A Buffet of Buffets (Latvia)

Our next destination was Riga, the capital of Latvia, as we moved down the Baltics. Alongside the notorious British stag parties, Latvia is home to some varied and beautiful architecture, a lot of history and perhaps the greatest lunch buffet scene either of us has encountered. We spent a couple of days there during which we managed to skim the highlights of the old town, explore a couple of other neighborhoods, and pose next to Soviet-era military hardware in the rain.

A brief look at the Old Town

One thing we haven’t yet mentioned is the free walking tours offered in most major cities across Europe. We rapidly discovered that these are an amazing way to get oriented, learn some basic history, and even get a few tips on lunch destinations. The tour guides are typically grad students in history with considerable knowledge of the city and strong thirst to share this knowledge with visitors, spiced with a lot of humor. We have used these tours in most of the cities we’ve visited so far, and have yet to be disappointed.

During our tour of Riga we initially covered a bit of the Old Town but then moved outside of it to see a bit more of the modern city, since our guide wanted to make sure we saw where the locals spend their time. We also learned a bit about Latvian cinema, discussed politics, and received detailed instructions for drinking of the famous Latvian “Black Balsam” (although most people try it as a shot and regret it bitterly, the best way is in coffee, about a 50/50 ratio, and only on a cold day – but it tastes exactly like cough syrup, so it’s somewhat of an acquired taste however you drink it).

Below are a few pictures of the Old Town; we have a lot more, but we wanted to focus on some of the more novel things we saw. Be assured, however, that there was no lack of churches.

On the right, the (reconstructed) House of Blackheads, a 14th century guild for merchants (sans dermatologists)

Crossing the bridge from the north into Old Town. Just missing some students going punting

Looking north from Old Town

The view over Old Town across the Daugava river

The Nativity Cathedral, build by the Russians back in the 19th century to remind everyone who was in charge

Fountain of the Nymph in front of the Opera

The food

Most of the places we’ve visited so far are into their bread. Latvia, however, is in a class of its own. Delicious bread of all different types is available everywhere at very low prices. Fluffy and light or hearty and solid; white or black; smooth or full of seeds; shaped into loaves or made into dense cakes – whatever your bread itch is, you can get it scratched in Latvia.

Who needs beef jerky when crusty bread will do?

The Atlas of breads: Jess’s favorite roll of her entire life. Hearty and full of mighty nourishment

And what is bread without salt? Apparently not much, although this was not something either of us knew we were missing out on before Latvia. Latvians are really into their salt, and (though it defies our understanding of chemistry) Latvian salt seems to taste saltier than ordinary salt. Salt is served with (and in) everything: bread, potatoes, vegetables, soups, and possibly even some desserts. Being halophiles ourselves, this was ideal. Just stay hydrated and make sure to do your cardio while there.

Another first class aspect of the Rigan dining scene is the LIDO buffets, which can be found all over the city. A local institution, this chain of restaurants offers a vast selection of hearty, freshly prepared food – including a minimum of six types of potatoes, because that’s how it works in the Baltics – doled out on demand for a very reasonable price. Needless to say, the restaurants are bustling at all times of the day with a healthy mix of in-the-know locals and utterly overwhelmed tourists. We fell into the latter category, but managed to refine our approach over several visits (the grey peas are seemingly unexciting but utterly amazing).

Steak, salad, pilaf, vegetables, chicken, kvass, oh my!

The market

Having conquered the vast LIDO buffet, we moved on to the vast(er) buffet known as the market in the center of Riga. Centraltirgus is the largest market in Europe, held in five former German zeppelin hangars. Each hangar hosts a different category of food (fish, meat, dairy, fruit & veg, other) but the market is so large that it spills out into the surrounding streets. It is possible to browse and sample for hours, with thousands of fresh offerings and a strong emphasis on locally produced food. Ethan did what he always does when confronted with too many options, and went for the first appealing thing he saw – which was various hunks of smoked fish, paired with bread fresh from the oven. Jess succumbed to decision-paralysis in the cheese section and had to find a quiet corner to calm down.

