Saturday in Riga
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
17
37
Trip End
Oct 05, 2008
Riga,
Latvia
Saturday, September 13, 2008
David is back, we've just had a snack to eat - I kept to bread & bottled water - and in a little while we're going out to the Opera, to see La Traviata. So I probably won't get to finish this but will at least get it started.
This morning we first went looking for a couple of places of interest we hadn't yet seen. One was the old synagogue. As we approached the street we thought we wanted, there was a policeman on the corner, keeping people away. Down the street we could see some Swastika flags & people in uniform - but we were told that the synagogue was down the next street. When we went down that one, someone in the back of a van knocked on the window & signalled us to leave.
Now that might have been because it was Saturday morning & thus a service, or it might have been because David was wearing a backpack. We walked away, wondering at the Nazi signs & then it occurred to us that it might be something as innocent as a film - it was. Later we saw some crew with lights & reflectors set up.
By then it was almost time for the "Museum of the Occupation of Latvia" to open. That was very interesting - and very sad. It covered basically the same occupations we saw in Estonia - USSR in 1940, then Germany 1941-44, then USSR 1944-1991.
Our guidebook recommended allowing 2 hours for the museum - and we took almost exactly that.
Part of Konventa Seta Hotel
(By the end our feet were sore again! They're really not getting time to recover.)Latvia started having problems prior to WW2 - they had a right-wing authoritarian PM who made himself president & wanted to abandon any elections. And then came the Russians...
The Soviets not only deported 15,000 (many of whom died) but one of the things that got to me, was that part of the "making an example of those who oppose the Soviets" meant that about half of those deported were children.
Those men who weren't shot immediately were taken to one camp, while their families - the women and children - were taken to another camp.
The Soviet occupation was savage, and again one could understand if some Latvians were willing to believe the 1941 German promises of "freedom from the communists". However it was not long before the German occupation was at least as bad as the Soviet's - again people were drafted into the army, drafted to work in Germany, and just plain murdered as well. It seemed like anybody who hadn't been suspect under the Soviets, almost by definition was suspect by the Germans.
And then 3 years later, the situation reversed. The Germans were forced out & the Soviets returned. USSR "asked" the Baltic countries to join the USSR. Under pressure, they eventually complied. Finland refused. Incidentally, amongst Latvians drafted into the Red Army in recent years, were many who were sent to fight in Afghanistan. I hadn't thought about the "Red Army" including conscripts from occupied countries.
Believing Churchill & Roosevelt's "Atlantic Charter" (about all people having the right to choose their own government), when the Germans left, and the Soviets came, many Latvians took to the woods as partisans.
The basement of our hotel Konventa Seta
I guess they hoped that the Western powers would intervene & they'd be freed again - but it was not to be. Some partisans fought on until 1956... Hoping that somebody would come & help them fight back. But nobody came. And in the end they died.Later. Various points in the story really hit home with me & made me cry. There were long personal stories of frequent degradations & humiliations, along with lines like "in the 15 years that I was a prisoner ..."
There was the story of the high school boy who, not long after the Soviet invasion, started a "Free Latvia" movement in his school. In the end he and most of his class mates who joined - were either shot or deported.
So many times while we've been travelling & I have read of troubled times, I have thought as a mother of a 22-year-old son. That could so easily have been my son in that position. That is exactly the sort of thing a young person, fired up with idealism, would do. Declare your patriotism and take the risk of consequences.
Anyway, it was an informative as well as strongly moving experience. When Latvia finally declared their independence from Moscow, the Soviets didn't go easily. There were reprisals - hence the shooting of those people, including the camera man who died saying "keep filming ..." That was how the Latvians recovered their country.
After that museum we came back to our hotel for lunch. David went to the supermarket & bought bread & a few other essentials. He was quite proud of himself because he & another tourist worked out between them how to use the bread cutting machine.
Rotary Clubs meet in the Konventa basement
So he bought a loaf of that multi grain bread we like, with sort of yellow bread (that might be corn) & this time it was sliced on a machine. (Lots of new skills learned this trip!)I stuck to a lunch of bread & apple juice & bottled water, David finished off the ham, cheese & tomato bought with his bread.
We left Sydney with a knife, tea spoon, mug & an immersion heater. However we've become fed up with only being able to drink one hot drink at a time, so in Riga we bought a tourist souvenir mug at the supermarket (with Riga written on it), so we can make a 2nd hot drink before the first person has finished theirs.
After lunch we went out again - this time to the Museum of the history of Latvia, and navigation. I thought that's what we were at yesterday when we were in the cloisters of the Dom (cathedral), but apparently not. This building was next door to the Dom.
Again, we've learnt quite a bit about recent Latvian history, but this was from prehistoric times. Interestingly, the museum started in the 1700s & Latvia has been under several occupiers since then.
