Dirty Burger

Do you like restaurants that;

- are incredibly hard to find?

- don't take reservations?

- only have one item on their main menu?

- only have one large table?

Well then you will love Dirty Burger!

It's situated out the back of another restaurant Pizza East and above an even harder to find one; Chicken Shop (they are all owned by the same people) and it kind of looks like a shed. If inside a shed you can order delicious burgers and sit around a big wooden table with an increasing amount of other people who have heard good things and made the effort to find the place.

We were lucky and arrived just before the queues began to form. We ordered the only thing we could; a cheeseburger, paired it with a pint of Camden Pale Ale each and crinkle cut fries & onion fries (red onion that had been battered and fried - so bad but so good!) to share. The burger was exactly what you want from a burger; juicy, meaty goodness covered in melted cheese and dripping with just the right amount of sauce as well as some crunchy pickle, lettuce and tomato. It was the perfect size that you finished just as it was about to go soggy and fall apart. The Camden Pale Ale washed it down nicely and the sides were just as they should be; salty and fatty.

We could have stayed longer but people were eyeing off our seats and we left, for a pub down the road, very satisfied.

Now we just need to try The Chicken Shop - if we can find it!

Loving Life in Latvia!

At the beginning of October, Ashlee and I got in one of our moods where we decided it was imperative that we book a holiday that night and explore somewhere we had not been before. After putting a range of dates into Skyscanner and being flexible on where we would go we had found our holiday destination, Riga. We researched hostels and decided to book to stay in The Naughty SquirrelBackpackers for about 5 quid a night.

So Friday night, the 16^th of November, I packed a laptop bag full of clothes, put on my size 20 coat and we headed off for the dreaded Stansted Airport.

After a tube, easybus, nap on the airport floor, a flight and the airport bus we had arrived in Riga. We found our hostel just inside the Old Town and were greeted with a shot of their local drink, Black Balsam. Whilst difficult to describe the taste, it is still used as a medicine and I can see why. I didn’t mind it but Ashlee ended up with more on her face and hands so it is true that some people find it hard to swallow! On the airport bus we met a couple of boys, one Canadian living in the US and one Greek living in London (Andrew and Kostas) who happened to be staying at our hostel and were in the same room as us. They tucked into bed for a nap while we decided to dump our bags and head off.

We somehow managed to coincide our trip with Latvia’s Independence Day that occurs on November 18^th every year. Latvia is a very young country (literally, there are babies and children everywhere – including screaming babies on both flights!) as it only finally came out of Soviet rule in 1991 after years of occupation by both the Russians and the Germans. Latvia is a proud country with a lot to celebrate so we were keen to explore its capital, Riga.

The Freedom Monument (below) is a national shrine for Latvians. The sculptures depict the people singing, working and fighting for their freedom. Locals are continuously placing flowers at the base and it is always guarded.

We looked around more of the city (including posing like their statues) before heading to St Peter’s Church.

In St Peter’s Church you pay a small sum of money to take a lift to an observation platform for amazing views of the city.

We wanted to learn more about Latvia’s history of its occupation so went looking for The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Unfortunately the museum is undergoing renovation so has temporarily moved. We eventually found it in another part of the city near the French embassy and was well worth checking out.

Afterwards, we decided to take a break from being tourists and waste a couple of hours in a coffee shop where we shared a delicious cheesecake with their local berry, the cowberry. 

We then made out way over to visit the Central Market which was partially built out of WW1 Zeppelin Hangars (as in the roof is built from them, not that the Zeppelins were always there on the border of the Old Town as many believe). We wandered around checking out the giant fruit and veg, being amazed/disgusted by the parts of animals they sold and fascinated by the seafood. At this point we realised we had not slept since Thursday (Stansted’s floor and a plane full of screaming babies did not quite cut it) so headed back to the hostel for a nap. After a power/disco/nanna nap we got up and got ready for Saturday night. 

We attempted to look for a couple of restaurants that had been recommended, after failing to find one that was open, we stumbled across a restaurant that looked like it would be serving traditional foods.

Free bread!

Pork and bean soup served in bread.

Zepplin (meat inside mashed potato) served with a cream sauce with bacon in it.

The obligatory salad for us to share.

The beer was cold and the food was yummy, we were well satisfied before heading back to the hostel to really start the night.

After more beers and shots at the hostel we all headed off on a pub crawl. The rest of the night speaks for itself, please see below. Unfortunately we are not savvy enough travellers to know the names of the 4 bars we attended that night (although I do remember the one with a sign that had a moustache on it) but we do know that we had a good time.

Kostas the cowboy

Are you gonna be a party boy or a poon boy?

Got to be DJ for a bit. I obvs thought he was shit.

