This morning we walked to Tallinn Old Town for breakfast. We had to fortify ourselves for the long car trip to another country… a full 350 kms.

Haha! Yes. Apparently this is considered almost as an epic drive in these parts.

No filter. This was the park in Tallinn as we walked back to the car.

Once we were out of Tallinn, it was all gently rolling countryside and forests. The buildings were all shaped very differently to farm buildings from home, which of course only added to the charm.

Timber is a huge part of the economy here. They have so many trees and so few people to live amongst them. Half of Estonia’s population of 1 million lives in the capital. Latvia is the same, except their population is double that of Estonia.

Woo hoo! Another new country! What an amazing life I’m living right now.

Liga pointed out this dirt track. This is where, in the early 1990’s, people lined up, hand in hand, in an unbroken chain which led from one end of the 3 Baltic countries to the other. They were protesting being forced to be under Soviet rule.

Liga was one of those people.

It was interesting. She says that there’s a huge divide between the old people/Boomers and her generation. The oldies remember life under communism as being really easy. Housing and jobs were provided for everyone, there was no unemployment and nobody had to think or use any initiative. Life was spoon fed to you.

Of course, the younger ones want the freedom to decide their own future. They are vehemently against Russia and want nothing to do with it. “We just have to wait for the old ones to die and then we’ll be free of their nostalgia that helps no one.”

Mid afternoon we arrived at Liga’s place, where she was reunited with her grumpy-faced cat and her family. James from Ireland was in the city, so we arranged to meet up after I put some washing on.

Riga doesn’t have an underground rail, so these tunnels are purely for crossing the road. Buskers sometimes use them.

I’m in this photo with James, I promise!

Old Town Riga is pretty much for the tourists. Liga says she hardly ever goes here.

It’s a pretty place.

There is a traditional Latvian drink we tried. First we had shots of the traditional type, then the blackcurrant version. James and I liked both, and they certainly warmed us up.

This square has one of the nods to a film called ‘Flow.’ It’s the first Latvian film to win an Oscar. It’s an animated movie with no dialogue, and the guy who made it used free software from the internet. There are different statues for each character, dotted around the city.

Liga.

It was almost 7pm and it was still light. My phone was nearly dead…

It’s a bit sobering when we zoom in closer to the radio building…

Bullet holes from when they were fighting the Russians.

The Christmas markets here are meant to be pretty amazing. You can see why.

The musicians of Bremen. It’s a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. I touched the snout of the bottom one for luck. The others were all too high.

My phone died then. We went to a local restaurant near Liga’s place, with her husband and daughter, where we had what was essentially a pork chop Parma with mashed potatoes. Delicious!

Here’s Alise. She’s vey smart and wholly delightful. Her English, even at 8 years old, is extremely good.

Goodnight!

Dad joke of the day: