Latvian blast from the past (part1 August 2008)

 

Gotta admit I've been waiting for the moment that AI would give new breath to some old content of mine. And it looks like this moment has arrived. Well, almost to be precise. Picture wise yes, but video wise we'll have to wait a bit.

Because right now you can turn this:

to this:

but videos get very artificial if you double their resolution.

So ladies and gents, here's the chance to undust my visit to Latvia in 2008 with all my material coming from my cellphone so consider this a bit of a miracle to make anything looking decent as in 2008 I didn't own a cutting edge phone as I did in 2010 when I revisited this country (more about it on a next post).

So it's August of 2008 and the image you show above is the view from the apartment of my friend Ieva who used to live in the west side of Riga and god know where she might be right now. She kindly picked me from the airport late that night, and we took a cab to make it to her place. At the end of the trip as I pay the cab driver he says something in Latvian without even looking at us in a somewhat angry mood and Ieva tells me that he means he has no change. "Seems like I'm still in Athens" I say to myself and we leave him behind. He might had reasons to envy someone escorting a lady like Ieva but he also had reasons to sooth his soul after a Latvian sunset like this:

The above image was kindly offered by Ieva's friend Argita, no upscaling or editing on this one. You'll probably see her later.

So next morning comes and except the first image I take one more shot from Ieva's apartment:

If you see any artifacts on images like bottom left on this one is because I did a half ass job removing the obnoxious time stamp my cellphone put at that time. I escort Ieva at her office downtown (she's an architecture) where I get the chance to picture the view:

It's not just the cameras but also my photography skills on the pathetic side an age ago so bear with me. However, upscaling did a good job on the first of these two - works well on even surfaces and signs (more on that later).

Ieva works while I walk the city. AI doesn't help much in out of focus cases yet hence this blurry image which still give an idea about downtown Riga:

Keep in mind that my phone has no gps so don't expect me to geolocate all the images but I did find all these years later the address of this beautiful building which is here:

Funny thing is that "Narvesen" store is still open there.

I walk up to Vermane Garden:

But soon I am attracted again by the big old buildings of the center like this one:

Not that parks are bad, here's Bastejkalna Park near the Opera:

Upscaling did a good job on this ones. That's the water of the City Canal right next to Daugava river which leads to the Baltic sea.

Of course, it's impossible to miss the most emblematic monument of Riga, the Freedom Monument:

The canal goes on and so does the park:

As I walk the old center I follow the beautiful sound of a sax with the natural reverb of the surrounding buildings and soon I find the player himself:

This guy really knows where his sax sounds the best and that's the picturesque Townhall Square with Saint Peter's tower in the background:

That's the nearby Stone Bridge over Daugava river:

And that's the Railway bridge at its South:

As you can see it might be late August but it's rather Autumnish up here at North Europe.

Walking on the Stone bridge offers me view to Vansu bridge next to it:

Here's a downtown view from the bridge:

The following one is a copy of a wooden statue of "Christopher the Great". Original one is kept at the National museum and dates back to 1683, this one is from 1997:

So who's Christopher the Great? Let's read the info board:

“Once upon a time, long ago, before the city of Riga was founded, a tall strong man named Lielais Kristaps (Big Christopher) carried people across the River Daugava. Kristaps lived in a cabin on right bank of the river. While sleeping one night, Kristaps heard a small child crying on the other side of the river. He immediately rose to fetch the child, and began to carry it across the river. Half way across, the child became so heavy that Kristaps barely managed to get to the other bank. Exhausted, he laid the child down to sleep in his shack, and fell asleep himself. The following morning Kristaps awoke to find a large chest of gold coins where the child had been, upon his death, the money was used to found the city of Riga, the first building was built on the spot where Kristaps cabin had once stood.”

Sweet story isn't it? Thank you Kristaps! Your city really worth your efforts🙂

Today it's the local police that tries to keep Kristaps's city in tact:

It's a nice one, at least around the center and now that I found a bit of elevation in this flatter than flat country I take a few shots so you can now judge for yourselves decades later:

You saw that futuristic tall building reading "Hansabanka"? Here's one more viewing angle of it:

FYI, today it still hosts a bank but that's Swedbank.