The hangars

Another day, another fish market

One of the super efficient, absolutely no nonsense market workers

Latvian style Bar Mitzvah brunch: hunks of smoked salmon and mackerel torn by hand and served with a massive Latvian bagel-type bread

Pickles, spices, and potatoes

Spices of all sorts – if someone tells you Baltic food is bland they don’t know what they’re talking about

The market continues outside the hangars

Highlights of the new town

Like Tallinn, Riga displays a mix of architecture which reflects its varied past. Riga’s Old Town is far less well-preserved than Tallinn’s, largely reflecting Riga’s status as a busy port town – there was an increased practical requirement to rebuild sections of the city to meet the changing requirements. During the 19th century, a series of neoclassical wooden buildings sprang up outside the original city walls, followed by a rash of art nouveau construction as the city’s growth accelerated.

The Soviet occupation also left its mark on the city. The imposing Academy of Sciences is reminiscent of similar buildings across Eastern Europe and is fondly referred to as “Stalin’s Birthday Cake”. Further out, we came across plenty more unmistakably Russian-influenced buildings.

The culture

Latvians have a healthy love of beer (inherited from the Germans, of course) and a passion for folk music – two facts which we used to our advantage on several occasions while visiting Riga. By happy coincidence, we were visiting during the Riga Festival, which meant that there was plenty of music, sport and culture of all sorts on display around the city. Latvian folk music, as far as we could tell, mainly involves chirpy wedding songs accompanied by accordion, recorder and “kokle” (plucked string instrument). It goes well with the beer.

Walk-on basketball game (in front of the opera house, in the rain)

Some traditional Latvian music (accordion included)

Something else worth a quick mention is the flower market – open 24 hours a day just in case emergency flowers are necessary…

The 24 hour flower market, a handy place to get a present to bring home if you’re out too late

Relics of the Cold War

While in Riga, we toured the KGB museum in the former headquarters – a seemingly normal art nouveau apartment building in the middle of the city.  Inside the museum they still maintain a variety of holding cells, torture rooms, and execution facilities to remind you that the past wasn’t so nice. It was quite striking, and they’ve made a great effort not to brush the history under the rug.

Holding cells for prisoners

Suspects were checked in and had their possessions taken from them. Many were executed and their possessions remain

A cell. They would often place multiple prisoners in a single-person cell, and they kept the heat at 37 C and the lights on 24/7 to draw out confessions (regardless of actual guilt)

A tiny walking pen for the very limited amount of time that prisoners were allowed outside their cells every week

We also visited the Riga Aviation Museum, which is the real-life version of that scene in Goldeneye where James Bond has to escape from an exploding chopper in a field full of rusting Soviet relics. There were dozens of rusting Soviet aircraft in a field near the Riga Airport. And it was raining, providing the perfect atmosphere. Needless to say, Ethan was like a kid in a candy store. If enthusiastic descriptions of aging military aircraft aren’t your thing, it’s best to consider this post finished. If they are, then this is one of the best collections of Soviet planes you’ll see anywhere.

An Mi-24 Hind, a huge step forward in attack helicopters; also noteworthy for carrying a small complement of soldiers inside

An Mil Mi-26 helicopter used for ferrying troops. It’s about the size of a Boeing 737!

An SA-6 SAM: used to shoot down aircraft. They’ve seen action nearly everywhere in the world

An SA-2 SAM: one of the earliest surface-to-air missiles. Versions similar to this were used to attack the U-2 of Gary Powers (see Bridge of Spies for more detail)

A MiG-21 which is one of the most-produced jet fighters in history. Fast, cheap, versatile, and flown nearly everywhere

A MiG-27 (foreground), and a trainer variant of the MIG-29 (without engines or afterbody) in the background

A MiG-25 Foxbat. These are very rare to see! They’re one of the fastest military aircraft ever built, and can fly very high. The huge, spiky nose cone holds a radar of such power that was rumored to be able to cook things when turned on while on the ground like a big microwave. One of the last military aircraft to use vacuum tubes, which while outdated, made it very resistant to the EMP effects of nuclear weapons (rounding out the Goldeneye references) 

A Tu-22M Backfire bomber. These are very hard to find and were designed to haul big antiship missiles into the air to attack aircraft carriers. They can also carry a bunch of bombs. We couldn’t get close for an unobstructed shot, but the barbed wire gives perhaps a better sense of the atmosphere at the museum

The characteristic bent arrow tail of the Backfire. You can also see the gun turret in the back above the engine

If you’ve read this far, congrats! We found Latvia to be an awesome mix of history and newness.