Blogs from Latvia, Europe - page 3

We are in Riga, Latvia now, another pretty Baltic city in whose Old Town I searched and searched for Echinacea tincture since the bottle I brought from home is now almost totally empty. I don't dare stop taking it, as many people on our tour are still quite sick and continue to infect others. No one wants to be sick, either on tour or on our long flights home, so I want to continue taking it prophylactically. I must have asked at ten or even twenty shops, by pointing to a photo of the Echinacea flower on small boxes of loose tea, and saying "tinctura," but had no luck at all. Most shopkeepers spoke no English, and my Latvian only covers "hello" and "thank you," so these were difficult and frustrating interactions. I was also hunting ... read more

On the way today from Lithuania we visited the Hill of Crosses. One of those “if I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t have believed it” moments. The hill began as an alter for Pagan rituals worshipping nature but when Lithuania concerted to Christianity people started to bring crosses. It is a site where people met during periods of danger. People place crosses there for any special occasion such as births, deaths, marriage. During the Soviet occupation it became a symbol of Christian resistance and the crosses were repeatedly bulldozed and raw sewage was left on it a number of times but each time the locals cleaned it up and then the Soviets gave up. Some wit had placed a special message for Harry and Meaghan’s marriage. Crossed the border into Latvia and our next stop was ... read more

Today was the first day it was beautiful outside - sunny and in the 40s/50s. ? We had very little time in Tallinn, Estonia today before we checked-out and the bus drove us down the coast of Estonia into Riga, Latvia. Our bus has huge glass windows so it’s like being in a convertible – you can see all the landscape, stores, homes, vehicles, etc. It was only a four hour drive but we stopped a couple of times along the way at odd little shops selling strange souvenirs and terrible food. Kamie purchased lunch at one of the stops - soup which included tomatoes, green olives, what looked to be cutup hot dogs, some type of beef and red sausages…all in this one bowl full of orange grease floating everywhere. I swear he will try ... read more

After our 4 day relaxation and ready to hit the road again so off we go to Latvia our first stop is Riga. I had never hear of it before we decided to see the Baltic Countries. So let me tell you our experience of Riga and what we thought of it. We were told that Riga was dirty with lots of graffiti, but what we found was something totally different and unexpected. What we found was a beautiful friendly old mixed with new city, with narrow streets and antique buildings. I love the pedestrian-only old town makes it easy to walk around without the concern of buses, cars and trucks and poop in and out of the many shops and stop for a beer at one of it's many little street pubs. We chose to ... read more

On arrive à Riga par un pont enjambant la Daugava, affluent de la Baltique et tout de suite je suis saisie par l'architecture éclectique, mêlant à la fois Art nouveau (environ 800 bâtiments de la ville) et gothique slave des églises. Seule influence byzantine: la cathédrale orthodoxe de la Nativité avec ses dômes dorés qui brillent de tous leurs feux en cette fin d'après-midi ensoleillée. L'influence des invasions tantôt polonaise, tantôt suédoise même allemande, mais plutôt soviétique éventuellement, forme une chronologie plutôt désordonnée très visible sur l'ensemble des monuments de la ville dont beaucoup ont été détruits durant les deux grandes guerres mais reconstruits par la suite. On ne peut que remarquer la froideur des bâtiments communistes qui détonnent allègrement à côté des autres, nous rappelant l'appartenance de la Lettonie à l'URSS jusqu'en 1991. D'ailleurs les ... read more