What a difference a period of three weeks makes at the start of spring! Arriving in Stockholm today, it was 60F – a 30 degree increase from when I arrived at the start of this trip! I packed away the down coat, hat and gloves for my last day, and took to the streets of Stockholm, exploring one of the outer island/suburbs that sees few tourists. I was in search of a bakery/café owned by the confectioner who supplies the Nobel banquets. I found it and was not disappointed (remember how in my first blog entry for this trip I said I might live on desserts alone? Well, that’s almost the case!). Along the way I could see that everyone was out in the sunshine – some in shorts and t-shirts, and the neighborhoods reminded me a bit of San Francisco: young, urban, hip.
Stockholm is such a change from Riga (which is only a one hour flight across the Baltic Sea). During the Soviet occupation, large numbers of Russians emigrated to Latvia, changing the ethic makeup dramatically. Today, Riga is about 60% Latvian and 40% Russian. To me, it felt very eastern – more so than Estonia, which shares a much longer border with Russia.
On my last night in Riga, I went to the National Opera House to see a ballet. I had read Mikhail Baryshnikov and Alexander Godunov both started their careers with the Latvian National Ballet, and it inspired me to see a performance. I had hoped to see an opera too, as the National Opera is the pride of Latvia, but unfortunately my timing didn’t work out. For such a small country, Latvia seems to have an extensive arts culture, and getting to witness a part of it in the gilded glory of the 100 year old National Opera House was a treat. http://www.opera.lv/
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