Some visual art never hurt anybody:

Back to the old town in order to reach Ieva's office later - no complains walking among these old beauties:

That's Riga's central station in the background:

And the city's canal once again:

I'm already walking nearly 4 hours so I take a break at a bench of this park when some guys from a ceremony come for pictures. I wish I had a good enough camera to do justice for that stunning lady in the middle but... what would life be without some stretch of imagination right?

A few meters away a Latvian school band makes some noise under this tent:

Stuff for even younger Latvians, not sure what's that about though:

Here's is the statue of the Latvian writer Rainis:

(Real name: Jānis Pliekšāns, 1865 – 1929)

Sweet park nevertheless:

Here's the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ:

It looks a bit familiar to me though its my first time here but only because is was built in a Neo-Byzantine style back from 1876 to 1883 (I come from Hellas in case you missed that and we are full of them🙂). The above image is the last to do justice for the fact that this is actually the largest Baltic Orthodox Cathedral.

Ieva's work is over so now we walk together downtown while I keep picturing buildings like this one from 1906:

The old part of the city is unsurprisingly more quiet so we stop for a drink at this bar,

with this view:

What you don't see in the picture is some guys sitting outside using blankets offered by the bartender. On 29th of August! Yep, it can get so cold up here... (wait for it on my next visit in 2010).

Looking at this next picture of me and my host Ieva I can't stop laughing to the sight of my cellphone that took (almost) all the pictures you see here - that's a Sony (still with Ericson then) K750i in front of me on the table🙂:

Next day we are about to meet some friends of Ieva so we go together downtown again. This a monument built in 1985, dedicated to the ones fallen while fighting here against the German Nazi troops:

Only a few days ago this Soviet monument (known as victory monument located in the park with the same name) has been removed as part Latvia cutting all ties possible with anything related to Russia due to the latter invading Ukraine. I'd be the last to blame them for that, they know from first hand what Russia is about but that's another story. How could I imagine in 2008 the historic moments that would follow now in 2024:

I mean, the image alone speaks for itself:

(source)

One monument that will never be brought down (by Latvians at least) is the monument of freedom which I showed you before since that refers to the Latvian War of independence (1918-1920):

We all take the bus to go to the Ethnographic Open Air Museum outside the city. And here we are:

At the view of the traditional restaurant near the entrance on my left I decide to order the following stuff at lightning speed:

Yes, it was as nice as it looks. Here's the rest of the gang consisting of a German, 2 Persians, 2 Luxembourgers, obviously Latvians and... me🙂:

As soon as we're done eating and drinking a wedding arrives:

This is a nice and spacious park acting as a time machine offering you the chance to see how people survived here in previous centuries. And yes, they could survive without Tesla:

Not sure what this was about:

Here's the old church of this museum:

Part of the gang doing silly things:

If I remember correctly this was a crib:

And this is how life was before Makita:

Just married pictures:

The wedding arrived in style:

These houses are older than stones but I can assure you they have much better insulation than an average house in Greece:

Pretty cute inside:

Not sure who pictured me on this one:

Ieva's friend Argita presenting the house key in style:

We shared a good amount of laughs when I told her that her name in Greek means "slow". Mainly cause she's far from slow. She also looks far from Latvian as well.

If I am not mistaken this was a bee house:

It kinda feel like the Latvia version of Wild West around here:

This open air museum is located near Juglas lake so we stop there for a while on our way back:

Who likes horses? I do:

They come close enough to pet them:

Mainly thanks to their handler, Argita's friend:

We visited some short of art exhibition at night with Ieva near the port of Riga. A bit extravaganza stuff but what I experienced in the trolley bus later was even far from normal. For starters have a look at this:

Does it even look like a bus to you? Especially for that night they have decorated all busses like this making them look like you're in the woods or something. As if this wasn't enough, they also had sounds from nature played back (birds singing and such). Is that funny enough? Don't rush cause at some point we were served milk to drink😄:

Yep, that's why passengers hold white glasses while I picture Ieva with her friend). I still LMAO looking at all that stuff:

Can't recall what sort of custom is this though Ieva explained to me so any Latvians please feel free to step in with some insight.

Next morning me and Ieva pay a visit to a local market. There I can notice even more the generation gap between the older Soviet looking people and the younger ones.

