Baltic adventure and Czech Button and Bead Tour - 2014: May 6

Armed with a map we could not read, and no GPS, we set off for down town old Riga which is a UNESCO world heritage site to see the architecture and do a little shopping.

Starting out in Jumala the road signs were very clear: A22/E65 Riga - which matched the map. Our landlord had marked the map so we knew where we were going. Things rapidly deteriorated into chaos as we approached Riga. The traffic became terribly congested and all road signs vanished! (It felt like WW2 England when all the signs were removed to confuse the Germans who might be invading). Apparently the Latvians are anticipating the Russians coming. (joking, but every person we spoke to was concerned about this crisis in the Ukraine and that it might happen here, neither Russian nor Latvian wanted Russia to invade and take over Latvia).

Another interesting tidbit we uncovered was that only Latvian nationals can hold down a government job, while mostly ethnic Russians are waiters, shop clerks, shop owners, mechanics, etc…
One Russian we met said it was corruption by the Latvians in getting their Latvian friends and family into these choice government jobs and keeping the Russians out. Another Russian said it was just government policy since 1991 independence to hire Latvians for government work only. And that it was official government discrimination against ethnic Russians regardless of if they were Latvian born.

Our first stop was the National Archives where J-Me had a 10 o'clock appointment. We drove past the building on the wrong road and into downtown madness, turned around and tried again on the right road (we think) found it but in the wrong lane to park, drove around again but now in the right lane, parked and walked 2 blocks to the building. We made our appointment by 10 minutes late but everything was good. And the visit was very successful.

Then we drove back into Vecriga (Old Town Riga) and found free parking as directed by our landlord Ainars Radovics (who is a 5 book published author on historical Latvia) and hit the streets on foot.

The Monument of Freedom

The Powder Tower

Riga old town is fabulously beautiful. Hundreds of years of wonderful architecture from medieval castles to Swedish style buildings to art nouveau to modern.

Can you Believe there is even a McDonalds?

A medieval restaurant

Cobbled winding streets and open squares filled with cafes and street vendors. The street vendors had many different handicrafts; ceramic beads, pendants, hand made linen tablecloths, placemats and napkins, wood items; such as toy trucks, hot pads, spoons, and of course amber jewelry. Because the tourist season is still a month away the streets and shops and cafes were not busy. The street artists were hungry, but deals were not forthcoming. It was full price or nothing. Several gallery shops were stuffed full of amber that were gorgeous, but again full high retail only, as expected. We only found one antik store open for business and we bought some small traditional Latvian cloak ornaments (Satka) at a good price.

Handmade wood hotplate

Colorful handmade Ceramic flutes

Vendor selling amber Jewelry

Construction work was going on everywhere, both in Riga and Jurmala. For that past 23 years they have tried to catch up to help make their country look good again, but then the global economic crisis hit them as well. Some building had sat in ruin for 80 years or more and are now being bought by new owners and renovations have started. We can see that in the next 5 years that many buildings will look very good again. And then once the economy recovers, many buildings will be re-sold and re-built. It is nice to be able to see it now and then hopefully, we will be able to see it again once it looks shiny again.

About 4 o'clock we were getting tired and it was starting to get cold, so we made our way back to the car and entered the flow of traffic out of the city and back to our cottage in Jurmala. Rush hour traffic is the same everywhere. Luckily, the authorities who removed or neglected to install road signs into Riga failed to do the same leaving Riga and we had no problem finding our way home.

But on the way back home, J-Me had one more stop to make. She had to see an old church which several of her relatives were married at. First, we have to find it. Remember, we said they removed a lot of the street signs. Well, we finally found it.