Sister Countries

Saturday did not get off to the most auspicious of starts. When I awoke, I was curled into painful, little wad, on a tour bus, in Estonia. After an unremarkable breakfast and an unremarkable walk, we met our unremarkable tour guide. What was remarkable was the Old Town itself. Someone described it as "Beauty and the Beast-like" and they were dead on. With spires and steeples that pierced the sky, elaborate iron-wrought gates, and whimsically painted doors, I felt like I was in a fairy tale. We stopped at a little courtyard and I was thrilled by the sight of color splashing against the blue backdrop. I hadn't realized how much I missed autumn colors.

After awhile, we checked into a hostel and I had been expecting one similarly questionable to the one we had stayed in the first night. I was happily incorrect. This room looked like one Harry Potter would sleep in, with its fifteen foot ceilings, expansive drapes, and intricate woodwork. For the next outing we split into groups. The group I was in first went to a tv tower the Russians had built to celebrate the Bolshevik revolution. The closer we got to the tower, the less impressive it was (probably not unlike communism.) Though very tall, the sides had green slime dribbled down them, the entrance was barred for no apparent reason, and the would-be pool was reflection-less. It felt as though something had died.

In sharp contrast, was the botanical garden we visited next, as it teemed with life. As we walked, Hannah took out a package of gummy bears and started maliciously biting off their heads and limbs with great relish. "You know," I said, "that's probably how Hitler ate his gummy bears." "Nope," she answered confidently, "Hitler didn't have gummy bears." For dinner we went to a medieval meal at Old Haus complete with candlelight, costumed musicians, and sausages made of bear meat. After dinner, we leisurely strolled the streets. We heard music and after seeking out the source discovered a fashion show! The perfectly elegant clothes on the perfectly coiffed models were amazing, as were the cellist and drum player who accompanied them.

Some of the highlights of Latvia include a warm, Bocelli-blasting Italian restaurant, a traditional church with a sermon in English (where we met the Canadian ambassador to the Baltic States and ate peanut M&Ms), and a tour of the Museum of Occupation (where we learned more about the Nazis and Soviets and had a delightfully awkward tour guide.)