Ieva knows how to pick the right stuff:

Back in the day I was working for the largest Telecommunication provider in Greece, ex state but just bought by Doice Telekom, so my eye was focusing on distribution cabinets and I was a little impressed that some of them were installed in walls unlike back in Greece:

My colleagues were impressed as well but much more 2 years later when I waved them goodbye for good in the dawn of the Greek financial crisis🙂

Of course there's more interesting things to see in Latvia than soviet cabinets and now we are lucky to have another local friend, Eriks, to drive us around so here we are driving South this flat flat flat country:

The more we drive South getting closer to Lithuania the more the road becomes far from flat. To get an idea about the amount of potholes, Eriks had to drive on the opposite lane whenever the road was empty in order to keep his car in one piece. Fortunately Latvia is a small country and soon we arrive at Rundale Palace, only a few km away from the Lithuanian border.

From the entrance the place looks promising already:

And why not? It's a Baroque Palace of the 18th century. And I found out that I still have its ticket in pristine condition:

Time to step closer:

The main building is huge and impressive:

Lions at the gate are not a rarity for things like this:

Let's have a look at the garden in front of the palace:

The local fountain makes things even more charming:

The best jump shot we managed there is the following one:

Still pathetic quality wise but keep in mind that original file was 604x453 and what you see is an upscaled 4K🙂

We leave the palace behind,

and take a walk into its beautiful gardens:

You can tell by looking at my face how much I enjoy the Latvian sun cause yes, it's pretty rare up here for my Mediterranean standards:

We get in the car again and visit a nearby private collection of old vehicles. Impressive stuff considering it's all the result of the work this old guy in the background did:

If I look excited in this one it's only because I really am:

Wish I had a better picture of its steering wheel but hopefully you kinda "get the picture":

More beauties of the automotive past:

Unfortunately I can't remember neither find where this place is located, no idea if the guy is still alive and well - wish he still enjoys his beauties and the smiles of people visiting them. He also had some instruments and radios from that era:

Let me tell you at this point that upscaling does a great job on such images (flat surfaces, signs, texts etc). You don't wanna see how the original looked like🙂

To my surprise, in his pile of such stuff I find the speedometer of the second car of my Dad which also was our first family car:

It was an Opel Record A Caravan which he bought second hand. I remember as a small kid that the speed indicator was a stripe which was green at low speeds, turned orange at higher ones and went red if you kept climbing! It never ceased to impress me and I never show such a speedo ever in my life. That car was super spacious with 2 benches for seats so it could host 6 people. The trunk looked like a small apartment to me, especially with the rear seat dropped. In the strong earthquake of 1981 in Athens we slept in that car. I was tiny enough to fit anywhere actually but it really helped my family survive.

That car guy also had this nicely restored bike:

We thank the guy a lot for his time and leave his place as we have more to see. Next stop is the Nature Park of Tervete, still near the Lithouanian border. It's the only place in Latvia so far not looking too flat to my Greek eyes:

And certainly looks too green:

Did I tell you what a wonderful job upscaling does on signs? Look at them:

And yes, just in case you wonder that guy in the middle sign tells us how wide an "ASS" is:

Trump is still a bigger one so tell him not to worry.

It's a nice walk around this forest where one can see a lot of cute stuff made out of wood:

And of course mushrooms:

Hence it's no surprise they also did this in here:

Which gives us a chance to take a rest:

Since you saw all that stuff I guess it doesn't surprise you there's also a tree house:

And that's how you cooked back in the day:

Tall girls, tall trees, there's good chances you're in Latvia:

I love this place but now it's time for the last pictures before it gets too dark:

I find this piece while walking and it catches my eye:

It really looks like a piece from a pistol so I put it in my pocket. God knows where that came from but I still have it today!

I'm so lucky to have a host like Ieva here who invited the whole gang for dinner at her place. Being a slim guy that's the largest version of my belly ever which is rather flattering for the Latvian food:

Food was also exceptional at Lido outside the city where they also brew amazing beer:

I tried one with honey and it was among the best I've ever tasted.

