Copydude is busy singing the praises of Riga Bus Station here
Must have changed a lot since 1998. Our family remember it as the place with the most disgusting toilets, when we took the bus from Vilnius to Tallinn. We rushed back to the bus without looking at anything else.
But then my kids have seen a whole lot more in the range of disgusting toilets since then, so perhaps a retrospective is due. Checking the memories with Bee, she says it was the first time she had a seen a squatter, or had to request the number of sheets of toilet paper required from a grumpy old lady. These days, this would hardly cause comment. Bucarest train station now wins her prize for the contrast between the filthy squatter, the grumpy lady and the immaculate plastic flowers. Our family places a high premium on plastic flowers, from an episode in our past, (perhaps this has not been blogged about yet).
Riga airport is another thing altogether. Serves decent coffee when you arrive from Tbilisi on an overnight flight. The transit time is sufficient for you to get it, unlike for all the other flights, which are due the moment you set foot on land, so that you arrive to endless messages for: "x" recently arrived from Tbilisi, please go immediately to gate "y" where your flight is leaving. On the other hand the officious security check as you come in, which seems to take a delight in being as slow as possible, so you might miss your flight, does not endear me to the Latvians. Even Austrian Airlines does not take such delight in short transit times coupled with slow security checks.
