3 ~ Hello From Riga, Latvia

May 2, 2015

Hello From Riga, Latvia,

Up until the day we left from Rome, our entire trip was showered with sunshine and cool temperatures. It was glorious. Just as we got on a bus for the Rome airport it started to rain, heavy rain, which continued as our airplane departed. But, leave it to the Italians……… What we didn’t know at the time was that they had left our luggage OUTSIDE, in the rain, while waiting for the airplane to arrive. When we opened our suitcases at our home-stay in Riga we discovered the contents completely soaked. Even my umbrella was wet ON THE INSIDE. We had to hang out our cloths over night to dry. Fortunately we use plastic bags to house some of the contents of our suitcases, so, much of it was spared the drenching. Oh, well, it could have been worse. When we arrived in the Riga airport, around 11:00 p.m., we found out the there had been a terrorist threat against the airport earlier in the day and all air traffic was diverted to other airports. By the time we arrived, normal flights had been resumed. The locals blamed the incident on Putin and the Russians stirring up trouble like he is doing in The Ukraine. They fear that what is happening in Ukraine will happen here in The Baltics in the future.

We are staying in a home stay called “Homestay” (the Homestay home stay) owned by Dega, a Latvian and Rick, from New Zealand. Both of them are really fun “characters.” It’s hard to get away from them in the morning to go on our city touring. They built this huge, 5,000 sq ft, three story log cabin style house about 12 years ago in a neighborhood full of huge mansions, built around a century ago. They claim that this neighborhood was the first designated “Garden City” in Europe, built into the forrest. During the Soviet occupation these mansions housed up to 10 families each and were allowed to deteriorate badly. Currently they are being renovated by wealthy Russians, Germans and others, back to their original splendor. But, the ownership of many of them is unclear and some still house multiple Russian families.

Riga has had a troubled history in the last century. A brief period of Independence after WWI was quickly followed by occupation, first by Stalin and the communists, then by the Nazis during WWII and finally by the Soviet Communists, until 1991 when they finally achieved a, hopefully, lasting independence. One of the horrible things from the past is the atrocities of the various forms of the KGB during occupation. There is a large, architecturally beautiful, building in Riga that housed the KGB during its persecution of political dissidents. It is currently abandoned because it stirs up such bad memories for the citizens here that no one wants to live or work in it. We took a guided tour through the building and learned about how the KGB treated the people in this building (some pics in the photo gallery). Tens of thousands of citizens were “disappeared” to Siberia or imprisoned in Russia from here to make room for all the Russians that were pouring into the country. During the Nazi occupation there were no Jewish internment camps. They simply marched the Jews into the forests by the thousands, shot them and buried them in mass graves. There is also another museum about the occupation with films and historical photos of the times. Enough of the dreary stuff. Now things are doing well here. They have joined the European Union, NATO and use the Euro for their currency. Prosperity has finally arrived.

Around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century there was a famous architect here that built a large number of buildings in the Art Nouveau style. Most of them survive today even after the hazards of wars and occupation. They are being refurbished and used as apartments and offices. During the soviet occupation there was only one architecturally interesting building constructed. All the others were the boxy “practical” style. It was simply too expensive to make the buildings look nice. The historical center of the city has been refurbished and now is the center of tourism. However, we found many more interesting things to see by venturing out into the city beyond the typical historical center.

The Riga Public Market claims to be the largest in all of Europe. It is housed in 5 abandoned German Zeppelin hangars left here after WWI. They were taken apart and then reassembled in the inner city to house the markets. The market, which sells everything from meat to produce to household items, receives 70,000 visitors a day. Around the corner from the market there is a large domed Russian Orthodox Cathedral. It was given to scientists during the Soviet occupation and turned into a planetarium. After independence the church began to restore it as they could get funding. The inside is completely restored and now they are currently gilding the outside of the domes (see photo).

In Latvia, there is one huge dominant chocolate company and they have a really fun chocolate museum at the factory. They serve that thick hot chocolate that you have to eat with a spoon and feed you as much chocolate candy as you can stand. You can make a chocolate bar with a custom wrapper on it and take funny pictures of yourself in unusual scenes (don’t miss the photo gallery for a surprise).

We found an interesting loft restaurant looking down on an art and craft store that served us a delicious meal. While moving some bowls around on the table I knocked over a glass of wine, which spilled almost entirely into my hat on the seat. After cleaning up the mess, I hung it up to dry out. By the end of the meal it was almost entirely dry, but I had to go home smelling like a “wino.” Since it is my only cool weather hat (and I haven’t found a suitable replacement yet) I’m still wearing it. I wonder what people think of me? Hummm…….

The next night we found an Armenian restaurant for dinner. After the hostess gave us the menus I noticed that mine had no prices listed, but Carol’s menu did. When the owner, a middle-aged lady, came to take our order and noticed the menus, she profusely apologized for getting them reversed. A woman was not supposed to see the prices on the menu. Other than the fancy hotels on the Amalfi Coast that I mentioned, I have never encountered this custom before in our travels. After a short time in conversation, Carol got to be good friends with the owner talking about Armenia and our travels there last year. And, of course, that meant that pictures had to be taken of everyone. 😉

A few interesting things I have observed while walking around Riga are:

— The terrain around here is as flat as a pancake. Lots of people ride bikes to get around. Our hosts at Homestay don’t even drive a car.

— Everyone here has blue eyes (except the tourists). That “recessive” gene must be “dominant” in this population.

— There is absolutely no litter anywhere in the streets of Riga. This, despite the fact that there are no public trash cans anywhere on the streets. We had to carry our garbage around with us all day. I guess that’s what they all do, as well.

— All of the public toilets have paper towels to wipe your hands dry. Some even have those old fashioned cloth rolls that you pull out of a dispenser (many of you may be too young to even know what these are). In Italy I think the paper towel dispenser gets filled once when it is new and never refilled again after that. I NEVER could find any paper towels in the Italian public toilets.

That’s about it for Riga. Next we’re off on a 4.5 hour bus ride north to Tallinn, Estonia, for three days. More about that later. There are a couple of surprises in the photo gallery so don’t miss this installment. And, Carol is preparing her next blog entry, as well.

Tom’s photos are at the side: Currently showing Riga Latvia

Carol’s Travel Blog:

https://carolapucci-tips.blogspot.com/2015/04/latvians-have-more-fun.html

Later….. your Favorite Travelers, Tom & Carol