Earlier than the 1700s were the years when they were occupied by Sweden or Poland. But the museum was opened when Latvia was occupied by the Russians (Peter the Great & all that). Not surprisingly then that much of the exhibition was labelled in Latvian & Russian. There were usually laminated sheets in each room, in several languages, giving a thematic story of the contents of the room.
Sometimes the individual items had descriptions in other languages, and sometimes they didn't.
Museum of Occupation Riga
If they did, Russian was the 2nd language & if there was more, then the other 2 languages were English & German. It must be difficult for eg Japanese or people without good English or German to manage in these countries. (In the newer exhibit areas, English was the second language.)One interesting story from this museum - this area of Europe was at one time part of Livonia. The Brothers of the Order of the Sword were supposed to be under the control of the Bishop (later Archbishop) of Riga. They went on various crusades against the pagan Livs. But then the Livs won a battle & beat up the Order of the Sword crowd, so those knights joined with the Teutonic (German) order knights, and then at various times either obeyed that bishop, or fought him.
Eventually most of these castles we've been visiting were either built by, or taken over by, those Teutonic Knights. Hence the years of occupation of the Germans.
Another point that I found interesting - prior to WW2, Latvia was about 3/4 Latvians, and the rest largely Russian or German, with a few Jews & "others". Large numbers of Latvians were deported by either the Soviets or Germans (according to who was the occupying power) & then the occupiers sent back large numbers of settlers of their own nationality to "take control" in Latvia. By the 1960s Latvia was only just over half populated by Latvians...
At the beginning of this trip, we didn't know much history of this region. Now each of the things we're seeing & learning is adding to the knowledge base, and even when a sign or exhibit is not labelled in English, seeing a year we have an idea of what was going on at the time.
After this museum we came back to our hotel for another short break - bread & water for me & slightly more interesting for David, before we went out to the Opera.
Later - we've just come back from the Opera.
Latvian (Red) Riflemen statue
(One joy of a Word file is that I can go back & insert in situ the stuff I would have written had I had time to continue before. Most of what you've just read was written after the bit you're about to read.) But now I want to write about what I'm feeling now.The opera was a special special experience & I'm still feeling a bit teary to think of it. Some operas I wouldn't know well enough to recall the final song, but you know the final scene of "Pretty Woman", when Richard Gere comes driving down the road to "rescue" Julie Roberts, as the night in shining armour? Well (for those that didn't know) that is the final song of La Traviata, as Violetta is dying in Alfredo's arms. As such I can easily recall the song & thus the emotion.
The Opera House was very special. I was wondering (when we first got there) if I dared take any photos inside before the performance, but there were a number of tourists doing so. In fact there were even a few flashes during the performance, which I thought was decidedly "off".
This was one of those grand & traditional opera houses. We were in one of the balconies above the stalls. We came in at door 12 & there were 5 chairs - 2 in the front "row" for us, and 3 behind us.
I'd guess the Opera House was built or at least decorated mid 19th century. Some people were extremely dressed for the night, but others were not. There was a big board, high above the stage, with surtitle translations. I hadn't expected it, but this Verdi opera, written in Italian, was surtitled in Latvian & then English.
Riga Old Town
We had a wonderful view down over the orchestra too, so it made for a busy experience, watching the stage, glancing up to catch the words of the surtitle, occasionally looking down at the orchestra. Oh I loved it. I hadn't necessarily expected to. When we were in Leningrad in 1983 we went to an opera in the Kirov theatre. That was in Russian, no surtitles, and most of the time we had little idea what was going on. At interval we managed to get a plot summary in French, and that helped a bit, but the experience was nothing like this.
David had booked this as a treat & surprise for me & initially I was apprehensive about my response, but I certainly loved tonight.
Because I'd been sick on & off all day I was a bit uncertain about that too, but it was no problem. I ensured I knew where the bathrooms were, but it was none of the "4 cubicles for the whole theatre" as sometimes happens in Sydney. In this case there was a ladies room at least on every floor & I think on both ends of the building, so no huge queues. And there was a lovely atmosphere bar in the middle of the floor. We didn't have a drink but it was nice to go & soak up the atmosphere there.
And then we walked back to our hotel, less than 10 mins away, through an old town that looked very romantic in the night lights. I don't feel game to eat anything, but we're currently finishing off our Riga Champagne. David is planning TomTom (GPS) for a long day tomorrow.
We have a long day tomorrow & I would prefer not to have to write up 2 days tomorrow night. Plus I'm wanting to record this feeling of joie de vivre as I feel it.
And now I'll go back & finish writing about that Occupation Museum. There I cried a few times for quite different reasons...
And now I really must get ready for bed. Tomorrow morning we need to be up early. Tomorrow we leave Latvia for Lithuania. David has just turned on TV & found an episode of Judge John Deed. But he's just waiting for me to pack up.
From Kerry & David in Riga, (last night in Latvia)
