Check in.

Stepping off the bus and leaving my bags I had a few hours to kill before check in. Being in the old town I ambled out into the streets and found myself immediately in the bosom of Latvia. This country certainly has had a troubled past. The German Knights first conquered Latvia in 1210 and dominated for several hundred years. Next came the Poles in 1561 bringing with them Catholicism followed by the Swedes in 1561 until the Great Northern War (1700-21) where Latvia became part of Russia. The Nazis had a brief but bloody period here from 1941 to 1945 where an estimated 175,000 Latvians where killed or deported. Barely any Jews remain in Latvia today. Latvia’s history is one of being dominated but never defeated morally with a history of popular resistance with many thousands of partisans offering up there lives for independence and self determination. When you walk the streets of Latvia you might be mistaken in thinking that these troubled times occurred long ago in other generations yet the sounds of Russian tanks heading down cobbled streets to put down the Latvian Popular Front and troops storming the Interior Ministry building as recently as January 1991 is still very vivid in the minds of Latvians as is the image of over two million Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians who formed a 650 klm human chain through these three countries on 23rd August 1989 to mark the 50th anniversary of Soviet occupation which was the catalyst in forming the Latvian Popular Front. On May 1 2004 Latvia became part of the EU. I have seen photos here of the people celebrating in the streets at the formal inclusion of the EU and you can see etched on the faces of the crowd a the huge emotional outpouring that there destiny had finally arrived.

So this city being invaded by the Russians, Nazis, Swedes and others I was sure they wouldn’t be too worried about one tried Aussie fresh off the bus, or perhaps not so fresh, looking for a coffee. Unlike Poland which has little kiosks punctuating the footpath at regular intervals and an endless collection of food outlets and stalls the streets in the old town Riga contained only sit down restaurants and upmarket cafes. My experience with these places is that although they sell coffee on the menu they are generally not too thrilled to serve an unshaven, slightly dishevelled and unwashed new arrival who just wants to sit and read his guide book while having just one cup of coffee. On further inspection of the displayed menus I noticed that this is not a bargain basement backpacker destination. Then again there were no chickens and pigs walking down the street or open sewers containing a cocktail of diseases just waiting to march. I suppose you get what you pay for. Riga is certainly not some third world backwater and you get a sense that it has moved a long way in a very short time. Apparently it currently has an economic growth rate of 13.9% What industrialised country wouldn’t envy that? The city is abuzz with activity. Mainly tourism and building from what I can see. Old buildings that haven’t seen a lick of paint or repairs for decades are being transformed, new buildings constructed, infrastructure overhauled and the public transport system being replaced with shinny new buses and trams. You can tell there is big money being poured into this country so it is not just the Latvians who have confidence in Latvia’s future and easy to understand why most Latvians look to the future with an optimism perhaps unique in its history.

I made my way to the subway and found a cake shop with a great range of extremely inexpensive cakes, slices and other delightful goodies. I then saw another shop selling beer wines and spirits again after calculation back to the aussie dollars was extremely inexpensive. Great, I can live on cakes and beer I thought! Alcohol is available everywhere here in Latvia. You can buy it at the supermarket, at the newsagent, service station and just about anywhere and there doesn’t seem to be any restrictions on drinking in public places as there is in oz. If you are ever in Riga you might like to try the 3.3 litre plastic bottle of beer with a screw top lid! There is something about drink or pouring beer from a plastic screw top bottle that I just can’t get my head around. Anyway, public drinking is everywhere. If you are on a train there’ll be people sitting drinking a beer, if you are sitting at a bus stop there’ll be someone drinking a beer, in the park, on the street corner, bus stop wherever. They even have little barrows in the park, much like the one’s you might see in Oz selling ice cream, with a keg hooked up to a beer tap. An alcoholic would probably see this place as heaven. I believe the only rule is that alcohol can not be consumed in public places after 10 PM.

Riga has a population of 790,000 and Latvia 2.3 million. Hardly a huge population and perhaps why various forces have thought this country might as well be theirs. Apparently one third of the population are Russian which is not inconsiderable. Interestingly there is very little Russian signage anywhere and there is not a lot of dual language labelling in the way the Canadians label everything in both French and English. There is not actually fighting in the streets between those with Russian heritage and others but you do notice a degree of distain. You hear stories of the later getting second grade service at hotels, restaurants and other places, that type thing. Curiously when reading labels on food packaging, doesn’t everyone, being a European economy there is generally information in a range of languages and interestingly Russian is often way down at the bottom. Is this perhaps a subtle put down? Am I reading too much into food labels?

Apparently according to my guide book Riga was once dubbed the ‘Paris of the East’ and after finishing my cake, and passing on the beer, I heading down to ‘Pilsetas Kanals’, a name I think sounds much better in Latvian than its English translation of ‘City Canal’, to investigate this bold claim. Now having never been to Paris and to give it a southern hemisphere slant, dam it the Piksetas Kanals is the Christchurch of the north! Or at least walking through the parkland I felt I could have been on the Mersey River in downtown Christchurch, NZ. I will put a couple of photos together one day to prove my point. Now, the second thing I noticed which was a real novelty, green grass. Yes, I know all grass is green but I am talking about thick lush juicy grass. The kind of grass we once had in certain parts of oz until about ten years ago. The kind of grass sheep and cows dream of. I was almost tempted to get down on all fours and roll in the stuff just to go back to my childhood where your mother would scold you for putting grass stains on your new cloths. I know most people go on holidays and bring back stories of mountains, churches, monuments and that kind of stuff but hell after years , dam it, decades of an unbreakable drought at home allow me one brief moment to get exited about lovely, fat, soft, juicy, succulent, deep green healthy grass. Ok, I’m over it now. I walked a few kilometres along the canal to the River proper crossed and came back on the other side . I was tempted to have a beer on my way back to the hostel yet there is something about drinking on a park bench alone which, regardless of the local custom, I couldn’t quiet come at and headed for some much needed sleep.