Riga

The second part of our Berlin / Riga trip took us to the Baltic nation of Latvia. Latvia is a country of around 2 million inhabitants, although many have left since Latvia has joined the EU to look for jobs in better places. So the number may actually be a bit smaller than this. About 1 million of the population lives in or around Riga, which is the capital city. It's an old town (I don't have an concrete dates, but we ate in a restaurant that claims to have been built some 800 years ago). It was cold and snowy while we were there, which marked the first time I had seen snow since leaving Ohio (which has experienced quite the coldness / snowfall this winter).

Anyway, Riga's downtown seemed almost if it was a façade to hide the poorness of the surrounding region. We took a train to the Baltic Sea which is about 20 miles away. Many of the buildings on the way were decrepit and abandoned. But, the city center is being revitalized, and there is an abundance of very expensive cars (I saw more Bentleys over a three day period than I've ever seen in my life), but apparently the influx of new money and banks into Riga has caused the citizens to take out loans and buy new homes and cars. Who knows if they can actually afford it, but at least they can pretend to live the capitalist lifestyle, right? So for these reasons, Riga left a bit of a bittersweet taste in my mouth. The people were all very nice but there was always a feeling on the back of my neck that something wasn't completely right. It could be the hints of corruption and oligarch money that underlie the foundations of the nation. Who knows. If you end up going to Latvia, we can talk about it some time.

Here are a few pictures:












Panorama:



A Random Latvian:



Broken down building on the Baltic Sea:



More Baltic Sea:





Soccer on the Baltic Beach:






I'll leave you with this image:





More photos from Paris / Brussels soon. I promise.

Berlin

Here are some pictures from my trip to Berlin. I enjoyed Berlin, but I wish we would have had more time in the city. We arrived on a Wednesday evening, took a quick tour of the city, and then slept. The next day we had the morning free, so I took the opportunity to visit a few of the sites from the previous night's tour (which by the way was an exercise of torture, as the temperature hovered around 40 and a drizzle rain fell for most of the 2 hour walking tour... it's no wonder that so many of us were sick upon our return). Then we sat through 2 speakers and had the night free. The next morning we left bright and early for the Latvian capital of Riga. So a grand total of maybe 8 or 9 hours to myself in the capital city of Germany was clearly not enough. All well, hopefully at some point I'll be able to return. The pictures came out pretty well though.


This is a picture of me in front of the Brandenburg gate. It's the last remaining city gate. Napeleon actually stole the sculpture off of the top of the gate when he rolled through Berlin, but when he was defeated, they got it back





Down the road about 200m is the Reichstag building where the Bundestag (German Parliament) is housed. There's a huge dome on the top of the building. It's free to check it out, and the views are gorgeous. Naturally, I took a few pictures...











View from the top:




Next was the Holocaust Memorial. There are some 2700 stones of varying sizes arranged in rows. It's very humbling and intense and doesn't overtly preach any type of message. It worked best at night, especially in the rain. The sunlight brought a new view and outlook, and the memorial seemed to contain more hope than depression. Pictures don't really do it justice.







The last shot I'll leave you with is of the original Berlin Wall. I believe it's still in the original place that it stood only what, 20 years ago? I still have trouble believing it's all ready 2008.



Pictures from Riga to follow. And then some from Geneva. I'm so far behind...

Fasnacht

Time for a picture update! I know you're all salivating at your keyboards waiting for the newest pictures from a land oh so very very far away. What new and strange things has Rob seen on his exotic trip to Germany? Well, ladies and gents, open your minds and your eyes and prepared to be thrilllled!

Or not. Here's some pictures from a parade in Mulheim, a city about 30 minutes by train outside of Freiburg. In southern Germany Fasnacht is a huge holiday (the same as Karneval in Cologne, or Mardi Gras in New Orleans) and they start having fun a few weeks before hand sometimes (I guess since this parade was about 2 weeks before Fat Tuesday).

Anyway, I have never seen more confetti in my life. It took me about a week to get every last bit out of my clothing (the people in the parade walk around with large bags and try to get it on as many spectators as possible). Also, there are large party floats with blaring techno music and crazily dressed pagan like creatures. And they're all drinking wine. And it lasts 2 hours. It didn't get as crazy as one would think, but then again, we didn't stay through the evening when I'm sure things got even more fun.

Here's a few pictures to sample of the parade:



I think this band played a rendition of some 80's American pop song... also, I heard a german version of Billy Joel - Can't stop the fire (techno remix). I laughed out loud.











These guys were blasting techno and throwing confetti. Scary...





And.... erm... SpongeBob? He's innocuous.



These guys would sneak up behind people and stuff confetti down their coats



Anders and Adam and confetti everywhere



And for all you food junkies: Here's a picture of some breakfast in Berlin (more pictures from that trip to follow shortly)

Wheels

Here are a few pics of my new bike. It's a Legano 10 Speed, made in Italy. They were cutting chains of unregistered bikes, so I got it for free. The right brake was disconnected but that was fixed (Mostly by Bade, the bike fixer of the flat). The rest of the bike is in pretty good condition... the chain seems new and the gear shifters work well. And now that I have a right brake, it should be street worthy. Here's a few pics with updates on Berlin / Riga to follow at a later date.