Old Vilnius
Europe's widest waterfall in Kuldiga
Europe's widest waterfall in Kuldiga
Kuldiga
Famous cow statue in Ventspils
Abandoned apartments in Karosta
I just returned from a trip to Lithuania and around Kurzeme (West/Northwest Latvia). I had a great time! I went to Lithuania with an Italian guy who is going to be an exchange student in Latvia until February. We went Vilnius, which is the capital of Lithuania, and also to Kaunas, another town in Lithuania. I didn't like Vilnius as much as Riga or Tallinn. Before traveling to the other two Baltic countries, I had the misconception that they were all similar but now that I have travelled to all three capital cities, I see that it is not so. Latvian and Lithuanian are linguistically related and it was interesting to see all the similarities and differences! A lot of the time I could understand what Lithuanian signs said. After two nights I came back to Riga for one night and then set off for my adventure to Kurzeme. Up until last week I had only been in Riga and northern Latvia, so I was excited to discover more of this beautiful country.
My first stop was Kuldīga, home to Europe's widest waterfall. I stayed with a wonderful couple, Janis and Laura, who borrowed a bike for me and we drove all around their town. Kuldīga is what I would call country/town. Technically it is a town because of the number of inhabitants and it has a town center and all the buildings a town would have, but the atmosphere and how the people live is very country-like. It is by far the most beautiful little town in Latvia.
Next I went to Ventspils where, again, I stayed with fantastic hosts. I was treated to fresh apples from the garden and a delicious apple cake. Arvids took me and 2 other couchsurfers on a road trip ALL around Kurzeme. It was good translating practice for me because Arvids doesn't speak English. We went to an Soviet military base that had been top-secret during Soviet times. Arvids said that he had relatives living a few kilometers away from the base and they didn't know that it existed. He also said that usually people weren't even allowed to drive on the road near the military base but because he had relatives there he had been allowed, but along the way he had to show his documents several times and even if people went into the forest to gather berries or mushrooms, they had to carry their documents with them. The military base had six big radio satellite dishes that had been used for spying during the Soviet times. One of these satellites still standing and is the only thing on the base that has been restored and renovated. Everything else was abandoned. Arvids said (and I agreed) that it would be a good place to film a horror movie. We drove to the very Northwest tip of Latvia, called Kolkasrags. Here you could look to your left and see huge waves crashing to the right and look to your right and see huge waves crashing to the left. I really liked this place. We drove to Kuldīga to show the other couchsurfers the waterfall and then went to Jūrkalne, home of Latvia's highest coastal embankment.
After two nights I went to Liepāja. I spent one day walking around Liepāja and Karosta (where I found a street named after my relative Gen. Janis Balodis!) Karosta was a very unique and interesting place. It is about 10km from Liepāja and used to be a secret military town for Russian empire, and later also for the Soviets. When Latvia became independent the Soviet militarists had to leave Karosta the population dropped dramatically from 25000 to 6000, leaving many empty houses behind. Most of these houses are Soviet-era buildings: many rows of block housing. It was such a strange feeling to walk through the town and see empty buildings everywhere.
So then after nine days of vacation I went home and bought some ice cream for everybody to celebrate their last day of summer vacation and went to the playground with Irbe and Gunda. And now I am back at work! The hostel is a lot quieter now that summer is over.... so that means a lot of time for me to study Latvian :)
My first stop was Kuldīga, home to Europe's widest waterfall. I stayed with a wonderful couple, Janis and Laura, who borrowed a bike for me and we drove all around their town. Kuldīga is what I would call country/town. Technically it is a town because of the number of inhabitants and it has a town center and all the buildings a town would have, but the atmosphere and how the people live is very country-like. It is by far the most beautiful little town in Latvia.
Next I went to Ventspils where, again, I stayed with fantastic hosts. I was treated to fresh apples from the garden and a delicious apple cake. Arvids took me and 2 other couchsurfers on a road trip ALL around Kurzeme. It was good translating practice for me because Arvids doesn't speak English. We went to an Soviet military base that had been top-secret during Soviet times. Arvids said that he had relatives living a few kilometers away from the base and they didn't know that it existed. He also said that usually people weren't even allowed to drive on the road near the military base but because he had relatives there he had been allowed, but along the way he had to show his documents several times and even if people went into the forest to gather berries or mushrooms, they had to carry their documents with them. The military base had six big radio satellite dishes that had been used for spying during the Soviet times. One of these satellites still standing and is the only thing on the base that has been restored and renovated. Everything else was abandoned. Arvids said (and I agreed) that it would be a good place to film a horror movie. We drove to the very Northwest tip of Latvia, called Kolkasrags. Here you could look to your left and see huge waves crashing to the right and look to your right and see huge waves crashing to the left. I really liked this place. We drove to Kuldīga to show the other couchsurfers the waterfall and then went to Jūrkalne, home of Latvia's highest coastal embankment.
After two nights I went to Liepāja. I spent one day walking around Liepāja and Karosta (where I found a street named after my relative Gen. Janis Balodis!) Karosta was a very unique and interesting place. It is about 10km from Liepāja and used to be a secret military town for Russian empire, and later also for the Soviets. When Latvia became independent the Soviet militarists had to leave Karosta the population dropped dramatically from 25000 to 6000, leaving many empty houses behind. Most of these houses are Soviet-era buildings: many rows of block housing. It was such a strange feeling to walk through the town and see empty buildings everywhere.
So then after nine days of vacation I went home and bought some ice cream for everybody to celebrate their last day of summer vacation and went to the playground with Irbe and Gunda. And now I am back at work! The hostel is a lot quieter now that summer is over.... so that means a lot of time for me to study Latvian :)
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