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iamlordmoldyshorts · 7 years

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I signed up long ago to receive travel tips and discounts through Travel Zoo. It wasn’t until recently that I actually took them up on an offer and decided to visit Riga, Latvia…because why the hell not?

Booked well in advance, it didn’t occur to me until I’d landed in Latvia that I’d be there during both the Trump inauguration and the Women’s March. As a result, this blog will contain many of my emotions/thought processes in addition to the standard fare of pictures containing my experiences in my very first Baltic country.

If that’s not your cup of tea, feel free to see yourself out and return for my next blog: Berlin! Any political commentary on either side of the equation in the comments will be deleted. Consider yourself warned. :)

I landed in Riga at “night”(damn, it gets dark early!) and saw real live snow on the ground. As a Texas girl who has spent considerable time in Jerusalem, Israel and Miami, Florida this was a real treat for me. So what do I do?

Snow selfie!

I asked a handy nearby fellow for directions to the bus and went to wait at the stop where I witnessed a grown-ass man rolling around in the snow, making snow balls behind the bus stop. See? I’m not the only one excited about seeing snow!

After an hour long bus ride and a twenty minute walk to my hotel, I settled a bit and went out to find dinner at about 8:30.

Whilst traveling, I tend to splurge a bit on food. I like to taste cuisine like the locals do. Often times, I’ve found, that doesn’t actually mean eating the local cuisine (as you’ll see from my large variety of meals in Latvia.)

For my first meal, I wound up at KID*, an extremely cozy Italian restaurant that had the strangest and best music selection of any restaurant I’ve ever been to…full stop. I was serenaded by a Nicki Minaj/Sir Mix Alot Anaconda/Baby Got Back crossover on banjo and a four-string jazz version of Eleanor Rigby. Also, the food wasn’t bad either. ;)

I headed back to my hotel afterwards because while I don’t mind traveling by myself, I do have some manor of common sense about walking around alone in the dark at night in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language.

Upon returning to my room, I decided to do a bit of research regarding the Latvian impression of Trump, considering the time of my visit coincided with his taking office. I’ll admit, I was slightly concerned that I’d be a lone blue swimming in a sea of red. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly, when you actually take more than a second to think about it,) Latvia (and Latvians) are most definitely not fans of Donald Trump.

In fact, upon doing some research, I discovered that Latvians fear what Trumps presidency means for Europe and are preparing for the worst.

“Unlike any other president before him, Trump has declared he would not necessarily challenge Russian aggression – particularly in the Baltic states. […] Many feel that just as the situation in Ukraine became something that the world could wilfully ignore, without the threat of US interference, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania could face a similar future.” Source

So I guess I wasn’t alone in my displeasure of the upcoming day. But beyond that, in my irrational mind with a constant mantra of “You’re a lone American female in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language,” I was a little fearful to be in such close proximity to Russia on January 20th. (Did I say irrational? Hindsight shows that thought process to be stupid. He wasn’t going to do anything on Day 1. Obviously.)

I turned on the television to try and calm my mind a bit only to discover that my channel options were rather intriguing. Between English, Latvian, and Russian, my channel options were limited to National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and poorly dubbed Disney Channel. Jade Fever it is!

Day 1

The first day out and about in Latvia’s capital city of Riga was layered in a dense fog. Not to be deterred, I set out to do all the things!

The architecture looked…sparse but decorated at the same time. Honestly, most of it looked like it was still part of the Soviet bloc, very minimalist and concrete. But I could also see where they were trying to build and differentiate as well.

Early morning courtyard filled with snow.

Riga Central Station and also a huge mall.

Made it to the hop-on/hop-off tour bus. I’m the only one on the bus. Good sign or bad sign?

I took the tour bus in a wide loop around the city, almost doubling back near to my hotel. It was nice to warm up a bit, but my toes got cold while I was just sitting there, so I got off at the third stop and walked for the rest of the day.

Loved the architecture lines at the Riga Nativity of Christ Cathedral.

I’m standing where the Lenin monument used to be until 1991. Then they tore it down and renamed the street Freedom Street.

Freedom monument during changing of the guards.

The river was completely frozen over. I couldn’t resist!

Walking along the frozen river. Newly wed locks left on their wedding day.

I’m standing on the frozen river. Eeeek! (Technically, it’s a City Canal. Whatever.)

Found this just too funny. I didn’t realize Canada ever had a need to “re-establish diplomatic relations” with ANYONE! What?

Found this standing atop Bastion Hill. Words to live by.

Maris Liepa outside the Opera House. I asked a passing stranger to take the picture…best decision I made in Latvia.

This passing stranger turned out to be a tour guide! She invited me to join her for hot chocolate at Vilhelms Ķuze, a coffee shop known for having the best chocolate in the city. We sat and traded stories while warming up a bit. Based on my interests (and cultural background,) she recommended I cross the big river (Daugava River) and visit the Zanis Lipke Memorial. We went our separate ways, her towards work, and me towards the river.

