Are hostels hostile?

This past Friday five other international students and I all packed up, made the treacherous cold morning hike to the Tartu bus station, and boarded the 6:30 bus to Riga, Latvia. I was excited because this was my first trip since I have arrived in Estonia. I didn't really know what to expect from Riga, because honestly I had never heard of it. I just accepted to invitation to join this group in their excursion and hoped for the best. As we arrived in Riga, I noticed that the whole ambiance was very different from Tartu. Though both have endured Soviet occupation, Tartu has held tightly to its rich culture and community, where Riga seemed to still weigh heavy under gray block buildings and the burden of oppression. I also noticed the absence of a middle class. It seemed that every person we passed on the street was either clothed in rags or adorned in garments worth a down payment on a small house.
Once we got into Old Town Riga, the architecture was certainly something to admire. The buildings held an old charm with exquisite attention to detail. I was nervous as we were walking from the bus station through the city at first because I had never stayed in a hostel before and had not been prefaced with encouraging stories about them. The Old Town Hostel, however, was nothing like I expected. The hostel rooms reminded me of summer camp, with 6 bunk beds per room. The bathroom was much better than what I had pictured. There was one room with a toilet and sink, and another with a shower and sink. I would say the only difficult thing about a hostel is privacy. With 12 students sharing a bedroom and one toilet and shower, you have to learn to be creative and flexible.
The weekend was a lot of fun over all. We visited many museums. One on the Soviet occupation of Latvia, a beautiful art museum with pieces from many different eras, a war museum, and several others. I also got to ride a double-decker bus for the first time while we listened to a city tour. I'm not sure that we ever actually ate traditional Latvian cuisine, it wasn't strongly recommended. We did, however, try everything from Latvian Mexican to Latvian Thai. It was quite an experience.

Monday was Estonia's National Independence Day. This holiday is held to commemorate the declaration of independence and founding of The Republic of Estonia on February 24, 1918. To celebrate this day many businesses are closed, along with the schools, and a special soup and cream pastry are the common dish. In the evening the citizens of Tartu gather at the local sledding hill (which looks like a huge crater in the earth - perfect for sledding!) and, well, sled! This year they filled the middle of the "bowl" with water and stuck a hot tub in the middle of that. For those who were really brave, you could sled into the water and swim to the hot tub, with your soaking wet clothes. It was exciting to me to be able to celebrate this day with the Estonians.