Consistency explained.
Riga. (For the help of German customs officers it is the capital city of a country you have invaded more times than a Bush has landed troops in the Middle East.)
There are moments when the daunting prospect of Russia looms like a particularly ugly and imposing apartment block. In being asked about the trip, leading up to departure, I always answered that I didn’t know what was planned which was true enough but now the only real known part was behind me. These nervous feelings were hardly quashed by my first experience with Russo-like officiousness which occurred in the very first experience being the local bus into town from the airport. The conductor, a true stereotype of a short, shapelessly round old woman dressed in unflattering trousers and shirt covered with an apron; perches on a stool halfway down the bus from where she is expected to manage the ticketing process. This is not as easy as it sounds as, even through this is the one bus from the airport into the city and so totally full with people and baggage from the outset, it was also expected to make frequent stops along the way. The little conductor lady would then yell at the entering passengers for the 0.40 lat fare and attempt to pass them a ticket from the book pinned to her uniform. All of this was taking place in front of my nose wedged as I was between the stool, my bag, four other bags and half a dozen people; Arny and Rdoc had managed a seat. Oh yeah, the bag. Thanks to the Dutch girl with the Indian sized suitcase who pissed off the conductor by handing over a 20 lat note for which there wasn’t enough change and so a baggage charge was created to facilitate the transaction and which was then enforced on all of us surrounding the incident.
Milda the Freedom Monument at night.
It’s a good sign about a hostel when you walk in the front door and there are about twenty crates of empty bottles filling the entrance way. Then you work out how they make their money when the bar charge 2 lats a beer when a bed for the night costs 5. Apparently the building is historically listed which fits mainly if you consider historical to mean falling down. This action also fits with the actual historic feature being the staircase, I’ve seen walls that were less vertical.
If Russia is going to destroy my liver it will only be because I’ve escaped the Baltic before having a heart attack. Tonight’s local cuisine consisted of fried potatoes served in an ever expanding puddle of oil, a piece of cheese covered pork that tastes as though it has been deep fried for most of the afternoon, all covered with the thickest, creamiest mushroom sauce imaginable. Then a side of mayonnaise soaked cabbagey stuff. The travelers truism about boys losing weight while away may be about to be disproved. Finding that the “not too bad at all” local beer is a quarter the price of the hostel bar at the supermarket we stock up and head back to sneakily drink it. Well there was no need to be surreptitious after all as by this time Frank’s had been taken over by a group of seventy German high school students and their teachers all of whom were now noisily getting stuck into the Zeltas. I try to imagine the furore back home if our school trips had been like this and then just put it down to one more reason why Europe is so superior to the rest of the world.
There is a rather appealing symmetry to the way the itinerary for this trip has worked out. Firstly it is going to be interesting visiting countries that were previously part of the Soviet Union (Latvia, Estonia), or have complicated histories (Finland), and seeing how all three of these former members of the empire are getting on. I imagine it will be kind of like teenagers pretending that they are not at all influenced by their parents as they strive to assert their independence. Then we will move onto the central axis of imperial power and glory in whatever state it now exists and start a personal exploration into that unsolvable question that is ‘what is Russia?’ Before seeing how much effect distance from St Petersburg and Moscow has in relation to this question and those descendants of those cast into exile across the Urals.
Two places we visited today illuminate the initial enquiry quite nicely. First up after going par-Daugava, or to the other side of the Daugava river, was the soaring Soviet Victory – or in local terminology Rapists – Monument with its truly enormous ‘our lady of victory’ and jubilent soldiers flanking a soviet star topped obelisk. It was only on visiting the Occupation Museum that the unloved feeling, two bedraggled wreaths notwithstanding, that exuded from this supposed celebration of liberation was able to be grasped. There is no denying the fact that the Red Army did save Europe from the Germans, which is what the SVM is a commemoration of, but the local population were hardly looking for one occupier to replace the other. From the displays the impression is that it was a lot less trying being a part of the USSR than the Third Reich but that the main reason for a higher level of resentment towards the former is the length of time of occupation and also proximity of time. Museums such as this do get quite tiresome though with their blatant pandering to their perception of Western European ideals. Statements such as ‘and then the Latvian people were free to return to democracy…democracy…freedom…democracy’ as though this had been the natural state of political organisation in the area for the majority of its history or an idea formed here.
Me, Rdoc and a lady that’s not Arnika.
Here comes the hot stepper.
A quick detour through the Central Tirgums (market) to see if there is any clothing or souvenir bargains to be had. There aren’t. Lots of plastic carrier bags though which are bought as status symbols and to disguise the true nature of your shopping. Underwear is another popular item, some used some new. Arnika was also keeping an eye out for some veges for dinner later but was put off by the aggressive nature of the stall owning babushkas who had a good line in three toothed leers that was mildly disconcerting. This was but a brief introduction into the dual nature of Riga as the exit we took was the one that led straight into Moskachka the sector just a few minutes from the old city but where most of the inhabitants still think they are in Russia. Besides Stalin’s Birthday Cake this was also the area where we found some quite cool art installations like the conglomeration of old fashioned metal voice amplifiers painted with the Chinese flag faced with an equal number of machine gun silhouettes. Something about free speech I would imagine.
Happy Birthday To You, Mr General Secretary.
One of the most important factors in assessing the appeal of a country is the attractiveness of the local population. As a part of Team Weltmeisterschaft a couple of years ago we vaguely termed this consistency. The basic premise is that in general being around a city what percentage of those you encounter are appealing and operating on a plus/minus system with an adjustment made for how hard you have to look to put together a sample size. It’s very scientific. You will hardly find it a surprise that on that World Cup jaunt Denmark came out well on top with a score of 8. Being a quick adopter of new technology and recognising a particularly elegant and useful device Rdoc enthusiastically joined in, Arnika not so much which is fair enough cos the men were definitely not worth looking at. Riga is definitely making a good attempt on the top spot. Some initial observations; high proportion of young people; Arnika is continually rolling her eyes and complaining that the women dress like prostitutes as though that’s a bad thing even if it were true which it isn’t – high heels, immaculate hair and makeup doesn’t make you a hooker though quite how they manage to walk on the ‘artistically’ laid cobblestones is amazing. As a compromise we agreed on maybe your high end escort rather than the lower Manchester St that she was set on. A definite negative was the quite disturbing shade of orange that was predominant, if you want to make a lot of money open a tanning salon in Riga.
Consistency – 6.5
Tags: architecture, food, hostel life, Latvia, market, museum, Riga
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