retiredmartin

May 2023.

Oops.

Thursday night should have been the end of our Riga rolics, but with a bus to Kaunas at 2pm we had time to kill on Friday morning.

Time to tick most of the remaining items on our To Do list,

including the Three Brothers,

and the unlisted Colonel,

with possibly the best pub sign in town.

Mrs RM was insistent she wanted a Negroni to start the day (hey, don’t judge), but the queue for the Negroni bar at 11am was off-putting (tourists) so we ended up at Two More Beers again.

I apologise for going to the same bar twice, it’s very much not in keeping with the Retired Martin ethos, but the Malduguns 7% Porter was sensational, and we had the joy of the Slovakian hockey ultras singing their song (PRESS PLAY) “Ooooo ooooh oohhhh ayy ayy ayy“, which I translate as “please let us beat Kazakhstan“. They lost 4-3 to Kazakhstan.

The Slovaks left, the soundtrack switched to relentless euro rock.

And late-period (’97 on) Depeche Mode. It is hard to convey how popular the Modes are in the Baltics. They all have Saints days named after them (apart from Vince Clarke, who is persona non grata).

I’d really wanted to go back to Two More Beers to have the burger, served complete with hunting knife on what looks like a reindeer’s ear. Or perhaps not.

Mrs RM insisted we she have a second 7% Porter.

It was the only possible decision.

But she regretted it later, I sense.