Partially frozen river from halfway across the bridge where I crossed.

Immediately on the other side, I saw these gorgeous red bushes a bit off the road. Determined to take that photo, I slogged through hella-deep snow to get that pic. Couldn’t feel my toes. #worthit

Walking along the opposite bank of the river, looking back at the bridge I crossed. The entire marina (that’s what you’re looking at) was frozen solid.

So on the recommendation of said tour-guide, I made the trek to the Zanis Lipke Memorial. Now, if you (like me) have never heard of Zanis, let me briefly educate you.

Zanis was born in 1900. He received three years of elementary education but had a good grasp of Russian, German, and Latvian languages. After fighting in the Latvian War of Liberation, he married his wife Johanna (she was 17) in 1920. He worked at the Riga port as a dockworker and in 1938, he acquired the right to rent a small house and a plot of land slightly inland from the river.

At the outbreak of World War II, he retrained in order to become a contractor for the Luftwaffe, and then used his position to smuggle Jewish workers out of the Riga ghetto and camps in and around Riga, whom he concealed with the aid of his wife until the arrival of the Red Army in October 1944.

At first he found shelter for them in various parts of Riga, but when the circumstances became too dangerous, he took them across the river to his house and hid them in a special bunker that he dug in his back yard. When the numbers became too great for even that, he transported the runaways to a parish roughly 80 km away from Riga.

The Lipkes and their various helpers saved forty people in this way, one fifth of the approximately 200 Jews who survived the war in Latvia.

Information taken from the Memorial guidebook at Wikipedia.

Inside the Zanis Lipke Memorial.

Inside the Zanis Lipke Memorial with a super-not-at-all-sneaky flash.

A birds-eye look into the bunker. TV’s are on the floor.

Lipke house. A relative still lives there. The Memorial is located right next door and is designed to resemble an inverted Noah’s ark.

At the end of the tour, I discovered that Zanis and Johanna have a tree dedicated to them at Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem). Not only have I been there (several times) but I’ve seen and taken pictures in front of their tree and had absolutely no idea who they were!

Small world…

At this point, I decided to cross back over the river and hit some more monuments/museums before heading home.

The Swedish Gate is situated in Riga, Latvia, and was erected 1698 as a part of the Riga Wall to provide access to barracks outside the city wall.

The Three Brothers is a building complex consisting of three houses. The houses together form the oldest complex of dwelling houses in Riga.

Riga Cathedral

No idea WHY the fire….but it smelled like fire. I hovered for two minutes or so. Smelled like home.

House of Blackheads (home of the president,) with the Museum of Occupation of Latvia next to it.

The Museum of Occupation of Latvia was truly fascinating and if you ever have the opportunity to visit, I highly recommend it.

By the time I finished, it was dark out. (Not that that means much. It was about 5:00pm. I told you it gets dark early there, right?)

I wandered back to the hotel at this point, determined to scope out a possible venue for dinner. By the time I made it back, researched restaurants, and left again, it was about 7:30pm. I went to the restaurant I found and lo and behold, it was closed for reconstruction. Bereft, I wandered back down the street towards my hotel wherein I found salvation in the form of the UniCon Cafe. Honestly, all it took was the TARDIS in the window for me to poke my head in.

Unfortunately, they didn’t serve food, but I asked the bartender where I could find good food in the general area and was told to go check out WokiToki for their Chinese take-away food.

After grabbing my Chinese food, I went back to UniCon and ate dinner there. I fell in love with the concept. An espresso and alcoholic beverage bar with two TV’s; one displaying anime, the other being used to play Mortal Combat. They also had a huge wall of board games.

I would have been in nerd heaven if not for two things; most patrons were speaking a foreign language. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue striking up conversations with groups of strangers…but it’s hard to strike up a conversation if you don’t know if they speak your own language. Also, by that time it was about 8:30pm. For those of you who can’t play the time-difference game…8:30pm in Latvia was exactly 1:30pm in Washington D.C. on January 20th, 2017.

I wasn’t feeling very chipper from that point on. I left and headed back to my hotel. I spent the next two hours scrolling through my facebook news feed, twitter, and CNN before calling it a night and turning on the TV to distract myself.

Day 2

The following day, I was determined to take it easy and treat this trip more like a vacation and less like…well…a trip. I slept in a bit later, I ate breakfast a bit slower. I really only had a few things left on my tourism list that I wanted to check out.

I walked back over to the Riga Central Station (and got a better picture! The sun came out!)

Rather than continue south towards the river (as I’d done the day prior) I hung a left and meandered over to the Riga Central Market on the recommendation of my tour-guide friend from the day before.

