There are only 17 bobsledding tracks in the world, and only a handful (5 or 6) are open to the public. Latvia has one of those tracks.
The Sigulda Bobsled Track
The bobsled with our pilot
Yesterday, feeling like I needed to do a little more in Riga, I signed up for my hostel's bobsledding trip. When in Latvia, do as the Latvians do, right? Since independence, Latvia has won 3 silver and 3 bronze medals in the Winter Olympics, all in skeleton and luge, bobsledding's sister sports. Latvia's comparative advantage in the sport is that Sigulda, about 30 miles west of Riga, has an Olympic-quality bobsledding track. Many athletes from around Europe train here, but Latvians have it right in their backyard.
Part of the track
It's hard to describe what going down a bobsled track feels like other than it's exhilarating and you lose all sense of perception. Your body gets thrown left and right at every curve, and at the end, the bobsled is slowed down by an up-ramp, but we all were convinced we were still going down. The bobsled picked up intense speed on the straightaways, and the wind in the face, even with a helmet covering most of the face, makes it hard to breathe. I was in a four-person bobsled, and our pilot on the trip was a member of the Latvian Skeleton Olympic Team.
The entire trip down the 1200 meter track lasts only 47 seconds (our official time was 47.184 seconds). After getting out of the bobsled, I found it hard to walk, and essentially stumbled around for a few minutes before I could regain my footing. There was another group after me, and watching them go down the track made me realize just how fast we were actually going. I would do it again in a heartbeat, especially in Latvia. It was truly a unique and amazing experience.
FINAL TIME: 47.184 seconds
Here's a video of a young girl, my guess is 12 or 13, training in luge.
The sun came out for a few brilliant hours this morning (and by few, I mean two), which gave me a chance to see the sites in Riga, Latvia. Latvia is in so many ways the middle of the Baltics. It is geographically between Lithuania and Estonia, its population and area are in the middle, and most transportation to and from the region comes through the country (Riga International Airport is the busiest in the Baltics, and most international buses have an endpoint in Riga or at least stop in the city). And compared to Lithuania at least, people speaking multiple languages is also much higher here. I regularly heard English and Russian on the street, and a lot of people also appeared to be proficient in either French or German.
So what did I see in Riga? Well, it's a small city. I guess as I go to smaller and smaller countries, the capitals will get smaller and smaller too. It didn't take me very long to work my way across the Od City multiple times; I kept criss-crossing it to get to different sites. The most prominent is probably the Freedom Monument. Constructed in the 1930s to honor soldiers who died in the 1918-1920 war for independence, it stands at the edge of the Old City on the canal to the newer sections of the city. At the top of the statue is Liberty holding three golden stars. While the stars officially represent the three historical constitutional districts of Latvia, during the push towards independence in the 1990s and the solidarity between the Baltic States, some (mostly Lithuanians and Estonians) said the stars represented each Baltic country. Way to take over someone else's national statue, Lithuania and Estonia!
I also saw a few churches and old buildings, but sadly, unlike Vilnius which actually labels buildings of historical significance, Riga just hopes you can figure it out on your own. Case in point: there's a series of three houses in the Old City called the Three Brothers. The houses form the oldest complex of buildings in the city but are relatively inconspicuous if you don't know that you're looking for them. The oldest house is from the late 1400s, and the other two from the 1600s. But given how Riga's streetscape is filled with old buildings, how was I supposed to know that these are the buildings I was looking for? I walked by them twice before figuring it out. The same thing happened at the Swedish Gate, the last remaining part of the old city wall. I realized what it was after I walked through it and saw the rest of the old city wall along the way.
So that's Riga. It's a cute city, but definitely doesn't take much time to go around. I also visited the central market, the Art Nouveau District, and several parks. After awhile, all old European cities start to look the same, and Riga didn't really do too much to show why it's different except having A LOT of flags and patriotism showing (independence day is next week). I definitely enjoy its compactness, but it makes me nervous for my next stop in Tallinn, which is 2/3 the size of Riga!
I don't have a good video from Riga, so here's a quick video introduction to the three Baltic countries:
Warning: this is a long, but hopefully fun/funny post, because Lithuania is a WEIRD country with an odd sense of humor.
When your country goes from being one of the most powerful in Europe to one of a handful of minnows on the continent, you have three options: (1) sulk about how good things used to be, see: Portugal; (2) do everything in your power to reclaim the glory days, see: Russia; or (3) laugh about it and keep a healthy sense of perspective. Lithuania has definitely chosen Option 3. Lithuania is proud of things no country ought to be proud of and does some things just because it can. This has led to some really weird results, as my tour around Vilnius--and the Republic of Užupis--today showed me.
The Lithuanian Flag: Yellow for the sun (even though it's
overcast 60% of the year); Green for the forest and nature;
and Red for the blood of soldiers who fought for
independence in 1918 and 1990.
