“The women are all skinny because they can’t afford to eat.”

Riga is a fascinating little town. After a ride from the airport that takes me through my first glimpses of Eastern European squalor, we come into a city that looks out of a fairytale. The first thing I notice about Riga is the architecture, the detail is incredible. Take a look at the pictures. Each window frame and doorway is a sculpture. Take a look at the faces that are built into the sides of the blue brick building (the blue brick on its own is pretty impressive, and on several buildings in Riga.) The second thing I notice is the legs. Despite its nearly Siberian location, the weather in Latvia is the warmest I’ve come across, and it’s mini-skirt season. While the women of Scandinavia were beautiful, the type you want to take home to mom, the women of Riga were hot, the kind you just want to take home. But friendly they are not. When you would catch someone’s eye in passing in Denmark and Sweden, they would smile warmly. If you caught somebody’s eye in Riga, she would scowl at you. And the fashion sense? Not so hot. It was like the stores had to get rid of their stock from before the fall of the USSR before they could get a new shipment. Lots of leopard print and stonewashed denim in the windows, next to shops selling exquisite antiques. It’s indeed a city of contrasts. The economy is still trying to get its legs, which certainly has it’s perks. A liter of their local beer, which is damn fine, costs about eighty cents. (In contrast, a liter of water was a dollar. I like Riga.) Yet while Latvia would be considered a “poor” country as a whole, there’s clearly some people in Riga who have done very, very, well. The cars around my hotel are what I’d expect to see on Rodeo Drive. There are brand new Bentleys, Maseratis, and Lamborghini’s on every other street. And they take it seriously too, almost all the Mercedes are AMG, the Cayennes are all Turbo if not Turbo S, and I see no less than three beautiful women driving brand new drop-top M6’s within the first few hours.