Day 7: Davis and a Visit to The Marketplace

On the second day in Riga we had a fantastic guide named Davis. His personal anecdotes and intelligent commentary brought so much life to the tour. He began the tour by making a very interesting comment about how he was born in the year 1984, and just as George Orwell had predicted, "big brother" was always watching. Having been born at a time when Latvia was still a part of the Soviet Union but then still being young when Latvia gained its independence in 1991, Davis was able to offer us the unique perspective of someone from the first generation to grow up with the transition from the Soviet era to the modern era of Latvia as an independent state.

Once the highest tower in Riga. 

The first story he told us was about his father. He said that in 1980, just a few years before Davis himself was born, the Russian government sent about 2,000 young Ukranian women into Riga to work in factories. What was the significance of this? It was a political move in the name of 'russification' - the assimilation process in which communities (voluntarily or not) give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian one. In this case, Russia killed two birds with one stone. The young Latvian men inevitably married the beautiful, young Ukrainian women who had been sent to their country. As intended, the couples were forced to speak Russian together because that was their only common language, and thus their children became a whole small generation of Latvians who grew up speaking Russian as well. Davis mentioned that he was lucky that his father had married a Latvia woman, otherwise he said he would have been among this group of children. This of course was just a small element of the russification process, yet it clearly illustrates just how well the process worked. The Russians may be criticized for a great many things, but we can't say that they weren't ( and aren't) meticulously strategic thinkers with very creative ways of promoting their agenda.

Dried fish at Riga Central Market. 

We talked about these things with Davis until he brought us to the central market, which was definitely a highlight of the trip. As I mentioned before, Riga is part of a trade rout that is important for Northern Europe. The covered marketplace was built in 1922 when the Riga City Counsel decided that for health reasons the market should be moved from its original location along the Daugava river where it had been since the 1500s. The marketplace can hold over 3,000 stands and it was constructed out of old German Zeppelin hangars. Another UNESCO World heritage Site, Riga Central Market was bustling with life when we visited on a Sunday morning. Unfortunately, we were told that due to the modern supermarkets, Riga Central Market has been suffering quite a bit financially. Sadly, the loss or deterioration of such cultural artifacts is too often an unintended side effect of transition - especially transition to an economic system that values privatization. 



Afterwards, we also visited "Stalin's Birthday Cake" for a panoramic view of the city.

Stalin's Birthday Cake 

Rachel and I... as usual :)