First, some context. Lithuania today has about 2.9 million people, not 3 million, as many Lithuanians try to tell you. The Lithuanian Government puts the official 2015 estimate at 2,895,993. In its glory days--and by glory days, I mean the 14th and 15th centuries when Lithuania ruled over a good chunk of Eastern Europe--the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is estimated to have had 4.2 million people. Granted, the Grand Duchy was 13 times larger than the modern Republic, but such details don't matter to Lithuanians. No, to them, they are a great empire in a small territory with 3 million people, and you can't tell them otherwise. Why does this all matter? Well, even if Lithuania these days is a minnow in the European Union, it has shifted its focus to the Baltic countries and on them, it has a leg up. Lithuania is 200 square miles and 800,000 people larger than Latvia, and 8,000 square miles and 1.5 million people larger than Estonia. So...Lithuania wins. And Lithuania finds itself to be exceptionally unique.
The goddess Medeina riding a bear.
For example. Lithuania is proud that it was the last officially pagan country in Europe. This, of course, attracted a lot of attention from the surrounding Christians who insisted on introducing religion to the people. The first reference to "Lithuania" is actually from a set of monks who in 1009 wrote home complaining about the fact that the pagan Lithuanians had murdered a monk for trying to convert them. Modern-day Lithuania seized on this wonderful reference to its country and people and held a 1,000-year celebration in 2009. And named a street after the slain monk. But mostly, it was a celebration of 1,000 years of the Lithuanian people. In any case, Lithuania eventually did Christianize (officially in 1387), but not to most Christians' liking. Crosses still bear suns and moons, and small monuments to pagan gods still can be found all over the city.
Before I get to the weirdest thing in Vilnius, the Republic of Užupis, here are a few more strange Lithuanian things:
Window cutouts at the University of Vilnius
The now-jagged road abutting the presidential palace
On January 1, 2015, Lithuania entered the Eurozone and adopted the euro. To show how sad they were to be leaving the old currency, the litas, behind, Lithuanians began drawing teardrops under the eyes of the figures featured on the litas. As can be expected, the Central Bank was none too pleased, but the people kept doing it anyway, because the litas were crying to be leaving the people's pockets in place of the euro.
The former mayor of Vilnius, Artūras Zuokas is especially proud of bringing the first IKEA in the Baltics to Vilnius, and is perhaps most famous for driving a tank over a car parked illegally in a bike lane (see video below).
Lithuanians used to think their language was super unique, until they realized that it's mutually intelligible with Latvian. So they embarked on a big campaign to take out foreign loanwords to make it more different than Latvian.
During the Soviet era, religion was more or less outlawed. However, Vilnius has hundreds of churches (and before World War II had over 100 synagogues as well). The churches were originally Catholic, turned into Russian Orthodox to appease the Russian Empire, reverted to Catholic in the first independence era (1918-1940), turned into Lutheran churches under the Nazis, and at least one was turned into an atheism museum by the Soviet Union. It is now a Catholic church again.
In the 1820s, Lithuania wanted to reconstruct what is now the presidential palace, so they hired a Russian architect who had never been to Vilnius and made his design based solely on (inaccurate) city plans provided to him. The result? Not only does this palace have a stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb green roof instead of a red one like everything else in Vilnius (the architect happened to prefer green), but the design was too big. And they only figured that out afterwards, when the palace pushed into the street and up very close to the University of Vilnius building across the street. The Lithuanian solution was to destroy part of the university's building, making a once-straight road temporarily jagged. But even more entertaining, perhaps, is the fact that the now outer wall of the university has window cut outs but no windows, since no one got around to installing them.
Zebricorn
OK, so now on to the best part, Vilnius's really weird sense of humor. There's a district called Užupis that, on April 1, 1997, declared independence. Užupis, which literally means "the other side of the river," is an artists' colony and is everything I imagine an artists' colony to be. They have a statue of the original backpacker--Jesus--and a statue of a zebricorn (a zebra-unicorn hybrid, although he is sadly missing his horn). A visa costs you a smile, and life can be paid in happiness. Užupis is guarded by an angel, but because the statue of the angel took too long to complete, the republic was originally guarded by an egg, from which the angel hatched when the artists finally got done with the angel statue. Užupis has a constitution with some pretty amazing articles, and my favorites are (but I encourage you to read the whole thing here, because it's so weird and so good at the same time):
3. Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation. 10. Everyone has the right to love and take care of the cat. 11. Everyone has the right to look after the dog until one of them dies. 12. A dog has the right to be a dog. 13. A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in time of need.
So that was my day in Vilnius. I spent a good chunk of it laughing at how a people descended from the great Grand Duchy of Lithuania have adapted to being a middling, but proud, member of the European Union. They're not the poorest, but not the richest. Not the saddest, but not the happiest. They keep a healthy positive attitude that was extremely enjoyable to be around! And as promised, here is the former mayor driving a tank over a car.
I hear that this will be a blasphemous statement, but I think I prefer Warsaw to Krakow. Don't get me wrong, Krakow was nice with all its history, but for me, Warsaw is more a city. With things to do and monuments and buildings to see that aren't centuries old. And for that reason, I think I preferred my time in Warsaw. I made this decision after a long, cold, misty/drizzly day walking all around the city.
