Ok, so I am really really behind in updating this blog, so I will make this post short and to the point. After Berlin we flew to Riga, which by the way, we almost missed ou
r flight to... Very stressful. Anyways, going to Riga was an awesome opportunity. I had never really given the Baltic states much thought, or learned anything about their histories, so being required to go to Latvia was a blessing in disguise. We talked to a professor at the University there, as well as an economists at the Stockholm School of Economics there and learned a lot about Latvian history and it's current issues regarding Russia and the affects of the global financial crisis. We also went to the Latvian occupation museum, which I found disturbing and fascinating. Latvia was first occupies by Russia, then the Nazis, then by the Soviet Union again. It was interesting to see that most Latvian's greeted the Nazis as liberators from the Russians and some even participated in Nazi dealings and such. But both the Nazis and the Soviets were horrible. They used crazy forms of propaganda to pray on the people. And the soviets shipped about a third of the Latvian population of labor camps and/or forced them to emigrate.
But enough about history. While there we also did little city tours and my group got to go around and find examples of art nouv
eau in Riga. It is called jugendstil there. Apparently around the turn of the 20th century Riga had a big jugendstil building boom. We went to a little museum about it, which was basically just a few restored rooms in this old house that a famous architect once lived in. The interior with all the art nouveau motifs was really cool, and there was an amazingly decorated staircase (see picture). The jugendstil buildings were very elaborate. The building that housed the Stockholm School of Economics was one of them. It was beautiful.
Old town was where our hotel was and it was the classic winding narrow streets marked here and there with squares. Very cute. It was really hard to capture with a camera though, sorry about that. There was also this big, beautiful park that ran through Riga and separated old town from the other parts. One evening we went to the tallest building, which is a hotel that has a bar at the top, and we had cocktails at sunset. My cocktail had the traditional Latvian alcohol in it, called Black Balsam. It was pretty tasty. We also went to a Latvian discotheque, which was crazy fun. It have five different rooms playing different music. The Europeans really do know how to make a dance club ;). One evening we went to a traditional Latvian food restaurant and I had the cold beet soup that Justin made for us last Christmas break. I liked it but my friends called it bubble gum soup because of the color.
Basically it was a really interesting trip with new cultural experiences and a lot of learning! I won't overlook the Baltics so quickly next time...
r flight to... Very stressful. Anyways, going to Riga was an awesome opportunity. I had never really given the Baltic states much thought, or learned anything about their histories, so being required to go to Latvia was a blessing in disguise. We talked to a professor at the University there, as well as an economists at the Stockholm School of Economics there and learned a lot about Latvian history and it's current issues regarding Russia and the affects of the global financial crisis. We also went to the Latvian occupation museum, which I found disturbing and fascinating. Latvia was first occupies by Russia, then the Nazis, then by the Soviet Union again. It was interesting to see that most Latvian's greeted the Nazis as liberators from the Russians and some even participated in Nazi dealings and such. But both the Nazis and the Soviets were horrible. They used crazy forms of propaganda to pray on the people. And the soviets shipped about a third of the Latvian population of labor camps and/or forced them to emigrate.But enough about history. While there we also did little city tours and my group got to go around and find examples of art nouv
eau in Riga. It is called jugendstil there. Apparently around the turn of the 20th century Riga had a big jugendstil building boom. We went to a little museum about it, which was basically just a few restored rooms in this old house that a famous architect once lived in. The interior with all the art nouveau motifs was really cool, and there was an amazingly decorated staircase (see picture). The jugendstil buildings were very elaborate. The building that housed the Stockholm School of Economics was one of them. It was beautiful.Old town was where our hotel was and it was the classic winding narrow streets marked here and there with squares. Very cute. It was really hard to capture with a camera though, sorry about that. There was also this big, beautiful park that ran through Riga and separated old town from the other parts. One evening we went to the tallest building, which is a hotel that has a bar at the top, and we had cocktails at sunset. My cocktail had the traditional Latvian alcohol in it, called Black Balsam. It was pretty tasty. We also went to a Latvian discotheque, which was crazy fun. It have five different rooms playing different music. The Europeans really do know how to make a dance club ;). One evening we went to a traditional Latvian food restaurant and I had the cold beet soup that Justin made for us last Christmas break. I liked it but my friends called it bubble gum soup because of the color.
Basically it was a really interesting trip with new cultural experiences and a lot of learning! I won't overlook the Baltics so quickly next time...
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