One morning me and the German guy of the gang (sorry but I'm bad with names) take the train to Jurmala, a seaside town West of Riga. The local beach is just like most of the Baltic ones - sandy, flat, long, shallow:

It's convenient for me to explore Latvia with a German guy who speaks Russian cause not everybody speaks English here and obviously almost non speaks Greek. However, not all Latvians enjoy communicating in Russian and certainly not the policeman whom he asked some info about the train who reminded him that "it's not Russia here". It's even less Russia today I guess...

This guy seems to love my Levis as I soak some sun by the sea:

While walking around Jurmala we find some old cars expose for unclear reasons:

Time to grab something to eat and here's where I get the chance to try some salmon:

Here's Jurmala downtown in terrible lighting:

Back in Riga and I get the chance to picture some more buildings around the center:

In search of things to do before my time runs out here I decide to rent a car for a couple of days and see a few places outside the city. So here I am with my ride trying to picture myself by placing my phone on the top of another car:

I decide to explore the South West of the country parallel to the Baltic sea which looks more or less the same all the way:

In these flat countries you find yourself driving in a straight for what feels like forever:

I make a stop at this marina (near Liepaja if I am not mistaken) for a couple of shots in this rather gloomy for summer day:

I loose my way a bit on my way back so I try to find locals for help. A young girl at a supermarket doesn't speak English at all but another ones does as she escorts her dad while he repairs their car. His response is like no other I ever had in the next 15+years of travelling. Look what the guy makes for me:

He took all the time to draw me my way back to Riga with distances turns and points of interests. Crazy? That's why I still have it after all these years. I think I should make my own travel museum someday🙂

My mighty brand new opel corsa is so efficient that I'm impressed to see its consumption reaching the one of my motorbike:

Of course that's also due to the fact that I cruise at slow touring speeds, allowing even trucks to overtake me. They kindly flash their blinkers as I make way to them. I don't think a Greek trucker would be so kind. At some point a car overtakes me almost at double speed on a boring straight and just by the time I think to myself "shall I go fast too and gain some time?" I see the traffic police stopping him a km later. I used to be such a lucky guy actually...

Here's me driving on Vansu bridge heading back South to Ieva's place at Riga:

Next day I take the car again but heading North this time and make a stop at Cesis as it looks picturesque enough to me:

To my surprise I find tourist info offices relatively easy which is very welcome considering that it's 2008, I have no gps, no mobile data and Google Maps was relatively new born and not even close to what it is today.

Next to the square you just saw is the local Victory monument:

I like the local park too:

The fact that the countryside is basically 2 things, flat grass or flat forest with tall trees, doesn't help you with boredom at all:

So I turn on the radio to spice up things a bit and guess what? They talk all the time! Which is all Latvian/Esthonian to me (as I come near the border). And I guess extensive talking was because the local radios were not overtaken by the paid playlists yet.

I make it up to Parnu and then do a U turn to face South again with a stop at the Esthonian part of the Baltic sore is the same just like the rest:

The Esthonian/Latvian border is now a "ghost town" just like so many others around Europe making me feeling proud and happy to roam so easy around EU and its achievements:

These countries are sooo flat:

But look at that huge chair on the left🙂:

Baltic on my right behind those trees as I drive South:

Same stuff behind the trees:

The day ends with one more Riga by night so here's the "House of the Black Heads", one of the most emblematic medieval buildings of Riga:

My time in Latvia is running out, I return the car and then escort Ieva to the center where we split so I walk the city once again before I take the bus to the airport.

A mean cat enjoys a warm car's hood,

while I seek for a dry and warm environment inside the free Latvian Museum of Occupation. Smart move from Latvian to offer free entrance in a place where they expose what they have suffered from Nazis and Russians in their troubled history which is usually the fate of a small but strategic country like Latvia. To my surprise, the first thing I see there is the picture of our President of Democracy signing their book in 2000:

And here's what back in the day was needed to gain independence:

If you ask Ukrainians they'll assure you that things haven't change that much.

In the following picture you can see the device that KGB had put in Riga hotel in order to monitor all phone calls:

A whole switchboard🙂 Fun fact, they discovered this thing only when they had to renovate the building...

Out in the rain now as it's time to kiss Latvia goodbye and take the plane back home:

So that's it folks, sorry for the extra long one, I expected it to be much shorter when I started to be honest. Hope it worth your time this time travel, see you on the next one!