Latvia

One of phrases that sticks in my mind from reading about Soviet propaganda is "the decadent west". Wandering around Riga last weekend, I couldn't but think that they were right, at least as far as Latvia was concerned.

Our first Latvian taxi driver was very helpful and told us he could find us anything we were looking for - "clubs, girls, whatever" - and gave us his number so we could call him later. It turns out, he wasn't really that helpful in that like most taxi drivers his meter was able to charge us twice the normal fare for our journey. He dropped us off at the McDonalds from which we started walking across the town square, where we were given leaflets indicating where, precisely, to go to meet "the craziest bitches in Riga".

It turns out, Riga is a great place to go to if you're on a stag do, as a large number of UK and German bank holiday visitors seemed to have found out.

The cops seemed to turn a blind eye to what was going on in full view opposite their beloved "Freedom Monument" but in my opinion they'd do well to clean up this aspect of their otherwise beautiful city.

Here's a picture of the "Freedom Monument" - known locally as "Milda":

At the bottom, it is traditional to leave some flowers. Apparently, during the height of the repression under the Soviets, you could be deported to Siberia for doing this.

Another very interesting "cultural" thing to check out was the "Museum of the occupation of Latvia". The dull black Soviet era building (originally, gleaming red copper) is a stark contrast to the surrounding buildings in Rifleman's square:

Man, the Latvians really got fucked over. After fighting for their independence, they were first taken over by the Soviets, then "liberated" by the Nazis, before realizing that they hated them too, before again being "liberated" again by the Soviets, who for the next 40 years kept the country in economic and cultural stagnation. The demoralizing lesson I took from the experience was "no matter how bad it might seem now, it can always get worse" - that, and guilt at how the UK and the US did nothing to help them after World War II, when perhaps it might have been possible. What lessons should we take from this now concerning countries like China, and other despotic regimes in the world?

Oh well - things are finally looking up now - the economy is booming and now that they are part of the EU, I think Latvia has a very bright future. I cheered myself up some more by having some "Latvian" ice cream (it was a very strange looking ice cream so I took some photos):

On the Monday, we took a train out to "Silgulda", to see some surrounding countryside: