Ripped off in Riga....

Despite some good times in Krakow, it was time for me to move on and meet up with my buddy Adrian in Riga, Latvia and then eventually meet up with my other buddies from California, Jason, Malik, Eric and Terry in Tallinn, Estonia. In other words, trouble was going to happen. No wait, make that Trouble.

I arrived into Riga from Warsaw and somehow managed to get into the luggage arrival without going through customs. I don't know how it happened, I just followed everybody else! In other words, if I somehow get deported to the Siberian gulags, well, it's because I was an illegal alien.

Anyway, when I arrived at the airport and decided to grab a bite before heading out. I recalled seeing an exchange rate display upon arrival that it was roughly a 2 to 1 exchange rate. Lunch bill was 5.75 Lot and in my head I thought, wow, only $2.38 for lunch!! I thought to myself, "I'm going to love it here!" Hopped on a bus, and it was .4 Lot and was again said to myself, jesus, that's like 20 cents! Then, of course, as I soon discovered, I was doing my math all wrong (surprise surprise, polysci major here) It was actually 2 dollars for every 1 Lot. My 5.75 Lot lunch was actually more like 13 bucks.... ugghhh anyway, so much for anything being cheap here in Latvia!

Adrian and I went out one night with a few friends we met at the hostel, including a rather crazy and hilarious guy from London, Lucian, aka The Chairman. He apparently got into a minor tiff with some of his buddies in Tallinn the day before, literally threw a barstool/chair at him, and took a 200 euro (350 buck) cab ride from Tallinn to Riga in the middle of the night. Anyway, that night, we went out and ended up at a club where he, ok fine, all of us, ended up getting pretty smashed. We left him at the club, only to find out later the next day he was arrested for throwing a glass into the side of a BMW for no reason really, except that he was falling into that stereotype of the British hooligan! Despite all that, I enjoyed hanging out with him, in the same way we kind of all want to witness a train wreck that is about to occur.

You're probably wondering why I entitled this post about getting ripped off. Well, I went to a casino, and as many of you know by now, I do have a propensity to gamble. Given my $100/day budget, it probably wasn't the wisest thing to do but I figured I was going to win, (don´t we all??) If anything, I'd get free drinks, and that, in my book, is reason enough to lay a few hands down on some good ole fashioned blackjack. Needless to say, I lost my shirt, going down $160 bucks in about an hour. So I ended up dishing out 40 bucks a drink. Not bad, I guess in the whole grand scheme of things. Went back the next day to chase my losses and ended up paying another 30 bucks a drink. Not only that, in my haste to win, I forgot my ATM card in the machine prior to getting to the casino! Thankfully the casino was in a hotel and the front desk allowed me the use of their telephone to cancel my card immediately. When I spoke to the Bank of America telephone rep, I told her I was going to be in Estonia, and that she could send me a replacement there. She responded, "Estonia? Is that, like, in Spain?" At that point, I decided it would be better to call later, since I had a feeling my card would be sent to the wrong country.

Another night we headed out, I was at a bar ordering a drink and two extremely attractive girls came up to me and asked me where I was from etc. etc. Flattered by this, we spoke for a bit, but we left them after about fifteen minutes. Once we got outside, my friends were all laughing and making fun of me because apparently, they were, umm... professionals. I had no idea... and I was still a bit doubtful so I went back the next DAY and the same two girls were painting each other's nails. Point taken, I'm not as good looking as I think I am!

So, dirt broke, way over budget, with no ATM card, and a bruised ego, I packed up my backpack and headed to Tallinn with Adrian to meet up with my other buddies from California. Good times!!!

PS: I have been having a hell of a time uploading my pics so stay tuned until I get to a computer that allows me to do group uploads via Picasa. Ahhh... technology!