Riga Episode 2

 Hello, and welcome to an English Fool Abroad with his Sketchbook, Spring 2023 Edition. Episode 2. Right, do you remember that I signed off yesterday telling you how extremely tired I was? Well, not that long after posting I lay down on my bed, and started reading. My eyes closed. Next thing I knew the phone was ringing. Now, I had to drag myself back into consciousness from way, way deep in slumber. It was my middle daughter Zara. I was about to ask her what she thought she was doing ringing me at this time of night, but then I though I’d better see exactly what time it was. Half eleven Latvian time to be precise, or 9:30 pm at home. So the rant I had ready on the launch pad was stood down. To be fair to Zara she wanted to tell me that my Mum and Step Dad are fine. She and partner Matt have been visiting, so it was nice of her to let me know. She did say that my Mum had shown her a poem I wrote about my nan some years ago, and that reading it had driven her to tears. I didn’t think it was THAT bad, but there you go.

So, then, back to sleep it was, and I woke again about 6am – which is actually quite late for me. Now I don’t think that I mentioned the showers yesterday, did I? When I arrived in the early hours of Wednesday morning the guy on the desk did tell me 2 things about the showers. One was true and the other wasn’t. “When you first switch them on, they will probably be very cold.” That was true. “If you wait for a few minutes, then they will warm up.” That was not. Look, these things are sent to try us. The way I look on it when you put that in the negative column against everything about the trip so far that has been in the positive column, I reckon I’m still well ahead.

I did confess yesterday to having a McDonalds breakfast. Yeah, I know, eating in McDonalds is not big and it’s not clever. So at about half past eight I wandered to the tram stop and took the tram to the market. Cheese pancakes and a good cup of coffee thank you very much. I mentioned yesterday that there’s a Maxima Supermarket which is part of the market complex, and so I picked up a few bits and pieces, and had a rather unpleasant experience at the checkout. My purchases came to exactly 9.99 Euros. I produced a 10 euro note. The lady on the checkout, who bore a remarkable resemblance to the late German actress Ilse Steppat (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) looked at it as if I had just spat on her hand. I’d guess that what she said to me was – haven’t you got the change? –. She then proceeded to say something to everyone else in the queue, and there was much tutting until one of them changed the money for her. “Danke, Frau Bunt.” I said to her in my head and left.

While in the vicinity of the Market/Station area I’d set myself the goal of finding where the airport bus will leave from on Saturday. I achieved my target – blimey, listen to me. Achieved my target? I’ve been teaching too long if I’m even starting to sound like one. So the next thing was to head off and start sketching. I mentioned Milda, the Freedom Monument, to you yesterday, but I didn’t sketch her, so this was something I wanted to put right today. As I was walking , I noticed that I was passing by the Latvian National Museum of Natural History. It was closed, but opened later, and so I made a mental note. I won’t go on about Milda, but there’s something about her face which put me in mind of Christ The Redeemer in Rio.

Back, then to the Museum of Natural History. Look, it’s like this. I owe it to the 7 year old boy inside me who was mad about dinosaurs to go into every Natural History Museum I come upon. I have to say that – and I’ve been enjoying Riga so much that I don’t actually want to say anything negative – it’s okay, but not much better than that. Somehow I felt that it contrived to be less than the sum of its parts. Although there are four floors, the rooms on each are pretty small. I didn’t see a great deal more than stuffed and mounted animals – birds and mammals for the most part. Mind you, I did get the impression that the Museum is not going all out to attract and cater for international tourists, Nothing at all was subtitled in English. Even the Natural History Museum in Kaunas had English subtitles – and that and the Vytautas the Great Museum were the only places that did. Still, at least I did find an impressive skeleton to sketch. Bearing in mind there was a model of an orca underneath it, I’m guessing it was a skeleton of an orca, anyway.

Even taking time to make the sketch I don’t think I could have been much more than an hour in the Museum, which is a bit of a shame. I always think that the mark of a good museum or gallery is that you suddenly realise that you’ve already spent two hours in there.

Onwards, then and back into the old town. I did think twice about this bearing in mind how hard I found it to get back out of the old town yesterday, but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that. There were two places in particular that I wanted to see, both of which I was sure that I’d walked straight past yesterday without noticing. The first was the Swedish Gate. I haven’t sketched it yet. The Swedish gate is the last of the original 8 gates to the city which is still standing. There’s rather a gruesome tale attached to the name. back in the 17th and 18th centuries Latvia found itself caught up in the conflict between Sweden and the Russian Empire. Apparently around the time that the gate was constructed young ladies were forbidden from dating Swedish soldiers. One unfortunate girl was found breaking the prohibition, and she was allegedly bricked up inside the wall where the gate was being constructed. Nonsense? I hope so.

The other place in the Old Town I did make a sketch of. This is the famous Cat House.

Now, if you’ve ever read John Steinbeck’s “of Mice and Men” let me tell you straight that what Steinbeck meant by the phrase ‘cat house’ was a very different kind of establishment to the one in Riga (probably. I didn’t actually go in.) The Cat House is so called because of a pair of very prominent cat statues on the roof – one of which you can see in the sketch. There are two versions of the story about them. One says that the man who had the house built had been turned down by the Merchants’ Guild opposite, and so the cats originally bared their bums to the house to show displeasure. The other version is that it was the Town Hall the builder was displeased with. You pays yer money and takes yer choice.

Oh, you want to know whether I got lost again today? Well, yes, I did, although not in the old town. As you can see from the fact that two of today’s sketches show statues, I was having a bit of a sculpture day today. Near the Freedom monument runs the Riga Canal, and I’d read that on one of the banks there are several sculptures. Indeed there were. One of them depicted three young women, each of whom had forgotten to put their clothes on, doing a version of what looked for all the world like a game of ring-a-ring-o’ roses, facing inwards and baring their buttocks towards the casual viewer. The title of it was “Peace Dance.” Now, I’m not a good enough accent spotter to be certain whether the couple looking at it the same time I was were American or Canadian, but the man, who seemed to be of a similar vintage to me, made the comment, “Peace Dance? Piece of Ass Dance more like.” I do apologise for ruining your enjoyment of this episode with crudery, but you already know my fondness for schoolboy humour.

What, trams? Yes, of course I was riding the trams again. I was particularly enjoying some of the destinations on the headboards. Let’s play word association. If I say the destination name – Pinki – be honest, did the word Sminki also come into your head as well. If not, then maybe you weren’t a fan of the Fast Show. You probably won’t be surprised if I tell you that I got on a tram today with the destination Jugla, just so I could say that I was going for the Jugla.

There was no snow today and I dare say that it was a little bit milder than yesterday and certainly milder than Tuesday night when I arrived. Nonetheless, by the time I’d made the trolleybus sketch I was feeling the cold. Yes, I did try to do it on the spot, but I used a photograph on the Kindle to help me finish it off. When I did finish it off I was comfortably ensconsed in a Costa. And do you know the thing which struck me about Costa in Riga? It’s this. They don’t call Millionaire’s Shortbread Millionaire’s Shortbread. They sell it, but they call it Caramel Shortbread. More accurate but somehow lacking in poetry, I dare say.

You’ll be glad to know that there’s not a lot more for me to say today, other than to mention my second Museum disappointment. I did say yesterday that I was going to look in on the Museum of the Occupation. Well, I tried. It was closed to day. So I had to find something else to occupy myself with. Pizza as I recall. Well, there we are. Tune in for more of this nonsense tomorrow. See you.