Baltic Explorations: Latvia

In my last blog post I mentioned wishing for better weather - well it's safe to say that that definitely has not happened! I am currently holed up in a hostel in Liepaja while the (constant) rain pours down. As much as I am glad to get the opportunity to travel to a new part of the world, that's completely different to the rest of Europe, unfortunately, the weather has let me down in a big big way!

Riga

Anyway, I will try to hold back on the weather complaints while I describe the time I have spent in Latvia. First stop was Riga, it was here that Michael had to leave me and fly home to London (which made me very sad). Lucky for me, not long after we arrived at our hostel I started playing cards with some British 'lads' on a stag night and met a super fun Dutch girl - which led to a fairly big night out (they weren't as fun as Michael but I will take what I can get!).

Above: some early morning selfies that I took of one of the British boys and Nynke - my favourite Dutch person! Not the most flattering photos but at least I know I had fun that night!

Nynke and I also decided it would be a bloody great idea to sing some karoke in the early hours of the morning - Call Me Maybe has never sounded so rough but the crowd seemed to like it!

The following days (after I recovered post-hangover) were spent wandering around Riga and relaxing - Michael left me special instructions to 'relax' and 'do nothing' for as much time as possible. 

Since I was exploring solo (Matt was working hard at the hostel), this meant that my selfie skills were gonna get a work out - they are not great yet but I think they are improving. The above photos are of me in front of the Freedom Monument of Riga, this honours the soldiers that were killed during the Latvian War of Independence (in the early 1900s), it is symbol of independence for Latvia and can be seen from many locations in this small city. 

Above: The Riga Nativity of Christ Cathedral, the largest Orthodox church in Latvia. 

I had to take advantage of the brief moment of lovely sunshine and lie down in the park - I have missed the sun and it was great to sit in the sunshine and soak in some rays (even if it only lasted about an hour). 

The weekend we were in Riga happened to be the Riga City Festival - this was kind of cool because it meant that the city was filled with people and there were heaps of different activities happening - from 24 hour basketball tournaments, street food, markets, sailing races, concerts and outdoor cinema. 

Right next to the park there was a really cool local style market happening - lots of vendors were selling handmade goods.

Below you can see all the little stalls lined up next to each other. 

I couldn't help but stopping to watch the Latvian dancing that was happening on the street - Latvian dancers were recruiting members from the crowd to dance with them, thank god they didn't ask me! It was really fun to watch though!

Just chilling by the river and watching some sailing races - they were quite far away so it was hard to tell what was happening - most people were standing on the bridge in the background to get a better look.

Next: the Old Town. 

The Old Town of Riga didn't have quite as much of a genuine feel as the Old Town in Tallinn - it is very popular for stag/bachelor weekends and there are heaps of pubs, bars and clubs that target young people looking for a good night (not that I was complaining when I went out). There were also lots of major franchises (ie. H+M, Costa Coffee etc), which caused a sort of lack of authenticity. 

It was still fun to explore - it was really big and easy to get lost just wandering around. 

The building on the left is the Riga Cathedral and the red brick building on the right is called the House of the Blackheads - it is where the current Latvian president resides when in Riga. 

As per Michael's recommendation, I found an amazing little coffee shop (with good wifi), ordered a coffee and cake and read my book for a few hours - relaxing!

Liepaja

From the city of Riga we caught a bus to the seaside town of Liepaja (the name of which is impossible to pronounce as every Latvian seems to pronounce it differently). Liepaja is located on the west coast of Lativa and is the third largest city in Latvia (which is strange as it seems tiny), according to my research it is also known as the 'city of wind,' although, I think they should re-name it to the 'city of rain' since that is all that has happened since we have arrived. 

After our arrival we headed out for a late lunch - one of the guys that worked at the hostel recommended a restaurant called Pastnieka Maja (The Postman's House), which actually turned out to be an amazing recommendation. 

Scroll down quickly if you are not interested in food porn.

I ordered Liepaja's official dish: Liepajas Mencini (smoked cod fish stew) and it was absolutely amazing! It was a potato/cod strew with leeks, mushroom and onion - there must have been something else in there because it was absolutely delicious!

After being fairy impressed with our meals, we both ordered a chocolate brownie for dessert - it was DELICIOUS! The food in the Baltic's has definitely been impressive. 

The following day, despite the rain, I was determined not to let the weather ruin my fun and set off a mission of exploration. 

The first random thing that I ran into was the 'Tree of Ghosts' - this is a musical tree (you press and button and it plays music and lights up at night) that is dedicated to one of Liepaja's famous rock bands (can't say I'd ever heard of them).

While there was a [short] break in the rain I wanted to check out the beach, there was a little wooden board walk leading through the park and down the the beach.

On the way to the beach there were heaps of these cool, colourful, wooden signs - I tried to take some lovely selfies with them but it was windy and starting to rain, which has resulted in less than flattering selfies (I apologise in advance for what is to come!),

Volia! The 'famous' sandy beach of Liepaja. 

