20/08/03 — Riga
It's just dough, spinach, cheese and garlic, but the
first bite into a piroski transports me instantly back
to childhood. Even just the dough: there's something
in it that tastes like no other dough. My mother used
to make meat piroski too, hot and juicy.
Riga is a town of contradictions. Gorgeous river, gorgeous canal where the old fortifications would have been, decrepit rotting old Soviet buildings and way-too-new renovations with spotless paint and computer-generated trendy font signs carefully painted onto perfect walls, the Kodak Digital Labs building all in frosted glass and grey overlay, the impeccably restored medieval buildings with bright cobalt paints and red brickwork in the old town, the art nouveau buildings in the new town designed by Sergei Eisenstein's father.
Staying at a hostel with Zack and his friends from
Germany that he came here to meet, although that's
a little odd since they mostly just want to hang out
on their own, so I'm spending days alone. Yesterday
was the first day of driving rain in my whole trip,
pounding down. I got soaked to the skin trying to find
the goth club, which was closed, while they all apparently
ended up knocking back Vodka at a retro Soviet club.
My French penfriend Chrystèle rang me to say how sorry she was that they missed me, and if only we'd been able to get in touch before she could have at least given me the keys to stay at their house while they were away. Humph. Anyhow, I now have all the new and correct numbers for her, an e-mail address (finally! I've been trying to get her onto e-mail for years) and she's trying to entice me back to Paris before I leave. Since I will be in London, I guess that only really depends on money. I'd be crazy not to when I'm so (relatively) close.
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^^ These incredible buildings on Alberta Iela were designed by Mikhail Eisenstein, Sergei Einenstein's father |
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^^ It's like a lacework cake with icing |
^^ This face is from the very top corner of the building |
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^^ The park in the centre of town |
^^ You can take a paddle ride down the river |
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^^ The town hall in the town square |
^^ Close-up of the gates |
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^^ And the clocktower |
