Riga, Latvia 10.07

We arrived in Riga, miraculously finding our way without any GPS, and only an internet printout of instructions of how to get to our hotel. We drove the wrong way down a one way street at one point, but nevertheless, Artur's navigation was successful. Our hotel was pretty basic, but it was located not too far from the city centre and the old town.

We decided to go for a walk around town, looking for a restaurant or cafe where we could have a drink. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be open. We found one coffee place, but they were closing just as we got there, so they only offered takeaway. We decided to keep looking, and we ended up on a street filled with casinos, bars and nightclubs, the only things that were still open at this time.
We found a fancy looking yuppie bar, which was better than a club, so we went inside. Our travel clothing and Artur's parents didn't really match the clientele that they seemed to be aiming for, but they served us anyway. A funny show on MTV was playing, called 'Strutter'. It was a funny, arrogant guy giving his opinion on lots of different things. It was muted, but there were a lot of captions that popped up, that helped us to figure out what was going on.
After our drinks, Artur's parents headed back to the hotel, and we decided to keep having a look around the city. We walked down one of the main streets, but we got bored quickly and headed back to the hotel. It's a miracle any of us survived the walk to and from the hotel, as the drivers in Riga were absolutely insane! They sped along the city streets like they were on a racetrack. This was one of the few cities where we didn't walk across the road if the light was red; to do so here would be suicidal.

Old Town Explorations
The next morning, we had our breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We packed the car, as we were planning to leave for Lithuania that evening, and there was no point leaving anything in the hotel. We drove to the old town, and found a park after a great deal of searching around. It was a lot harder than we hoped, as the one way streets kept thwarting our efforts.

Finally we made it into the old town, and decided to have a look at the St Peter's gothic cathedral. We were quite surprised by the shocking customer service by the people in Riga, not just in this church, but at every other place we went to that day. People act like they are doing you a favour when they sell you a ticket, and they generally have a sour disposition and bad attitude.
After some negotiation, we got our tickets for the tower of the cathedral. Thankfully this one had a lift, so it wasn't as hard as the last time in Tallinn. We enjoyed the view from the tower here as well, but the old town here was a lot more spread out, so it was less eye catching. After Tallinn, anything we saw would have to be fairly miraculous to top the view that we saw there.
The over the river was pretty, and there were a lot of modern buildings dotting the horizon. One building looked exactly like the Palac Kultury i Nauki in Warsaw, but it was smaller. No doubt another gift from Stalin. Another building looked like a modernised, sleek version of the Tour Eiffel.
Down in the church, we were surprised to see black speakers sticking out above many of the seats, and also old fashioned TV screens. They must be used to help people to see what's happening during the services, but we'd never seen anything like it in an old church before. It didn't quite fit in with decor.

Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
Our next stop was the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Once again, the service was shocking. There was an old lady at a desk that looked like a booth for collecting donations. Admission was free, but we could see that audio guides were available for hire, so we asked her where to get them from. She pointed upstairs, not bothering to even speak to us. We went upstairs and asked a man up there. He was young, and sounded gay, and he was very polite. He told us that they were downstairs, and escorted us down there; back to the same lady who was apparently responsible for the guides.

Finally with our guides, we made our way around the museum. There were recordings for everything, but you could skip parts if you wanted to move faster. We were fascinated by everything that we were hearing on the audioguide, so we tried to listen to everything. We weren't planning to spend very long there, but we kept calling Artur's parents to let them know that we'd be there for a little longer, and a little longer.
The museum was about the Russian occupation and takeover of Latvia. It described the gradual loss of power and independance of the people and government. It also documented the atrocities that the Soviets commited against the people of Latvia. It spoke about all the people who went missing, the hundreds of people who were resettled to camps in Russia, where they were forced to accept the Soviet ideologies and way of life. The idea was to take away the people's sense of nationalism, and to draw them into the United Socialist Soviet Republic.
The museum was very moving, and you began to understand what it was like to be taken over by Russia and forced to forget that your country ever existed. There were many people who refused to accept this fate, and joined resistance movements. Many people died in combat, and others were sought out and taken away to Russian camps.

The most effective weapon that the Latvians were able to use, to bring people together and remind them of who they were, was their music festivals. At these festivals, they would sing songs with underlying nationalist meanings, and occasionally they would sing traditional songs, but these were always suppressed by the Soviets. The festivals were innocent looking, but in reality, they were one of the main ways that people kept in touch with their passion for an independant Latvia.

