Back from Fairytale Land

I am back from my first trip (of the series of 3 planned this month), tired, exhausted but refreshed and happy. There are trips that are good, and then there are trips that are perfect. This is my third cruise, the first was to Helsinki, Finland, and the other was to Talinn, Estonia. Each has been defined by different factors, mainly by:

1) The Journey: How is the weather when at sea (it can be rough sometimes)? How are the cruise programmes and cuisine? How are the ship facilities, the pubs, the duty free shopping arcade, the dance programmes, the casinos, the dancing floors and the crowd?

2) The Destination: How beautiful is the place the cruise goes to? Is it boring, is it similar to places I have already been to? Does it have interesting places to visit?

3) The Company: Last and most important, who am I travelling with? Are they fun people? Are they good company? Are they overenthusiastic or boring people who just want to sleep?

When I say this trip was perfect, it was perfect in all three aspects defined above. The journey was near to perfect, amazing weather, good sailing, no signs of a rocking boat. This wasnt the best ship I have been in, because it was smaller (the others had 13 decks, this had 9). It had only 3 pubs and 2 dancing floors and one shopping arcade, compared to the others which had more variety. But it doesnt really matter, at least to me. If I can stand at the front deck and feel the waves take me out to a perfect blue ocean in perfect sunny weather, thats all that matters. The destination, Riga, was right out of a Fairytale, the type I used to read when I was a kid. And this wasnt artificially created like Disneyland. This was real. A beautiful scenic, fairytalish city to take your breath away. And the company... just right. In short, a perfect trip!

I took 198 pictures, everyone of them a masterpiece I would like to share with you. No, I do not have one of the fancy cameras that some of my friends boast of, because I believe the most important aspect of a camera is that it should be handy, and should fit into my jeans pocket. I do not travel to exotic places to take photographs, I have seen too many people spoil their vacations (and sometimes the vacations of people they travel with) because of their obsession with their camera and photography. I have seen people not enjoying their honeymoons because they are too busy taking snaps. My vacations and trips to far away places are more beautiful than the photos show them to be and not vica versa. Because for me the pics are secondary. But the Riga pics just came out well, even with my dumb automatic camera.

I decided I would share 2-3 pics with my blog, and started selecting some pics from the 198 pics I had taken, but ended up selecting 33.

I strongly urge you to have a look at these 33 pics HERE

Why? Because it is a VERY affordable holiday. It cost me 750 SEK (thats 4,500 INR... Yes.. I am talking Indian Rupees) for the complete trip, which included the cruise tickets, really exotic meals, coffee and desert (excludes shopping). Yes it is actually THAT cheap :). It takes an Indian to figure out the cheapest way to have the perfect holiday with the cheapest price tag. Proud to be an Indian :).

And now the 7 best pics... but I still insist you see all the 33 other pics HERE

House of the Blackheads. Reminded me of the Astronomical Clock at Prague

One of the beautiful gardens in the city, the lush green took my breath away.

Another lush green garden, near the Riga Freedom Monument

The Riga Castle, reminds me of the castles in Prague. Yes Prague remains one of my best trips ever and I kept remembering Prague when I saw the Riga churches and castles

A canal with a Fairytale bridge near the Riga Freedom Monument

I am a foodie, and no tale is complete without telling you what I ate. So here is the desert of the day. Cost me some good money, but worth every penny :)