Text 14330, 69 rader
Skriven 2011-08-04 10:40:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: june trip 705
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BT 303 RIX HEL 1015 1125 F50 8AC

I wanted to get up at 8, breakfast until 0820, and take
the bus at 0830; Lilli thought that we should be there
early, so we did one notch before. The bus stop is even
closer than the intercity bus terminal - maybe 4 blocks.
Nonetheless I was self-conscious about rolling our noisy
rollaboards across the cobbles, until we came across a
British party, which had obviously been drinking all night
and was conversing loudly and slurredly and audibly to
a wide radius. I chuckled; Lilli, perhaps unused to this
level of debauchery, looked away, I think.

The bus came within 1 minute of schedule and dropped us
off at the airport maybe half an hour later, within 2
minutes of schedule. Kiosk checkin didn't work - perhaps
we should have heeded yet another clue, nobody using them.
No problem, as bag drop had a 20-min line anyway. Security
was bizarrely easy (ours was the only flight between 0800
and 1015), and soon we were back in duty-freeland; having
a couple dozen Lats left, I picked up lots of cheap
chocolate for souvies, a liter of Aldaris Gaisais (no cost
advantage over two half-liters, which is what I should
have done, because that way I wouldn't have felt obligated
to drink the whole can at one go), a can of Zelta for
comparison, and a bottle of Masi Valpolicella for later. I
also got Lilli her heart's desire, a bottle of Pepsi, which
cost more than beer.

Air Baltic is perfectly harmless, the seats not hideous,
the planes clean; though the bus to remote stand thing gets
kind of old. Lots of buy on board possibilities, and boy do
the pictures look good, but the flight is just an hour. The
experience reminded me very much of the better low-cost
carriers, such as Virgin Blue.

We landed with most of a day ahead of us; dropped our bags
off at the Hilton and took the bus downtown, which eats up
an hour. I was going to take Lilli to the Bulevardia area,
but she was hungry, so we menu-shopped for a while, finding
most places too costly or serving too many weird things,
such as reindeer. We almost went in to a burger joint called
Amarillo, only the burgers were E16 ... we almost gave up
and went to McDo's, but I recalled an unassuming red-sauce
checked-tablecloth type place we'd passed called Il Sicilano
- so that's where we went. The place was slammed, as it is
right near Cathedral Square, where the samba parade was set
to start; I should maybe have thought of that. Anyhow, the
service, though pleasant enough, was slow and halt. I had
the pasta pescatora, which was palatable though no bargain -
a big plate of linguini in a fra diavololike sauce with
various frutti di mare, to wit 3 tiny mussels, some shreds
of surimi, and a teaspoonful of shrimp that gave new meaning
to the word shrimp - the teaspoonful was about 5 of them.

Lilli had the pizza Parma - a sort of limp crust covered
with cheap Gouda-like cheese, topped with slices of
prosciutto and decent grana.

The house wine was a Nero d'Avola, a little sour, not
very interesting.

This Pizza-Hutlike meal cost us within ten bucks of what
we'd paid at Gutenbergs, one of the best and fanciest
restaurants in Riga, the other day. 

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