The beach itself is actually beautiful - unfortunately the weather has ruined my potentially amazing Baltic beach holiday!

Some more beach boardwalk selfie fun. 

I really did love these colourful signs. 

I wish the weather had allowed me to have some beach time!

From here, the wind picked up and the weather started to get a little nasty so I started to make my way back through the park and towards the town of Liepaja - the upside of the horrible weather is that I had the whole park to myself!

Top right: The Swan Pond. 

All around the city of Liepaja there are these little musical notes (below right), you are supposed to walk around the city and follow the music notes to all the different tourist sights and attractions. I tried to do this but only got about half way before the rain scared me off!

Above: the musical notes led me to Liepaja's very own walk of fame aka. the Latvian Musicians Walk of Fame - apparently Liepaja is a town known for producing a lot of musicians and they are honoured on this street (once again, I have not heard of any of them haha!). 

Umbrella selfie fun - trying to keep up the positive vibes, despite the rain getting worse!

Above: Rose Square is the heart of Liepaja - walking tours depart from here everyday. 

Above: on the right is the main street of Liepaja - almost deserted thanks to the nasty weather. Also, this cool mural that we had to walk past to get to our hostel - more homage to the artistic vibes of Liepaja. 

After wandering around in the rain for most of the day, I finally decided to take refuge in a cafe and fortunately I found an awesome one to spend the afternoon.

I had another good coffee and lunch, following by an amazing piece of cheese cake and a kindle reading session - a lovely 'relaxing' way to spend an afternoon (also, dry and with free wifi haha).

On our second day in Liepaja, the rain had not stopped.... Matt and I had decided to head to Karosta (a suburb of Liepaja, which translates literally to 'war port'), which has a really interesting military history - including a prison and lots of abandoned military infrastructure - most of which has been left untouched and is able to be explored. 

Unfortunately, the hideous weather did not allow for much exploring so we settled for heading to Karosta prison (in our heads this was going to be mostly an indoor expedition... but we got very wet in the process of getting there!). 

I really wanted to include this photo of the not so welcoming entrance - the signs told us that it was open but it didn't entirely look that way! Note: the little green lily pads that you had to stand on to get through the puddle. 

Karosta Prison was built in 1990 as an infirmary but was mostly used as a military prison / barracks for soliders - it was often used to punish soliders who were disobedient.

Matt and I watched a short video that detailed the history of the region of Karosta - this whole area was used by various armies between 1900 and 1997 and the surrounding area housed army wives and families, for almost 50 years the entire area was closed to the citizens of Liepaja and only accessible to army personnel. We also took a tour of the prison - I would like to say that I learned a lot on the tour... but unfortunately the tour guide spoke incredibly quickly and didn't see the need for punctuation. Unfortunately, we both found him very difficult to understand and weren't able to take in a lot of information. 

The small amount of knowledge I did acquire goes as follows: Karosta prison was used by 7 different armies during the years it was in use - including the Soviet Union and even the Nazi's during WW2 - hundreds of prisoners were killed (most were shot), the Nazi's killed Latvian soldiers who they had labelled as 'deserters.'

We visited the solitary confinement room, which soldiers were made to walk laps around (while counting a specific number of steps) or to stand at the door for long periods of time, above the door is written "izeja no elles," which translates to "exit from hell" - creepy! The prison itself is said to be one of the most haunted places in Europe (as proclaimed by Ghost Hunters International) and people have supposedly seen light bulbs unscrew themselves, doors open and the sound of chains echoing down the hall way. 

Oh - and you can actually spend the night here and get a full Karosta Prison experience - including eating like a prisoner and having guards yell at you or make you do brutal exercises over night - it sounded pretty intense (I value my sleep so I don't think this was an experience for me haha!). I got the following information from the Karosta website:

'You will get to sleep in a room that is iron made and this will include the iron bars.  

'Each room is very simple. All you see is a bed, a small dresser and toilet. It is just like an actual prison. With a closed door, you can eat the meal that prisoners used to eat. 

'However, this will be done once you have signed an agreement regarding their contract conditions about your stay at this hotel. 

'The agreement in staying at the Karosta Prison includes rules like that you should follow their orders and allowing to be insulted and be treated like a prisoner within your stay. 

'[If] you disobey their orders, they will force you to do physical exercise or do the cleaning works.'

Anyway, hopefully that summarises some of the history of Karosta Prison - I would really like to learn more about the history of the Baltics - in particular Soviet Occupation and Nazi invasion, I think it would be really dark but also really interesting. 

Tomorrow, we head off to the beach town of Klaipeda in Lithuania - my final Baltic country, once again, I hope that the weather improves, I would be happy with even one day at the beach at this point!

Here's to sunny weather and Baltic travels :-)

xx