I’m sitting at the Cēsis train station. There’s actually no station — just a stop. Which caused me much quandary as I wasn’t sure which “track” to wait at … having messed this up before (twice) on the Chicago metra and missing my train… I wanted to be sure. The next one here isn’t for another 6 hours so this is important. I actually arrived 30 mins early! In any case, after trying to ask a bunch of young people (who spoke English well) and the lady at the bus information (who did not) — buses have a station but she couldn’t answer any train questions— I had no answers. I finally just plopped down where others are as it appears all trains stop on this side no matter their ultimate destination. Anyway funny thing… I approach young people because I know they’re being taught English in schools. But not so much the people who look over 60 (sigh — my age!). But this older woman liked that I am heading to Valga (where I need to catch a bus to my next place, Tartu — Estonia). And she tried to speak to me but I of course know nothing in Latvian except paldies (thank you — which I’ve gotten a lot of use out of. People seem surprised and pleased that I’m trying). Anyway after a few painful minutes of us throwing around names of towns—the only thing I think I understood — she pops out, in perfect English, “I was born in Valga.”  I think she surprised herself that somehow that sentence was buried deep in her memory from who knows what!? So we bonded. 

I see that for some reason I have given Latvia a short shrift. I’ve stayed here longer and I think like it better than what I saw in Lithuania. But I haven’t blogged as much. I’ve sort of covered Riga, the biggest Baltic city, in the last post. I loved Riga (except for the awful weather). I stayed four nights although I took one day trip — and I left before the weekend and better weather when I am sure many more tourists descended upon the city. That said, in one of my tour groups the guide was surprised that we had 7 Americans – three from Chicago (the other two were a brother – sister pair who grew up in Sauganash, though the brother now lives in DC) and 4 NYers, one couple and two single female travelers (one of whom also got her MSW from Hunter. Small world indeed!). That day of tours also had a Swede, a Finlander who was actually Bangladeshi, and a girl from Oslo who was actually Turkish. And another had folks from Singapore and Ireland. My art nouveau tour had only one other person — a French woman — and we almost didn’t have the tour since it was too few people. But I tipped him extra (the French woman not so much as me and I sorta feel guilty because I tried to convince her to guarantee a certain amount .. I apologized but she said it was ok). 

Wow. In any case, I’ve taken two trips outside Riga. A day trip to Jūrmala  and a couple of nights in Cēsis. 

Jūrmala has been the playground of the rich since the mid-1800s when tsarist Russians dubbed it the riviera of the Baltics. I went through a (free) museum about the history of the town and it showed a lot of people in bathing “costumes” throughout the years! It’s only 21 km from Riga and the trains run every half hour and take 35 minutes. Could not be easier except of course while there was 0 precipitation forecast for the afternoon I went, it pretty much rained on/off most of the afternoon. Obviously I need a new weather app. 

Further to the west, there’s an area called Kemeri which is a National Park these days and was most famous in the Russian and Soviet days for its mud baths. Today, those sanitaria are unused but there are boardwalks through bogs (a woman I met said she was going but more on that later) and nature walks galore. There’s a high sulphuric content in the soil, so sea air, and lots of pine and birch trees — all combined are rumored to give the power punch of therapeutic health benefits. 

Consolidated, Jūrmala is the second largest “city” in Latvia. It’s basically a strung together series of former fishing villages. I think there’s like 14 train stops across, from the Kemeri area sulphur baths on the west to the Eastern point where the Lielupe River reaches the Gulf of Riga. I stuck mostly to the three middle most towns, Majori, Dzintari, and Dubulti.

There were famous feminists and artists who lived in Jūrmala. I went to visit a house and statues after my walk on the beach. Honestly in that weather, there wasn’t much else to do.

Oh actually a major item of interest is the variety of houses that are there. The original wooden houses are protected even if dilapidated and then there are large apartment complexes and also mansions that I kept thinking must belong to Russian oligarchs because the average Latvian is not rich! But I’m looking and don’t see that I took many pictures!? Must’ve been the rain. This is all I have.

As I said it’s a very easy day trip from Riga and I’m glad I went, although this weekend in the warmth and sunshine it would have been a very different place than what I saw. That said, my photos don’t actually show how nice it was. It’s a pity. There’s water on many sides — a small lake, river, and the gulf. It’s very nice and yes, aimed for tourists but I think they’ve done it well overall (open places for concerts and free art and museums in addition to the sporty stuff).

Plus, I belatedly thought about getting a spa treatment at one of the hotels but of course was not wearing a bathing suit… and the TI woman seemed to think I might need one? The Nordics are more famous for it so I must do one there but I thought I’d have at least done a sauna by now.  

I originally planned to also cover Cēsis in this post but I’m too tired, this is too long, and maybe because the weather was lovely, I have way too many photos to cram in here too. I’ve made it to my first stop in Estonia — Tartu — but I’ll presumably finish Latvia tomorrow!? Good night!