In the last 2 weeks, I made a 5 day day trip to Riga and Vilnius. Co-founder Sanne joined me in Thessaloniki for 3 more days of meeting Spotters and checking out spots!
Riga
A few hours after arriving in Riga I met the Spotters (and Cologne Spotter Gol, who was in town too) at one of my favorite bars of all time – Chomsky.
Apart from our Riga pioneer Spotters Martins & Anete, we have a totally new team. To be honest, I think it’s the best team we ever had! As all 6 Spotters have very different backgrounds and interests, the Riga city guide is packed with very diverse tips. I walked around like a madman around Riga with my Android guide, to see as many of them as possible.
A few of my “highlights”:
- Kalnciema Kvartals – an open air festival in a quarter of beautiful renovated wooden houses
- Kanepe’s Culture Center – where young culturally interested spend their summer evenings
- Lokal House – Uber cool concept store for long boarders (I started longboarding last year – so I was allowed to come in 🙂
- Survival K(n)it 7 – The yearly International Contemporary Art festival was organized in a very cool space this year: the atmpospheric former national library.
- Buteljons – Glass recycled into beautiful objects
- Rama – Authentic, tasty and cheap Ayurvedic Indian food
It was my 3rd time in Riga, but there’s always a lot of new things to see in this dynamic and trend loving city. We’ll be back!
Vilnius
Spotters from 6 cities came together for the 2015 Vilnius Marathon! Read more here
Thessaloniki
Last year we launched the Thessaloniki city guide, after a flood of city loving locals who applied to become a Spotter. It was great to finally visit this unique lively city with an amazing history…
We met the Spotters in several different locations. It was great to hear them talk about their love for the city they wanted to put on the Spotted by Locals map!
A few of the many spots we visited:
- Vlasti – a very anonymous looking bakery you would definitely walk by if you didn’t have the Spotted by Locals app… Amazing feta & spinach pies!
- Efimerida – THE place to drink your freddo espresso if you’re a student. We walked by 3 times, but couldn’t find a place to sit!
- Manitaropoleion – Quirky mushroom lovers place
- To Pikap- A coffee shop with great design housing a vinyl shop!
- To Palio Hamam – A beautiful rooftop bar next to an Ottoman era hamam
Thessaloniki is becoming increasingly popular, but still not visited by many foreign tourists. Go now, enjoy the fabulous nightlife, food and people of Thessaloniki!