Latvia´s flag during the Occupation

In the end, the way that Latvia slowly began to regain its independance, was through Michael Gorbachev's reforms. When he introduced Perestroyka, or freedom of economy. This change allowed a lot more freedom for everyone in the Soviet Republic, and over time, these changes led to the emancipation of many of the eastern european countries.

Change was slow though, and even when people had completed their allocated time in Russia, they were not allowed to go home immediately. It was very difficult for people who had been taken from their homes, to get back to Latvia.

The museum was very thought provoking, and for anyone who is interested in what happened to these countries, and how they got rid of their oppressors, this is the place to go. If you can make it past the lady at the front counter, you're in for an eye opening few hours.

Latvian Dance and Music FestivalNext we went to see the Dome Square, because we could hear music coming from there. We saw a huge stage set up there. The canopy over it was covered in flowers, artistically spread from the stage upwards. On the stage itself was an orchestra, and in front of it were lots of dancers in couples. The dancers were dressed in colourful traditional outfits, with wreaths of flowers around the girls heads. The dances were joyful and the music was exciting. There were tiered stands of seats set up for people to watch from, but they were so full that people were packed into the square standing and sitting in front of them, to watch.
We were all caught up in the excitement, so we pushed our way through the crowd, so that we could see the dancing. It finished just as we got there though, so we sat down on the ground, waiting for them to come back again. There were a few musical items first, but eventually the dancers came out and performed.
We were very impressed at how many young people were involved. You could see just how much pride people have in their traditions and their culture. Their patriotism seems to have been increased significantly by the times of oppression.

Dome Cathedral
We went to the Dome Cathedral next, as we were just next to it. It was very big, but we struggled to find its entrance. We managed to do a circle around the entire building before we found the door.

The Cathedral was the largest church in the Baltic region, and has a 6768 pipe organ, which was the biggest in the world when it was completed in 1884.

House of BlackheadsNext we visited the House of Blackheads, which sounds like a girls worst skincare nightmare. We tried to get in, but they told us to come back in an hour. We did so, and then were told by someone else that no one was allowed in. Eventually we convinced them that we'd been told to come back at this time, and they directed us to the ticket office in the giftshop. We came inside, but were told that we could only see the ground floor and the gallery on the top floor.

The House of Blackheads was built in 1344, and was the headquarters for the Blackheads Guild of Unmarried Foreign Merchants. The building was destroyed during WWII, then practically rebuilt from scratch.
In the basement, we saw the foundations of the building, and the rustic brick walls. They had some little rooms down there. with artifacts from the early times in Riga. There was a room set out with merchant's weighing equipment, chests for storage and lots of other little artifacts.
There were a lot of old sculptures on display as well. Some had been damaged at some point, with limbs missing, but they were still really beautiful.
We went to the top floor to see the gallery. It was a display of paintings from one artist. Each of the painting had simple names like, 'Peace', 'Sunshine', 'Passion'. The paintings were very large, and quite abstract when you looked at them from up close, but when viewed as a whole, you could see shapes forming amongst the wild colour.

On our way back down again, we decided to look at the other floors anyway. We just pretended not to know that we were on the wrong floor. It looked like they were just finishing cleaning up after a function, which was probably why the place was closed.
The main ballroom or hall that we walked into was spectacular. It had a shiny wooden floor, walls covered in paintings in gilded frames, and intricately detailed wallpaper. The ceiling was decorated with frescoes, and the areas around the frescoes were filled with stately patterns and fine details. Enormous chandeliers filled the air and beautifully shaped couches were placed around the walls. A grand piano stood in one corner, with a velvet cover over it that matched the curtains.
As we left the room, we saw a suit of armour that was placed in a wall display, as though protecting the impressive ballroom. There were also busts lining the walls of the stairs, looking down over everyone who passed through.

When we got to the ground floor, we realised that there was a whole area that we did not see. It was very interesting as well. There were lots of showcases holding trophies, platters and vases made of gold and silver, and lots of other valuable pieces. The valuable of all, no doubt, was the trophy of Latvia's victory in the Eurovision contest a few years prior.
One cabinet displayed what looked like ornate wooden boxes for holding playing cards. Most were painted with a portrait, probably of the person who used to own them. Others were just simple, but made of beautiful materials, or decorated only with a checkered print like those on Scottish kilts.

