edinburgh, Scotland

this is one of my favourite place of all. the old town of Edinburgh is simply magical. u can find lots of small alleys branching out like a fish skeleton along the Royal Mile. Harry Porter was written here and there is no doubt that the book would never exist if the writer was in the wrong place. no better place to start talking about magics, dungeons and dragons other than Edinburgh! i swear i saw vampires walking here and there at night, i saw Dracula, i saw William Wallace. well.. maybe i’m not good with my words in describing how the place is but it is definitely a ‘must-visit’ place.

the Edinburgh castle on the hill right in the middle of the city. this picture is taken from the entrance of my hostel. talking about a good location to start a day trip!

well.. that is my hostel there.. the building right beside the white van. everything is so old and historical there that u feel like u almost traveled back time.

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like their grave yards too, because of the green grass, historical value and touching stories!

5 :: Dublin

well.. coming here wasn’t a mistake at all.. i’ve got nature, education and alcohol in one go.. Guinness is for geniuses! yup.. wat impresses me most about this place is its clean city, and a kind of village feeling that u can get when u r just some 10 mins away from the city centre, a nice view from the gravity bar just brings me good mood and the Guinness… hahaha.. the Guinness.. dunno how to describe.. u just need to try it yourself. of course, not to forget about knowing some cool guys there..

i hope to have one of this as toy.. my own yacht! arghh…

this picture is taken from Howth, took a train there.. even had an ice cream on the beach.. unbeatable..

the gravity bar.. was told that this is the highest bar in Ireland. and this is the place where i got my Guinness.. can see the landscape?

taken when we were trying to feed those ducks some chips. looks kinda suburb right? this is just some 10 min from the city.

well.. after spending 2 days in Edinburgh.. i flew back to Stansted, London to catch a flight back to Riga.. this is already a big entry so i guess i’ll blog about Riga in my next post.. Grrr.. RIGA….

For the first time in my life, i had been locked up in a cell for 6 hours by the authority!

to think that a Malaysian passport enables you to go everywhere you want without a problem is a delusion! now.. they have such strict border checks and they like to stop Malaysian, ESPECIALLY Malaysians!

my own little adventure happened when i took the train traveling from Moscow to Riga (capital of Latvia), who recently entered the Shangen Zone. and those immigration guards suspected our passports to be fakes even thou we showed them letters from our embassy. we ended up spending 6 hours in the post, locked up in a room which don’t have a handle from the inside, barred windows, and luckily a small toilet.

This is real adventure.. and we almost missed our flight which may results in dismissing the whole winter trip! The best part is, we gotta travel by ourselves all the way from the border town, Zilupe, to the capital, which is 6 hours by bus! Crazy border guards.. hate them..