Riga!

Hello again!

We just arrived back from Riga, Latvia on the night train this morning after a fun two days there. We needed to leave the country in order to get new visas, which was the purpose of the trip, but we also enjoyed the chance to relax and see the sights as well! Amanda and I joined Jarod Z., another fellow teacher from IA, to make what everyone at school calls a "Riga run" for visas.

The seemingly never-ending process of getting a work visa in Russia now enters its next stage. Our new visas are only good through the middle of January and during that time we need to complete a range of medical tests and other things to get our final work visa that will allow us to stay for a year and travel in and out of country without restrictions (at the moment we can't leave the country and legally re-enter it due to the conditions on our new visas). All of this is part of the joy of working in Russia!

However, for all of the hassle that it is to get visas, the requirements do have their perks when it means that you get to travel to a beautiful city like Riga and enjoy getting outside of St. Petersburg for a few days. Riga is the third largest city on the Baltic Sea (behind our own St. Petersburg, and Stockholm, Sweden) and is home to over 700,000 residents. The ethnic makeup of the city is about evenly split between Latvians and Russians (a consequence of Latvia's rather tumultuous history particularly from 1918 forward), even though overall Latvian's make up 60% of the population of the country. However, it seems as if almost everyone speaks at least some English in addition to Russian and Latvian.

The hotel that we stayed in was in the center of the old city. With its narrow cobblestone streets and German-influenced architecture, this part of Riga looks like what most people think of when they visualize a European city. The center of the city is filled with remarkable architecture and has earned the city UNESCO world heritage site status (just like the center of St. Petersburg:-)). The hotel that we stayed in was a former convent and was very nice and very reasonably priced which was fortunate since Latvia also happens to boast the fourth most valuable currency in the world. Even though Latvia is a member of the European Union, they have so far yet to adopt the Euro and instead continue to use the lat as the national currency. Overall, prices are comparable to somewhere like Finland and are a bit higher than St. Petersburg's so it wasn't too bad, it was just a bit discouraging to change so many rubles into so few lats.

Being somewhere other than St. Petersburg was a nice change of pace, and I really enjoy traveling by train. The train ride to Riga takes about 13 hours, but this includes scheduled stops as well as the procedures that have to be done at the borders. Border officials for both Russia and Latvia simply board the train and come to your car to inspect your documents and stamp your passports. All you have to do is sleep until someone bangs on your door at 3 a.m. and asks to see your passport and make sure you aren't hiding any contraband in the storage areas:-)

Another benefit of a trip to Riga is a chance to buy a few hard-to-find items in Russia. For us, this meant that we could buy a couple of boxes of brownie mix, some KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce, some syrup, and some cheese dip mix. It was fun to see some familiar brands again! We also got the chance to grab a meal at T.G.I. Friday's for another dose of the familiar.

It seems as if every single storefront in the old part of the city is a restaurant or a cafe. Anyone interesting in bumming around coffee shops in Europe should make Riga a priority destination for the near limitless variety of places to eat that it offers in such a small area.

Of course we documented our time there with numerous photos, and here are some of the sites that we took in during our stay:


The entrance to the courtyard of Konventa Seta, a former convent that also has the hotel where we stayed. I would definitely stay there again and give a big thumbs up for the nice buffet breakfast that had surprisingly little fish for a breakfast in North-Eastern Europe.


A fairly typical street in the old part of Riga.


A bridge in a park covered in love padlocks. Married couples attach a padlock to the bridge as a symbol of their love and throw the key into the river.


Freedom Monument, commemorating those who fought to secure Latvian independence from Russia in the war of 1918-1920.


Me, standing by a window on the 24th floor of the Radisson Blu hotel in downtown Riga.


An Orthodox Church.


A street close to our hotel.


A statue of the Musicians of Bremen. Rub them for good luck!


The side of St. Peter's Church- a striking brick Lutheran church whose distinctive tall spire is a major landmark in the Riga skyline.


St. Peter's from the front, looking up at the steeple.


Close-up of the steeple. The second of three levels is an observation deck that you can pay to go up into and see a beautiful view of the city, which we did and took some great photos:


In addition to the Old World charm of the city center, Riga has some other striking sites including several notable bridges and a 1,200 foot tall television tower.


Another interesting bridge spanning the Daugava River that runs through the city.


Here you can see the central train station that we arrived and departed from!


Another aerial view of the city.


A train bridge.


The wind on the observation deck was UNBELIEVABLE! If it weren't for the iron grating I would have been afraid of being blown right off.


A statue in a nearby square. The spire of St. Peter's stands out once again in the background.


We walked down by the river and took some pictures.


Here's one for the family lore:-)


A shot by the river in the evening.


Hesburger! We ate at this Finnish fast-food restaurant twice. Hesburger is a fairly shameless imitation of McDonalds (their signature burger, the Hesburger, is virtually indistinguishable from the Big Mac in appearance, although it does taste different). Hesburger has locations all throughout Finland and the Baltic States. Unfortunately, both of its Russia locations are in Moscow.


An illuminated bridge at night.


Riga claims to be the birthplace of the Christmas tree and is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the first public Christmas tree in the city this year.


A fascinating museum that we went to. It chronicles the forced integration of Latvia into the Soviet Union as well as its occupation by the Nazis during World War II.


A Latvian ice cream parlor we visited. I'm not sure what the Latvian pronunciation is, but reading it phonetically in English is rather amusing:-) Don't worry, no one got sick and the ice cream was good!


On the train ride back, Jarod wanted to see if he could fit in the luggage compartment. This of course meant that we all had to try...





What can I say, sometimes after being the teacher all day, you just need to cut loose a bit:-)

Well, now are mini-vacation in Riga is over and its time to get back to work.

Keep checking back!

-Matt