Old zeppelin factories that now house numerous food markets. Unfortunately the first one I walked into was fish. (*gag*)

The market stalls extended outside too. I walked around for a good hour out here. Found a cute sweater too…but wasn’t willing to pay asking price, so I walked away.

The ghetto. It is now a section for the arts in the city…which I consider to be AWESOME.

This imposing building looming over the Ghetto and marketplace is apparently the Latvian Academy of Sciences.

From there, I meandered my way back West and happened upon the Freedom Monument again…but this time, featuring BLUE SKIES!

I had a late lunch, my traditional McDonald’s excursion, and decided to walk in the general direction of my hotel for lack of anything better to do.

This was about the time the Women’s March was starting, so while I walked, I scoured Twitter to read the fun political signs. I even saw someone walking down the street in Riga wearing a Hufflepuff scarf and a pussy hat. As she walked by, I told her I liked her hat. Thank goodness she spoke English…cause that would have been awkward. xD

In my wandering, I ended up back at UniCon where I sat for about three hours and just read a book and drank some coffee. So relaxing.

Called it a night early and went back to the hotel.

Day 3

On my final day in the city, I woke up and didn’t really have much of a plan. I packed my stuff and checked out of the hotel, slowly making my way back to the airport.

On the way, I finally spotted some of the weather vanes I’d been looking for. Riga is known for its eclectic weather vanes. The rooster and the cat were my faves. Here are two roosters. (It was too foggy to take a picture of the cat.)

I caught the bus to the airport and left Latvia behind me.

All in all, I felt very alone on this trip. Not because I was traveling alone but more due to the fact that I felt isolated in my corner of the world playing tourist while so much was going on both in the States and in the UK (with the inauguration and the Marches).

Between Rome and Latvia, I’m kinda sick and tired of Donald Trump ruining my vacations. I’m going to need him to work on that……among other things.

ANYWAYS! Next stop: Germany for the Berlinale International Film Festival.

Because Why The Hell Not I signed up long ago to receive travel tips and discounts through Travel Zoo. It wasn't until recently that I actually took them up on an offer and decided to visit Riga, Latvia...because why the hell not?

#Europe #Latvia #Travel #Wanderlust

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mikethemod · 7 years

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Mikethemod’s Brighton Marathon Prep.

Saturday was the highlight of my week. Our best friends Debbie and Andy Harris, AKA Bootleg Blondie, decided they were going to take Dawn and me, AKA mikethemod, on film location in Brighton. I didn’t have the heart to tell them about my potential hernia as I knew they were looking forward to our day out!

When we got up at 7am on Saturday it was raining so Dawn gave me grief about her hair going curly. And it was still raining when Deb and Andy arrived at 10am in the Bootleg Blondie Van. This is a real Rock n Roll van divided into two sections - half for band members to travel in (famous musicians have signed the interior walls) - and the other half to transport whatever.

It was then that we discovered the scooter wouldn’t fit in the back of the van. This wasn’t a good start. As I stood there looking helpless Andy came to the rescue by producing a large leather bag of tools from nowhere and sent me into my garage to search for some wing nuts. It was a scene that many real scooterists - including myself - have endured far too many times; we were both kneeling on the wet road in the pouring rain trying to undo bolts that were stuck fast.

Half an hour later we were sorted, phew, and the four of us, plus a dismantled leg-powered Lambretta, were finally en route to Brighton. Our first stop was Preston Park. This is where the masses start the Brighton Marathon race and is also the home of the famous Steve Ovett statue - or so I thought.

At this point I need to backtrack a little…. last year a PWR colleague told me he was on the Elite Start, at Withdean Park on the London Road, as he had run a good time in the Boston Marathon. I ran the Phoenix AC relays many years ago (Steve Ovett was on the same start line) – and I remembered that Withdean Park was flat. This appealed.

I wrote a polite email to the organisers telling them my best half-marathon time and asked if I could be on the Elite Start with my training friend. By the time I attended the Brighton Expo with Dawn to collect my number, I had been accepted on the Elite Start. Yes. We had a celebratory veggie lunch afterwards at Terre Terre.

Back to the present….. Andy skillfully manoeuvred his van along a narrow road up the side of Preston Park but I couldn’t see the statue of my hero Steve Ovett. A hasty Google informed us poor Steve had been cut down and stolen 10 years ago in 2007. Is nothing sacred?! Then we read that Steve had been remade (hurray!) and unveiled in 2012 on Madeira Drive by the Brighton Marathon Finish line - and the Volks Bar, home to any journeying Scooterist - double delight. Andy reset the Satnav and we soon got our first glimpse of the sea.

Our second stop was the loos on Madeira Drive. These are always well looked after but bloody freezing. Last time I was there I couldn’t climb off my scooter quick enough - after two hours spent clinging onto my 50 year old Lambretta I severely regretted wearing button fly Levis 501s.