Latvian Lunch
We decided to look for somewhere to eat, but found only one place in the Lonely Planet guide which indicated that it might have traditional Latvian cuisine. We decided to check it out, and it turned out to be a buffet style restaurant. It was packed with people, so we figured that was a good sign.
The way the restaurant worked, was that you paid for everything that you chose, but you had a big range of food to choose from. If you wanted salad, you filled your plate at the salad bar, and they would weigh it to decide how much it was worth. Next you would go to the cooked dishes and grill section, and ask for whatever caught your fancy - each dish had a set price. Then you could choose cold drinks, juice, and pick up a desert if you wanted. Then at the end you showed your selection to the cashier, and paid accordingly.

It was pretty cool, as you could try a lot of different things in small portions. It was good for trying the cuisine of another country, because if you hated what you chose, you haven't wasted your entire meal. We were very happy with all the things that we tried, and the deserts were spectacular.

Riga Castle and Parliament House
Next we went to visit the Riga Castle, but we had trouble finding it. We saw the huge parliamentary building, which we think might have been where it was, but it was closed. It would have been interesting to see, as it had a few museums inside as well.
On our way back, we ran into a man selling paintings, who had a Polish flag hanging from his easel. We ended up talking to him for a while, about what it was like to live in Latvia, and about his work. He spoke Polish, but he didn't have a Polish accent. We found out that he was of Polish descent, but his family had actually lived in Riga for the last two centuries. He must either be very proud of his heritage, or just know that he would get a lot of Polish customers because of his language skills.

His ploy succeeded, and we ended up buying some paintings from him. The one that we chose was a picture of the building called the 'Cat House', and the one that Artur's parents bought was of the 'Three Sisters' buildings. Funnily enough, we hadn't visited these buildings yet, so we decided to go in search of them.

The Three SistersThe first one that we found was the Three Sisters, which were three very tall buildings all in a row. They apparently belonged to three sisters, but that could just be a story made up to entertain tourists. The houses were very pretty and worth seeing though.

The Cat HouseJust when we were about to give up, we saw the Cat House. It was such a cool building, Loren absolutely loved it. The roof of the building had metal silhouettes of cats standing on each of its corners. The cats had a kind of French black cat look to them, with their backs arched in a cartoon like fashion. They were such a great feature. We loved our painting even more once we saw the real building. We found the angle from which the painting would have been done. It looked slightly different in real life, as the painting had a magical, surreal feel to it. The buildings and shapes were interpreted as the artist saw them, not in an architecturally detailed, photo-style way.

Livu Laukums
We made our way to the Livu laukums, which is the main and busiest square of the Old town. It was really huge, and there were even pretty lawns all around it, with purple flowers decoratively planted in straight lines across the grass.
Around the outside of the square, there were tall, old buildings, lining the enormous square like walls. Most of them had been turned into shops or restaurants. Dotted all around the square, you could see beer gardens with hundreds of people chilling out in the shade of big umbrellas. It was probably the prettiest place in the whole of the Old Town.

We were feeling hot and thirsty, so we decided to stop for a while in one of the beer gardens. Loren had a refreshing Mojito, which Artur's mum tried and decided to get one too. The perfect refreshing drink for a hot day :)
Before we left the Old Town, we found a notebook for Artur, who had been looking for one for quite a while. He needed it for writing notes in about our trip. We were so thrilled when we found a leather bound notebook with the name Riga and a picture of a church in the Old Town indented into it. It was very olde world, and excellent quality.

Difficult Escape Route
Soon we headed back to the car, ready to leave for Lithuania. Unfortunately we had a bit of difficulty getting out of the city. Riga had absolutely no street signs to indicate how to get out of the city, or in what direction you might want to head, to get out of the country! We didn't have a detailed map, so we spent a good hour trying to figure out how to get out of the city. We even tried following a car for a while, in the hope that it was leaving the city too, but to no avail.

Loren had fallen asleep as soon as we got in the car, and when she woke up an hour later, she looked out the window to find that we were still driving along the same bridge that we were on when she fell asleep! After passing the huge Communist monument for the fourth or fifth time, the gentlemen decided it was a good time to invest in a map. It was a good purchase, and finally we were on the right path to get out of the unsigned city.

To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Riga pictures