More Ligo in Riga...

Latvia it seems celebrates Summer Solstice more than it does any other holiday -- several days of festivities and on the 23rd and 24th most places are closed and people leave town to go to the countryside.

Well, except those left in Riga celebrating at the huge herb and flower markets (it IS a pagan holiday after all).

Here are a few views of the festivities in Dome Square.













Many more photos on Flickr! Click on any of these pix and it will take you to the collection in Flickr.

Later I went to the huge Soviet-built Academy for Scientific Study (which houses offices of things like folklore and various science groups -- not museums or anything)...





The draw here is that it is 17 stories tall and for a couple of Lats (around $4) you get to go to one of the tallest points in Riga and look down!









After that I went to one of the Jewish memorials a few blocks away. Formerly a synagogue, it was burned to the ground with all the congregation, another sad reminder of Nazi atrocities in East Europe.









That was all from Wednesday. Yesterday I wandered around a bit more to make sure I had seen all I could see in Riga, then went back to the hotel (in the rain again) and packed.

This morning I left Riga and came to Vilnius, Lithuania, where I was greeted by more rain! What's up with that?? I will be here for the next 6 days then back to the U.K. for a couple of weeks then home! Whew!

Welcome to Latvia! BYOTP!

No that isn't a word in Latvian or Russian... it is Bring your own Toilet Paper! That is if you go to any of the toilets in shopping areas or stations because you pay your 15 or 20 sentimes (Latvian cents) and then the lady points to a roll from which you have to decide ahead of time how much paper you will need and then you get to go into a stall. Luckily I always carry tissues with me and now I am stocking up with more!

So now I am in Riga, Latvia. The look and feel of this city is so different from Tallinn.





People don't smile so much and look like they have had a harder life.



And there is graffiti EVERYWHERE!





You cannot look in any direction at any building and not see some graffiti.



Reminds me Prague away from old town. Tallinn in Estonia had a fair amount of graffiti but Riga just amazes me. I haven't spent time in Old Town yet and am just exploring away from the tourist areas first so it may be different where there is more tourist money.

Today I spent a little time at the HUGE Central Market complex -- each of these rounded buildings houses a different product -- one for meats, one for cheeses, etc.



The fruit and veggies are mostly outside.



I actually didn't get a lot of photographs today and will go back for more in the next few days. I mostly wanted to walk around and get a feel for this new City.

Toto, we are NOT in Kansas anymore!

Market day and faded glory...

Yesterday was the day to go to the Sunday market held a few tram stops away from Old Town Tallinn.



You can see some of the block-style apartment buildings in the background. I was told those were mostly built when Estonia was part of the USSR as cheap (or free) housing for workers. Utilitarian then. Today (according to the young woman at my hotel) most Estonians want to leave them and go to other (nicer) housing and so mostly Russian families and older people live in them now.



It was probably not a whole lot different than it has been for the last 40 years.





Mostly Russians, a lot of old people, and not too many people happy with a tourist taking photos! I was told not very nicely not to take pictures inside the meat/cheese/deli hall (which was the most interesting).





So I focused on outside and marveled at aside from hearing Russian everywhere and items per kilogram in Euros it really didn't feel that different from our Sunday Farmer's Market at home.



Here is your dill Andy!



So after that I wandered around some of the back streets away from the tourist area and found the "other side" of Tallinn.



The faded glory of urban decay and reminders of Soviet building booms -- all the huge block apartments and buildings now falling apart.





Past gas stations (wow gas is 25 Euro cents cheaper here than in London or Dublin where I saw up to 1.60 Euro -- PER LITER!). You do the math (makes our $4 a gallon look cheap in comparison!)...



And finally back towards Old Town and stopped into a cafe for a latte.