Loo stop completed, our third stop was a parking bay where we deposited more coins than the Hatton Garden raiders lifted, to pay for just one hour’s parking. And there, in fine fettle and surveying the open sea, was my man Steve Ovett. His majestic running style was perfectly captured; big chest, arms barrelling round, hands soft and relaxed.

Dawn and Debbie were our costume and film crew and Andy was our Director. Cue - photo of mikethemod in Parka and Tootal scarf with Steve, photo of mikethemod in Teenage Cancer Trust Mod-style cycling shirt with Steve, photo of mikethemod in Demelza Hospice Care for Children Mod-style cycling shirt with Steve. Action - film of mikethemod in Parka running up and down, film of mikethemod in Teenage Cancer Trust Mod-style cycling shirt, etc etc, …..you get the drift.

During filming a guy in a disability car drove along the road and gave us a wave. This was an opportunity too good miss. With the Director waving his arms around, Mikethemod sprung into action and a Benny Hill-style epic was in the bag. Oh yes.

Our fourth stop was near the 7-mile point on the Brighton Marathon course, offering stunning views over the cliffs. With the sun glinting off the English Channel, Director Andy and I immediately had the same idea and Mikethemod - in his various guises - was soon running east and west along the cliff edge with the wind blowing, the sea breaking below and the Who’s ‘I’ve had enough’ playing in our heads.

After all this emotion, mikethemod, the film crew and the Director were in need of a restorative cuppa. On the road leading back into Brighton we discovered a 50s-looking café above the Marina named the Roedean Café - what a jewel, our fifth stop. With fantastic views over Brighton Marina and some delicious-looking food being served to locals, we enjoyed three perfect latte coffees and one Earl Grey tea.

Sixth stop the beach. I just couldn’t help myself. Marching over the stones carrying my polystyrene Lambretta, I went right to the sea’s edge and sat down. Wrapped in my Parka, I was ‘Jimmy’. The film crew got to work and took some impressive shots with Brighton Pier as our backdrop. After a few more photos at the front of the pier and by two Blondie-esque red telephone boxes, we were back in the van heading to our seventh stop - the Grand Hotel.

Andy parked up on the seafront and I ran over to the hotel to explain that mikethemod was fundraising for Teenage Cancer Trust and Demelza and we would like to take some photos outside the Grand Hotel. The Concierge Team could not have been more helpful. They allowed us to park our van right on the hotel forecourt and their fantastically professional Concierge ‘Paf’ - complete with top hat and tailcoat - ensured we got some great pics. I did think it was funny that one of the team said he never knew why some people walked past the hotel shouting ‘Bell Boy’! I advised him to go straight home and watch Sting in Quadrophenia.

By now we were tired and hungry (mainly me) but we had two more stops to go. In fact we stumbled across our eighth stop while looking for a parking place in or around ‘The Lanes’. Andy stopped the van to let a car pass and beside me to my left was a tiny lane disappearing behind a shop. “That’s it” I said - East Street’s Alleyway where Jimmy ‘hid’ with Steph (Leslie Ash) as the fighting Mods and Rockers were chased by the police. Jimmy and Steph actually did a little bit more than just hiding in this alley.

Andy put the hazards on, Dawn guarded the van on a yellow line and we quickly ran down the alley. In a tiny corner there was a door covered in scooter club stickers and mod patches. Hilarious - someone had scrawled ‘mikethemod’ on the wall! I am a celeb you know. We had a laugh taking pics in various poses and then dashed back to the van.

Ninth stop - the Mod shop Jump The Gun in the North Lanes. I had been there some months before to tell them about my project but got short shrift. Unfortunately they weren’t enamoured to see us again and, despite mikethemod and his scooter drawing a small crowd outside their shop, all they could do was tell us we were in the way of the door.

Tenth and last stop - fish and chips. The Palm Court restaurant on Brighton Pier is one of the town’s quality food venues. A year ago I booked tables for 50 Petts Wood Runners after we ran the Brighton 10k and we were all impressed with the quality of the food served here.

With its location at the end of the pier offering fine views out to sea and along Brighton’s coast, you may expect the Palm Court to rest on its laurels and be an expensive low-quality tourist trap. It most definitely isn’t. Dawn had a perfectly-baked salmon Debbie and Andy chose tasty vegetarian lasagnas and I went for the ‘Big Fish’, a 12oz cod loin - fantastic. Our food was fresh and hot, the service was friendly and efficient and the restaurant was smart and clean.

Outside the sun was now setting on the horizon and we watched a huge black mass of starlings dance over the sea in liquid formation. Although we were full, we couldn’t resist the aroma coming from the doughnut kiosk so we bought a bag of four piping hot sugar-covered doughnuts (I am carbo-loading you know) and ate them on the way back to the van. A great day. Now home to find out what goodies were captured inside our collection of cameras.

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