The four hour bus journey to Riga, Latvia, was as smooth and uneventful as I expected it would be. The Lux Express coaches are comfy and have onboard wifi, which I kept checking on my email for any new messages from the apartment I booked. But for most of the journey, I had already downloaded a few albums on Spotify and just dozed of to Pink Floyd singing about life and death, and how there is no dark side of the moon, matter of fact its all dark.

As we entered the Estonian border town of Valga, the blue, black, and white stripes of flags started to change to the red and white. The town name changed from Valga, to Valja, and finally Valka, as Estonia melted and merged into Latvia.

My Spidey senses where tingling about the apartment I booked. Like in Tartu, Riga was heavy on staying in apartments instead of hotels. I was incredibly sceptical of this in Tartu, but ended up in a fantastic little studio apartment with clear instructions for self checking in. I gave that apartment a glowing review.

The Riga apartment still had sent no message details for a self check in, the back of my brain kept shaking its head saying this is going to play out poorly. The first issue was the gate, armed with a number pad. I kept scanning back over the booking for any hint what the gate code might be. Nothing worked. Pretty sure I was just entering Rigas postcode.

After wandering down the street a bit I saw a lock box with the name of the apartments, and a camera intercom. That had to be it. I rang the intercom, no cyber ghost voice spoke out to interrogated me, but the sound of the door unlocking filled me with hope. Six flights of stairs later I faced a three door problem. Which blank wooden door should I choose. One was clearly unlocked. A trap? Damnit, this isn’t Dungeons and Dragons. Surely this was it. Venturing further in, it became obvious this was a company office. A man in the kitchen, staring at me puzzled, I asked about the apartment, he shook his head, pointing out one of the other doors. I apologised, he replied I wasn’t the first one to do this.

The door was locked but had a Ring doorbell. After pressing it a few times I finally had a voice splutter through the electric eye. The owner explain how she had just emailed to self check in details an hour ago, when I had no internet access. So helpful. Luckily the cleaner as onsite and let me in, so I can could connect to the internet and download the instructions to get the room key from the lockbox.

After the fairly languid pace of life and generally small number of people in Estonia, Riga felt like a jolt back to reality. A capital city full of people bustling around, traffic on the streets and having actually use pedestrian crossings, and just basically the feel of a big city.

In the city centre it was time for some museum indulgence. The Latvian National History museum was due to move location at the end of May, but for now its in creaky old building opposite the glorious Vērmanes dārzs, or Latvian Garden, a green park that’s far too easy to just sit and be overcome with a nap amidst with calm and park life.

The museum has permanent exhibitions on the top floor covering, unsurprisingly, the history of Latvia. The temporary exhibit had a truly fascinating history of the Latvian constitution. How it was created in the early 19th Century, its suspension when Soviet Russia occupied Latvia (but never removed, it was kept under the guise of the fake Russian backed democratic government), and Latvia’s eventual independence from Russia and the constitutions triumphant return to law.

Nearby sits the glorious gold domed Nativity of Christ Cathedral, dating back to 1883. I watched as people were preparing to go inside, and all the women were putting head scarves on. I wasn’t aware of any dress regulations for women, so I’m not sure if this was mandatory or just a show of respect.

Further behind the church stands the marble halls of the National Art Museum. I saw people entering from the rear entrance, but wanted a photo and to use the grand main entrance. There’s something so special about a good museum entrance, and art galleries tend to have this grandiosity down to perfection. Sadly to my dismay the reason people were using the rear entrance was due to the main entrance, marble stairs leading to the huge wooden double door entry, was being renovated and covered in scaffolding and workmen. Damnit.

The art museum itself is great, really some interesting Latvia artists from the 1800-1900s on display. Yet the most amazing, and darkly disturbing exhibit was the temporary gallery showing art made during the Soviet occupation. I can honestly say without a word of hyperbole, this is the most bleak and harrowing art exhibit I’ve ever seen. The ability for the artists from that time to translate misery and nihilism, hopelessness and death, into paint or sculpture so accurately, I don’t wish that living nightmare upon anyone.

After that I need food and a drink. A few blocks down seemed to be the artsy bars and cafes. I stopped at Ezītis miglā, a cafe bar filled with wooden tables, lounges, arm chairs, a small bar, and foozball. I immediately fell in love with the place and retuned a few more times to chat with the bar staff and just read a book.

My next mission was to visit Vecrīga, the Old Town of Riga.