Doppelgangers.

Just hanging.

''Get me with the vines''.

Band member number 1.

Band member number 2.

Band member number 3.

The album cover.

Love this pic.

Ashlee keeping it PC.

PC.

Wedding ring.

Just before the kebab shop. Ie: the end of the night.

We rolled into the hostel room at about 8am and, not surprisingly, conked out.

The next day had a slow start but, as it was Latvia’s Independence Day, we had to get involved. We watched their celebratory military parade; which was strange as there was no music or cheering. However, after standing in the cold for what seemed like hours, we had worked up an appetite so the 4 of us went in search of food. We went to Pelmeni XL where you serve your own portion of Latvian ravioli, add whatever sides you want and they weigh and charge you a bargain price at the end.

Us with our Latvian flag pins.

A picture where you can actually see them - we wore them around the wrong way for most of the day.

Pelmeni XL - yum!

After our meal we parted ways with the boys again and Ashlee and I went to check out some Art Nouveau Architecture on Alberta Street. This happened to be right near the Radisson Blu which we had been told also had amazing views of Riga. So we headed up to the Skyline Bar for a couple of cocktails.

The temperature, as advised by the hotel lobby.

As we walked back to the Old Town more Independence Day celebrations had begun. This year, Riga, was having a festival of lights so there were a lot of light related displays to check out.

The parade of people who were joined together carrying flame lit torches may have been reminiscent of The Baltic Chain; where about 2 million people joined hands over 6000 kilometres across the 3 Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who (at the time, 1989) were all under Soviet rule.

Buskers singing Coldplay whilst dressed as women.

The red carpet for people to walk down whilst speakers played the sound of applause and lights flashed like cameras.

Not sure.

After all the excitement of the Independence Day celebrations we were once again hungry and decided to check out Folk Club Ala, a restaurant that was supposed to be genuinely traditional. The place was packed and our request for a table to eat at was met with the answer; ‘That is a very difficult question’ so we ended up having to cut our losses and look elsewhere. It was now almost 10pm and trying to find a restaurant in our price range wasn’t exactly easy. We ended up finding the creatively titled; Burger and Beers, which was about the size of my bedroom at home.

Tiny restaurant.

My deer (burger) and beer.

Ashlee's beef.

We headed back to the hostel thinking we would probably go straight to bed. No such luck, we ended up drinking beers in the common room until the early hours of the morning. The events that happened in the common room definitely fall into the category of ‘you had to be there’ as I was entertained by some of the strangest people I’ve ever met. I would post the most memorable quotes from the night but out of context they would seem insane!

Gary Busey in the hostel.

Had to do a double-take on the name of the milk.

Monday morning we got up and went for a walk to try and find ‘The Three Brothers’. 'The Three Brothers' are the oldest stone residential buildings in the city and each one is from a different century (15^th, 17^th and 18^th). 

Out the front of 'The Three Brothers' were men playing Ricky Martin on the piano accordion.

We wanted to do one of the free walking tours and as we were staying in the Old Town and had spent most of our time there we decided to the ‘alternative’ walking tour that took us over into ‘Little Moscow’, an area known for being dodgy. We met with the guide, who was distinguishable as he had a bright yellow suitcase; ‘’I don’t know where this came from, I guess my friend had a suitcase and some yellow paint and then he just decided to paint the suitcase and now we have a yellow suitcase.’’. Right. He showed us around the areas of Riga that people may not usually bother to check out.

'Stalin's Birthday Cake' 

After leaving our guide with a tip we decided to head back the direction we had come as we had passed a Lido restaurant. Lidos are a chain that was established in 1987, where you take a tray and fill it with whatever dishes you like from the buffet or you order from the chefs standing behind big pots and trays full of food. The cashiers then add it all together and you tuck into a feast for a rather cheap price.

The feast.

After lunch we had one more thing we wanted to do in Riga, check out ‘Miera Iela’. Miera Iela literally translates to Peace Street and had been described to us as; ‘home to a bohemian community of shopkeepers, publicans, gallery-owners, painters, writers and stylish layabouts who congregate at its unusual collection of inspired shops and cafes’’ (thanks ‘Riga in your Pocket’ guide). Unfortunately, when we went, it was pretty dead but I think this was down to the fact that it was a public holiday. Nothing was open but we did manage to find some pretty street art.

The Freedom Monument in sunlight.

After this we had time for an ice-cream (yes Ashlee eats ice cream on all her holidays, even when it is only 4 degrees) before making our way back to the hostel to pick up our luggage. We made it onto the airport bus and were soon sitting in a coffee shop at the airport waiting to go home.

Another very enjoyable holiday to a city that I did not know a lot about before visiting but would now highly recommend.

Love it, Latvia!