Friendly Riga

We have spent three wonderful days in Riga, Latvia, the European Union's second cheapest capital city (first is Tallin, Estonia where we are headed in 2 days!).

Most people probably don't know that in Riga, just a block from where we are staying, is where the tradition of decorating the Xmas tree started at Blackbeard's House, an old fraternity of sailors who one night got drunk, cut down a Xmas tree and decided to decorate it with flowers (see the first picture below). Rigans are also known for their voices as they are all suppose to be great singers and they had a singing revolution to protest occupation by the Soviet Union where people formed a human chain linking arms and singing from Lithuania through Latvia to Estonia. Pretty cool. We saw a man in a babushka and skirt singing a song he must have made up called "Baby" and he sure didn't have a voice to write home about but whatever.

Riga is incredibly beautiful, has tons to see and the people here are actually nice. Well, maybe they aren't that nice but having just left Russia these people seem sweeter than sugar. I have some sort of culture shock after our Russian experience so when I buy a water in the train station here and am thanked I'm humbled and overwhelmed with people who seem sweeter than sugar when maybe these are just normal pleasantries we should all expect from clerks in our 7-11 equivalents.

But seriously the people here are nice, the parents of young kids stop to talk to us about Maddox, when we ask for directions people are willing to help (one guy even walked us 10 mins to the train station).

Being with Maddox we meet tons of people because he is just so outgoing and can't stop smiling at everyone he sees. His hobby is to catch someone's eye until they pay attention to him. He's especially fond of baby girls slightly his senior and the older ladies like him too! Once again he got so sick of us the other night he almost started crying when we were enjoying a pub crawl on one of the many summer terraces here but his attitude took a 180 every time this 70 year old Norwegian couple looked his way. Eventually they just grabbed him and he sat with them, happy as a clam for the next 30 minutes.

Last night we were able to spend 6 hours at a summer terrace with another Norwegian couple we met because Maddox was so happy to be able to communicate with them and flirt with the 40 year old woman as we sat and enjoyed our evening. He is hilarious.

Maddox has been a joy to travel with and we are having more fun with him than we could have imagined. Today we took him to the beach for the first time in Jurmala- and he absolutely loved playing in the sand and the ocean. He even crawled back into ocean from our spot in the sand and laughed as the waves crashed over
his legs.

Jurmala is known as the French Riviera of the Baltics, but its also known for its bad haircuts (it's where the rich Russians go to show off their trophy wives and their wives' sexy mullets).

Besides thoroughly enjoying getting lost in the cobbled stone streets of the old town, we took a tour of the Art Nouveau Architecture, walked through the most beautiful park we have ever seen, visited the Museum of the Occupation and went to the largest Nazi concentration camp in the Baltics where 100,000 Jews were murdered.

The former concentration camp now houses a giant sculpture garden and memorial black onyx slab of stone with a metronome that ticks like a beating heart. It was creepy to hear the non-stop heartbeat and to stand in a field where such atrocities have taken place.

Even getting to the concentration camp was an erie experience. We took a train to get there and planned on following the directions in our trusty Lonely Planet- follow the path on the barracks side of the track. When we got off the train we were in the middle
of a desolate forest and found no signs to indicate we were in the right place. Luckily we saw a couple at the train stop who told us that it was very difficult to get to the site and they had found it based on directions they found on their phone on tripadvisor. They told us it would be hard to get there but well worth seeing.

Basically there were zero signs and we would have to follow a concrete road, turn right at the fork and then turn left at some abandoned wooden goal posts. After walking for 30 minutes or so we realized we had taken a wrong turn somewhere and started to get a little frustrated and angry at Lonely Planet. Luckily we ran into Latvian mushroom and berry pickers every so often so we weren't completely alone.

Clearly the guidebook author had never been to this site, otherwise they may have mentioned things like- there are no places to buy food or water, no signs and you have to follow several unmarked roads through the forest.

Thanks Lonely Planet!!! Eventually we asked directions from two 10 year old boys on bikes who understood English well enough to take us there.

Luckily Brett and I travel together incredibly well. I'm in charge of motivating us to do cool things and he is able to keep calm and carry on when things don't go our way. On this trip we have been able to agree on most everything except the quality of the Latvian champagne.

Brett thinks "Riga's Diva: Red Fusion" $4 a bottle champagne is the best thing since sliced bread. I think it's sweet, sick tasting and made for underage drinkers and transvestites. We can't agree on everything but so is life!