We wake up at 8.30am, and the market is fairly quiet outside, which is surprising. A bloke in the dorm outside our room has piled his luggage against our door, and we have to knock it all over to get out. The noise wakes most of the dorm, and again when we close the door, which only slams, whoops. It's a little disconcerting having to walk through room of semi-naked men to get in and out of our room.

We've completed most of what we wanted to do/see yesterday, so today is more relaxed, and our bus doesn’t leave until 5.40pm. We laze around for a bit and get up at 10am. The aim is to look around the market, pick up our laundry, then check out by 12pm.

[The market]

The market is great, though Iain finds it dull. There are five zeppelin hangers with different themes - meat, fish, dairy etc. I avoid the meat and fish ones. There are dozens of fruit, veg and flowers outside. Each country we've been to seems to have a large market for selling fresh flowers, which are much cheaper than in the UK, perhaps due to over-supply. Roses sell for 10p, with a nicely arranged big bouquet for £2-3. We see many men carrying a flower for their partners throughout the trip; always an odd number as even numbers are regarded as unlucky. The market is busy and bustling, with a local feel to it; people going about their everyday business, and very few tourists. Vibrant colours and fantastic scents hit us as we walk through - dill, garlic, parsley and various flowers. We are very cautious of pickpockets. We buy two bananas, which I assume are organic, and taste very much stronger than those we can buy in the UK, much nicer. We walk round one of the hangars, selling lots of different cheeses, sweets, biscuits and cakes. We buy a selection of pastries for under 60p - croissants and sweet breads. It's a fabulous place to shop compared with a sterile supermarket.

[Twin landmarks of Riga]

We head back to the hostel to eat some of our pastries for breakfast. Our laundry arrives, nicely washed, dried and folded. We sit in the common room and read the guest's comments book, which includes quite a few British men commenting on Latvian girls - who are slim, tall and pretty. There was a Welsh guy in reception yesterday (to see Wales play Latvia) saying how awful British women are and how he was going to "pull a native". We felt embarrassed to be British.

[Changing the guard]

[Changing the guard]

We leave our bags in the hostel, hoping they'll be okay in an unlocked room, and go out at midday. We walk around the bits of town we missed yesterday, and head to see the change of guard at the Freedom Monument. A small band of soldiers march in, it's all very traditional. There are quite a few people watching, who I think are Latvian - the monument is very important to them, something we can’t imagine ourselves having never lived under occupation. We think of what they must have felt upon the first change of guard in 1991 after liberation.

Near the monument is a memorial to filmmakers who died after being shot by Russians in 1990. It's inconceivable to be here and the event so recent, and very moving. There are lots of fresh flowers on the stones. The film they made (Homeland: Postscript, about the impact of the break-up of the USSR) of the was released, and includes footage of the crew dying and their last words "keep on filming". Appalling.

Being Western tourists, we stop for a McDonald’s milkshake, and have now had one in each country so far. Cheap and nutritious? Sort of. I feel glad but also ashamed.

We see women begging again. The ratio of women:men in Lithuania is 117:100. In the UK we're used to people on the streets generally being young/middle aged and male. Old women seems harsher somehow - do their families know? Are they totally alone? We assume there is a problem with pensions as in Russia - this section of society has lost out with capitalism. We also read that alcoholism is very high and many women are widowed relatively young. It must be hard for the older generation who have suffered to much to see so many rich youngsters whilst they live on little. The divide between the nouveau riche and the rest of the population is glaring in cities; many in St Petersburg driving Mercedes and BMWs. In Russia the older people tend to sell produce on the streets. In Tallinn and Riga we see many begging, often outside churches. In Riga there are also people in the subway selling their wares; a man in subway with weighing scales, whom we see each day all day and evening, and women selling handmade clothes. We see two teenage girls of around 13 dancing to disco music for money, and wonder whether this is poverty or supplementary pocket money. The saddest and most poignant sight is a woman in her 50s dancing alone to folk music, dressed in national costume.

I am also unhappy to see signs for a show cat exhibition, with a cat in a cage outside, in sun with no water. The cat must be resigned to it, ours wouldn't put up with that. There's also a guy with monkey posing for photos.

[Small Guild]

[Random bit of Riga statuary]

[Cat on the Cat House]

[I'm guessing it has something to do with torches]

[House of the Blackheads]

[Another bridge. Cathy likes other bridges]

[A bridge. Cathy likes bridges]

We walk to a square to see the ornate buildings, and the Cat House. This was built by a merchant who was snubbed by the Guild, and put cats on the roof of his building opposite facing away from the Guild as an insult. The Guild building itself looks like should be in Disney's Magic Kingdom - pretty but perhaps too perfect. We walk to the town square to visit the church tower, but its too busy so we'll come back later. There are lots of people by the river, so we wander over to find out why; apparently there's a powerboat racing event on. There are some interesting bridges and the TV tower in the distance, where demos against the storming soviets were held in 1991.

We have lunch at a pancake house which has counter service where you can help yourself to different pancakes (stuff with banana, mincemeat, apple etc) and toppings, for £1 each. Yummy! This is the main meal of day because we'll be on a bus this evening.

[Market hangers and TV tower]

[More Riga]

[Riga Skyline]

We return to the church tower, which has a great view over the city. The weather is clear and we can see for miles; the traditional old town full of red roofs, with the newer city behind. The lift operator leaves us all stranded at top and goes down empty. He comes back with more people, and the tower gets full. We begin to wonder whether he has a limit.

We spod at an Internet café and e-mail tonight's hostel about our anticipated late arrival to remind them to please keep our room. It's mainly full of locals, boys playing games and swearing in English. The charges are 1p/minute.

We buy postcards and try to get stamps, but the kiosks don’t sell them (why?) and the post office is quite a walk, so we decide to post them in Lithuania.

We are back at our hostel at 4.30pm for the bus, and talk to a Canadian guy for a bit about politics and the Iraq War. We walk to the bus station at 5.00pm to get the bus to Lithuania. Four countries in four days, equalling our previous record (Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary).

[Smoke]

The bus arrives on time and leaves on time. Eurolines is impressive. It's a five-hour journey. There are no tables so we can’t play games, and I get ill reading on a bus. The suburbs are the rich bit but somewhat dilapidated. Again there isn't much in the way of large farms, but some small-holdings and presumably subsistence farming. We see a few fields of wheat and some being fired, some cows being milked by hand, a few free range chickens, horses, but no sheep or pigs. I contemplate the fact that although animal rights seems to have little bearing over here, the majority of their animals (on farms) probably have far better lives.

An hour to the border, same as before, not very exciting. We stop at the services for ten minutes, loos not great but far less skanky than in Latvia!

A couple in the seats behind us think that a coach is a great place to get far too intimate. Young girls sitting in front of them are asleep and have no idea what’s going on behind them. How horrible. I go and firmly (and loudly) ask them to stop. They don’t seem bothered, and I'm not sure they’ve completely stopped, though I keep turning round pointedly.

We head along a two-lane motorway, which is very straight, with flat fields, a few houses and mainly forest. We stop for half an hour at a supermarket in town, where I am proud of myself for going exploring on my own, finding an ATM and buying food. We eat junk food for tea, inlcuding dill crisps etc. Interesting fact is that the only flavour crisps I have seen in any country we've been to this week are sour cream, dill or cheese. Dill is the lesser evil.

More driving, then dusk, which seems to last for hours. Flocks of birds swoop as one, heading to roost. Misted fields surround and lakes reflecting a shimmering moon. I sleep briefly.

As we arrive in Vilnius cars speed past us blaring their horns, lots of people are hanging out of car windows and beeping. A usual Saturday night in Lithuania? The police are very busy pulling people over.

The coach pulls in at 10.20pm, and we try to orientate ourselves in the dark, which isn't easy. No-one else is walking our way to hostel, some people haven’t booked anything! It turns out that hostel is easy to find (obviously we always have maps), thankfully five minutes walk down a main road.

The guy at Reception guy says he was going to give our room away earlier (the hostel is full) but saw my e-mail - hurrah! The noise is because Lithuania have just beaten the USA in Olympics basketball, to qualify for the quarter-finals. There are on-going celebrations outside. He shows us to our room - for £20/night we have our own bathroom, shower, sitting room and kitchen - wow! We crash out at 11pm, tired.