Since my
absence a lot has happened…between travelling and midterms I didn’t have time
to write a blog so Ill try to make this one good.
About two weeks ago I went to Riga. Riga is the capital of Latvia and one
of the major Baltic cities. Most
people I have talked to have never heard of Riga, or if they have don’t express
much of an interest in visiting.
However, I found Riga to be one of the best cities I have ever been
to. That is not to say everyone
would enjoy it as much as I did since it has a very different culture than
other European cities. I chose to
go to Riga after studying it in my Soviet Architecture class. Had we not talked about Riga in my
class I probably wouldn’t have thought to go to Riga and therefore am so glad I
chose that class.
While in Riga I went on a tour where I learned a lot about
the history of Latvia (which I think is overlooked in history classes). Latvia was occupied by both the Soviet
Union and Nazi Germany. The
architecture and layout of the city is interesting because you can visually see
both of these influences. On the tour we went to the Museum of Barricades,
which explains how Latvians fought for their liberation by using concrete
barricades to fight and block the Soviet Union. There was a video of after they gained independence and the
removal of the giant statue of Lenin.
Living in Saint Petersburg I am used to seeing massive Lenin statues but
I don’t often think about what it must have been like to just wake up one
morning and cross a giant statue on your way to work. Once we left the museum we went to where the statue of Lenin
stood and I tried to imagine if it was still there and how different the square
would have felt. One of the main
sights in Riga is the Freedom Monument.
They commemorate their freedom by placing flowers at the bottom of the
monument because when the Soviet Union was in power they would have been
deported to Siberia for doing such a thing. I was fortunate enough to be passing the monument when a
group of young Latvians sang and danced around the monument and then laid
flowers. I asked the tour guide if
it was a special day or something and she simply said, “No, they do it because
they can”. On another note the
tour ended at a bar where we each received a free shot of the country’s special
liquor. It was a 40% brown goo
that tasted disgusting but it was freezing so I gladly welcomed its warming
affect as I swallowed it.
Later after a Latvian dinner of kebab and potatoes we went
back to our hostel “Fun Friendly Franks Hostel” and enjoyed our complementary
beer (great hostel right?). That
night we went on a pub-crawl that the hostel organizes. The first pub we went to was probably
my favorite because there was a live band that played/sung traditional Latvian
folk music. Whether you are a fan
of folk music or not you can’t help enjoy the lively atmosphere it
creates! What I loved about Latvia
(or at least Riga) was how everyone loved to sing and dance…when I say dance I
mean like swing/folk dance. I
can’t say I’m the best swing dancer but I at least I know how to laugh at
myself. Throughout the next couple
of days we went to the Museum of Occupation, the Jewish Museum, the Central
Market, Alberta Street, and wandered the cobblestone streets of the old
city. I could probably write
several pages on Riga but for your sake Ill stop now.
Next. This past
weekend my program made a trip to Novgorod. Novgorod is the oldest city in Russia. Basically there are a lot of churches,
monasteries and of course the Kremlin.
I can imagine that Novgorod is very pretty in the summer but going in
gloomy April wasn’t the most exciting trip I have ever been on. Not only that, but the atmosphere of
Novgorod still feels very soviet in the sense that it’s very quite and you’re
never really sure where the people are.
If you were passing Novgorod on a trip I would say stop by and see the
Kremlin but otherwise it would not be a place I recommend.
Lastly, I decided to stay in Saint Petersburg for the
summer!! I will be continuing my Russian studies at Smolny University and also
be teaching English. I started
teaching English this week to pre-intermediate students twice a week. So far its been an interesting experience
but I can already tell that I gaining some skills from it!
