The Paris of the Baltics
....Or so Riga, Latvia likes to call itself.
I have recently returned from Riga, and will describe my adventures in detail, in order to placate the demands of a friend of mine! :-)
Brooke, an American I know from a previous time in Moscow, left for Riga on Wednesday evening to visit a mutual friend, Liz, who is living there, working on her dissertation. The train trip to Riga is a whopping 16 hours, which makes the 7 hour ride to Piter seem like cake. But the train was comfortable and inviting, even in 3rd class, or hard class. We got tea, free breakfasts, and (gasp!) the toilet had soap AND toilet papers. Boy are those Latvians civilized.
Eventually we went to sleep on our bunks, only to be awakened at 4am in order to cross the Russian border. This took about 45 minutes, and we continued on our way. I had just fallen asleep when it was time for the Latvian border crossing! The Latvian border police had much more modern equiptment, scanners and the like, which made me feel much better about Latvia's general safety! This all went smoothly and resulted in stamps in the passport. I learned an interesting thing though - in this area of the world, your passport stamp reflects the manner in which you crossed the border. My new stamps have a picture of a train, while all my previous Russia stamps have a little plane. Yes, I think things like this are cool.
Needless to say, when we arrived in Riga at 10:30am local time, we were somewhat exhausted and generally feeling as though we were covered in train funk. But Liz was there to meet us, and after a coffee at a cafe and a stop at Stockmann for some cheese (brie!) we went back to the apartment she shares with David, her bf and a state department person in Latvia. Let me tell you what - it is now my aspiration life to pass the foriegn service exam, be stationed in Riga and get THAT apartment. Hot damn. I don't have pictures, but the main bathroom was a wonder of scandinavian design and engineering. The bathrooms had HEATED floors. Ahhhhhhhhh. Did you know that diplomats don't pay for their housing????? Yeah, that's the life.
The day we arrived, November 18, was Latvian Independence Day, celebrating when Latvia declared independence (in 1918) both from the Soviet Union and from the German troops occupying part of their territory. We went to go see the parade and witness the celebrations. We heard the Latvian president - a Canadian-Latvian woman whose name I forget - even gave a public speech. The benefits of living in a country that isn't important and does care to be - the President frequently comes out in public. Then we watched the parade, which, interestingly enough was a military parade. I think we saw their whole military. Not to mock the Latvians, but their Navy consists of a few gunboats donated by Norway. But they do have troops serving in Iraq, so they are officially part of the international coalition. We 4 strolled around Old Town, and then went to the Hotel Latvia for drinks before dinner. The bar at the top has an amazing view of the city, and it was thankfully still light enough for the pics to turn out.
The Latvian national beverage is something called Black Balzam. Balzam is common in eastern Europe, and the Latvians have their own version. It is frequently served with currant liquor, or mulled wine. It is served HOT, which is just what the doctor ordered after walking around in the cold!
Back at Liz and David's we had an early Thanksgiving dinner, and sat around and caught up on life.
The next day, Liz took Brooke and I on a tour of Jungenstihl Riga and its art-nouveau buildings from the turn of the century. All of the buildings were amazing to look at. They had such detail. And so many of them featured faces cut into the stone, or other animals. I think I have some details in the photo link. And in the tradition of any good Scandinavian city, the buildings are light pastel colors, to brighten up the winter drabness. During our stroll we were cursed and spit on by an old beggar woman who was mad that we didn't give her any money. I think the curse was to have to go back to Moscow!
We had frequent hot tea/coffee munchie breaks to warm up, and did some souvenir shopping. We also paid a visit to the Latvian history museum, which like many, gives you Latvian history from the first iron age peoples to inhabit the territory all the way up to the present day. The museum (which is in the same building and one floor up from the President's office) also had an exhibit about daily life in Latvia during the Soviet era.
Riga is very interesting, coming from Russia. In Riga, Latvians are actually outnumbered by Russians and Russian speakers, but the government has been taking very strong measures to promote the Latvian language in schools, in public displays, on television, etc. There are still 500,000 Russians who were born in Latvia and have always lived there, who were and are still denied citizenship. (And there are only some 2.5 million people in the whole country, so do the math). But most Latvians over the age of 20 speak Russian, so if they don't speak English, you can communicate in Russian!
For a girls' night out we had dinner at a nice, small restaurant with a tasty, varied menu. Its funny how even though you can find almost anything in Moscow (for a price), compared to Moscow, Riga was the land of milk and honey, especially in terms of the availability of fresh, affordable food. Around that time, Brooke and I started trying to figure out how to permanently ensconce ourselves in their guest bedroom!
Saturday was more sightseeing, but the weather was even colder than the day before. If I look fat in the pictures, its because I was wearing 5 layers! (I've actually lost 12 pounds in the 2 1/2 months I've been here.) We went up to the top of St. Peters church, which has an outside observation deck. Of course the exact moment we chose for this adventure was when the fog rolled in! Miraculously though, it cleared off later and we actually saw the sun set - at 3:40pm. That day included a trip to the "Occupation Museum" which covers Latvia's history under Soviet - Nazi - Soviet rule. It was interesting to see, all weekend, how they wear their nationalism on their sleeve. Its not a geopolitically important country, it never will be, but it is still important for them to celebrate their identity, attempt to protect their language, and other things. It does produce an interestingly one-sided view about their role in their own history though. The museum was so thorough and detailed that we couldn't even finish before they closed!
David picked us up and we headed out to the suburbs for an adventure at "MOLS", which is, curiously enough, a mall. I needed warm boots after I discovered that the pair I brought over with me wasn't going to cut it. Another mall also had a photography exhibit that we checked out on the way to dinner at Lido, an truly Latvian experience. Lido is like the Latvian Chucky Cheese, as David described it to me. Its a fun park with an ice rink, ferris wheel, HUGE Christmas tree, and a cafeteria style buffet of food food food food food. It is also very kitschily decorated in carved wood and the like. But judging by the number of people there, it is THE place to be in Riga!
Afterwards, even though it was dark we drove about 10 miles to a town called Jurmala, an old Soviet resort town on the Baltic Sea. We even walked down to the beach, which was covered in snow - a new experience for me! The surface where the small waves break was actually frozen over with ice. Brrrr!
Our last day in Riga was spend relaxing in the sauna in the morning (they've got one in their building!), and doing some last minute shopping. And then it was back on the train, back through the borders, and back to Moscow.
But Riga was amazing. Liz says the Latvians are still re-learning politeness after 40 years of Soviet domination, but I thought the people were lovely, the town was beautiful. Small (1 million people) but cosmopolitan. I could go back there. And there was still more to see that we didn't get to. Not enough daylight this time of year.
Enjoy the pictures - they barely do it justice!
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