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March 30, 2006

Something found in the Net

Here's a couple of interesting things I find in the Internet today, enjoy.

Make yourself a t-shirt folding machine, all-tribes shows you how (play the first video).

How about voting for your favourite in the Google Idol competition. Do you go for "Pomme & Kelly" or the "The Back Dormitory Boys", vote now!

March 2, 2006

Weekend trip to Riga

I spent 3 days in Riga, Latvia last weekend. I was traveling with my wife, my little sister and my sister's boyfriend. All in all it was quite a nice trip.

We took a Ryanair flight from Tampere to Riga which was okay. You have to be pretty early at the airport and they don't offer you anything during the flight. Of course you can buy drinks and snacks from the cart if you want (5 euros for a drink). The announcements on the flight were all in english and were pretty unintelligible for the most parts because of the accents the announcers had. I could fly Ryanair again though this was a really short flight, only an hour, so for a longer one you might want to pack your own lunch box. And you have to admire how fast they manage to turn around the aircraft, they really don't stand long at the airport.

Our hotel was okay. Well the rooms weren't that grand but it wasn't too expensive either, the breakfast was okay, and the staff was really helpful. The hotel is called Radi un Draugi and it's situated in the middle of the old city in Riga (excellent location). If you're going to Riga I can recommend that hotel but remember to book early as they are quite popular.

What was interesting about Riga is the differences in wealth. There was a lot of really expensive looking cars and people dressing very fashionably. But on the other hand you have beggars and really bad looking houses as well. The country seems to be developing but it's taking time to get everyone on board with the economic growth. The prices were on the same level as in Finland and there were a lot of Scandinavian brands visible in the shop and super markets. Alcohol and food were a bit cheaper, perhaps two thirds of finnish prices. So for a shopping holiday Riga really isn't the place to go to. Our previous trip was to Dubai which really is a shoppaholics heaven (no taxation) so if you like shopping that's a good destination to consider.

One thing to try in Riga is the opera or the ballet. The tickets are pretty cheap. We paid only 15 euros for quite good seats in the second row. We went to see Eugene Onegin which was pretty nice, at least if you don't count the first act when nothing happened. Unfortunately the show took place the same time as Finland - Sweden Olympic icehockey final so we missed the game. Perhaps it was better not to see the game actually as it would have surely been painful. Damn those Swedes, they really have some kind of mental gridlock on us on the icehockey ring. :)