Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Riga Ticket Control Inspectors

Another day in Riga, and Old Town quickly returned to its former, charming self after a long weekend of massive crowds. I certainly wasn't complaining.. Well OK I was actually sleeping well into the afternoon, as usual. After heading to Riga Old Town, I decided to check out my favorite pizza place, CanCan Pizza.

I know I'm a broken record about all these pizza places, but I still think CanCan is the best. The servers are all very nice, the pizza is consistent and good, the drinks are actually cold, and the price is excellent. On top of all that it's in a great location, right inside Town Hall Square. Today I decided to order the ground beef pizza with sweet chili sauce, onion, and tomato. Very good. I also ordered black tea for the first time at CanCan. They used free tea leaves and it was excellent with honey. I'm sure the Latvians would disagree and say, "Where's the Riga Black Balsam?"

I cruised around Old Town and it was another beautiful day, but windier and a bit cooler than yesterday. Since I've been waking up so damn late, I end up eating my first meal at 5pm! Yeah it's getting pretty ridiculous. This was actually one of my shortest days in Old Town. I decided I wanted to try the hotel restaurant at least once during my trip, even though I'm terrified of one of the waitresses there. She seems angry enough to stab you with your dinner knife on the wrong day... Well OK I also have to admit she fascinates me.

Back to my hotel I headed, but wait! An interesting experience developed on the tram. While I was in Old Town, I was about 50% sure that I had one more "trip" left on my tram card. This is the electronic card which you use to pay on the trams and buses. If I was wrong, well it would be easy enough to just stay on the tram for free! After weeks in the city, I still hadn't seen any of these so called "ticket control inspectors" that I kept hearing about. In fact half of the locals didn't even bother to pay on the trams!

Of course I've lived long enough to know that crazy and ridiculous coincidences can and will happen at the worst possible times. With this in mind I purchased a new ticket with 10 trips before leaving Riga Old Town. After getting on the tram my first card was indeed exhausted, so I used the new one. We were about halfway to my hotel, when a special announcement was made on the tram speaker in Latvian. Suddenly the tram stopped between regular stations and two ticket control inspectors boarded! Haha! Life is so funny sometimes, eh?

The two ticket control inspectors boarded the tram, while another two stood outside. They looked similar to the police here, with uniforms and fluorescent green jackets on. The inspectors had a special handheld device which they held in proximity to the card readers on the tram. I assume this "transferred" the ticket information over. They then scanned everyone's card on the tram... Well everyone who actually paid! About six unlucky "stowaways" were escorted off the bus to be fined. I have heard that the fine is about 8 lats, or $15. That's the equivalent of paying for 16 trips.

I find that the "volunteer" tram/bus ticketing system is very clever. It gives one an opportunity to play the odds, but in the end I'm sure the house (Latvia) wins. They will certainly collect enough in fines to cover the stowaways. In any case, I was very close to not purchasing the new ticket today, and I would have been charged the fine! This is similar to my umbrella situation- Guaranteed it will rain if I forget my umbrella and jacket. Guaranteed to not rain if I bring it along! That's just how life is, eh?

After the fun tram experience, I headed to the hotel restaurant. At this point I really wished that I had brought a bullet proof vest and helmet, for I was about to face: The scariest Russian waitress ever to exist. However, to both my disappointment and relief, she was not around. Perhaps my favorite nightmare waitress was off terrorizing another western patron? In her place was the first polite waitress I had ever seen at my hotel restaurant.. Amazing, and she was fairly fluent in english as well. I decided to order the club sandwich and a black tea. Excellent presentation and taste, especially for a hotel. The price was a little high, but for a hotel I wasn't surprised.

I explored a large park near my hotel, and found it serene and beautiful, especially during dusk. The trees provide some really nice atmosphere. The parks have a good amount of people walking through them, until dark when lighting is scarce or non-existent. At that point they start feeling shady and sometimes even downright dangerous. I attempted to explore the city near the hotel after dark, but started seeing shady groups of men walking around, looking for trouble. This wasn't the well policed Old Town, so I decided to call it a night and not get myself into trouble.