Columns for Warsaw Ghetto's
pedestrian footbridge
My hotel happens to be a bit of a walk from the Old City, but there were still some really interesting things to see along the way. Rather than heading straight for those sites, I decided to take a short detour through the Mirów neighborhood, which was a part of the southern section of the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Mirów happens to contain one of the most famous images of the Ghetto, the pedestrian footbridge that the Germans built to ease access between the two main parts, since a major street happened to run through the Ghetto's location. Located at the intersection Chłodna and Żelazna Streets, the footbridge no longer exists, but the steel pillars that held it still do. One thing I've learned about Warsaw in this trek is that most of the city--85 percent--was destroyed during World War II, so old things that remain are unique or reconstructions.
Palace of Culture and Science
I eventually wound my way back to a central intersection, where Marszakołwska meets Jerozolimskie. Every guidebook and "what to do in Warsaw" website I looked at said that this was a good place to start my journey. At one corner is the Palace of Culture and Science, which darts up from the city skyline. It is the tallest building in Poland and definitely has an important feel to it. I didn't go into the museum inside--I considered it, as the clouds were really starting tot mist with force--but I really wanted to press onward to the Old City.
Warsaw, like Krakow, has a royal route from which kings would often pass, especially on the way to their coronations or other important events, such as their baptisms. The route contains Castle Square which, as you can probably guess, is anchored by a castle. I happened to get there around the time that a trumpeter began to play a song that is still stuck in my head, several hours later:
Buildings in the Old City
I continued past Castle Square into the Old City. Old City was actually destroyed twice during World War II. The first time was during the German invasion of 1939, when he Germans bombed the area. Polish citizens rebuilt it, only to have the Germans destroy it again following the Warsaw Uprising. Apparently Polish citizens used old drawings and sketches to rebuild it as closely as possible using as many original bricks and decorative designs as they could find. While it looks good, the scars of war and destruction are clearly evident in many of the buildings, including those beyond the Old City.
Madame Curie
A couple of monuments later, including one to what I surmise if Poland's favorite daughter, Marie Curie (she's right up there with John Paul II and Nicolas Copernicus in people that are honored a lot!), I finally started to make my way back to the roads that would bring me back to my hotel. But then I heard horns and drums and what sounded like marching. I was right, that's exactly what was going on. So of course I needed to go check it out. In front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in a grand plaza, many distinct security units from the military and police were marching. A guy near me told his friend that it was practice for an upcoming Polish celebration in a few days (November 11 is Polish Independence Day), but I cannot confirm the veracity of that claim. In any case, it was pretty cool and I am glad I stumbled upon it.
The military exercise
With that, I meandered through Warsaw's version of Embassy row before heading back to the hotel after what became a 10-mile trek through the city. I also learned along the way that Herbert Hoover's middle name was Clark (he has a square named after him near the Polish Presidential Palace). And Warsaw honors Charles de Gaulle with a circle and put a palm tree in the middle, which is a very weird sight, especially when it is only in the 40s.
To end, here is a video of the military exercise on the plaza:
This trip isn't all fun and games. I decided to take a day yesterday to visit the World War II concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, an essential trip when one is so close. Krakow is about 90 minutes by bus from Oświęcim, the town known for hosting the camps. I woke up early to catch a 7:50am bus to the city and arrived with plenty of time to spare before my 10am tour. When I got there, however, I decided that I should use one of the guides, pushing my tour time back to 10:30.
Auschwitz is the fourth major Holocaust remembrance site I've been to, after Yad Vashem in Israel and the Holocaust museums in Washington, DC, and New York. As such, I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from this visit, but I don't think it met my undefined expectations. More than a day later, I'm still trying to put my finger on what it is that seemed off with the way the camps were presented. This by no means is a way to take away from the horrors that happened there, but the three memorial museums took time to explain what happened, whereas Auschwitz's approach seemed to be more, "This happened here. Period." Other than what looked like a makeshift memorial site set up at the end of the train tracks in Birkenau, there didn't seem to be any focus on the people; more focused on the operation.
Between two barracks in Auschwitz I.
The tour itself took us through some of the old barracks in Auschwitz I, the original part of the camp, and showed some of the things recovered after the war, such as the tons of hair, eyeglasses, suitcases, shoes, etc. There was also a walk through the torture chambers the Nazis used, and a walk past photographs of hundreds of the victims. After circling Auschwitz I, which I found much smaller than I expected, we took the bus to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the famous part of the camp. It was at Birkenau that the Nazis built the mass gas chambers, had the train unloading platforms, and planned on housing hundreds of thousands of people. This side was bigger than I expected, and walking the length of the camp and around to some of the restored barracks gave a sense of the scope of the killing.
The memorial at the end of the train tracks.
I'm glad I went; I would have been very upset had I not taken the journey out to Auschwitz. It was definitely a full day trip and is something that every person should be forced to see so that the line "Never Again" sinks in. Today I took my Jewish tourism to a happier note by going around Kazmierz, the former Jewish district of Krakow. A few synagogues and Jewish-themed places, but sadly, that to me seemed like the extent of the district's Jewishness.
A synagogue in Kazmierz
Kazmierz is Krakow's Jewish District.
And for today's video, some live music outside a restaurant in Kazmierz today:
I've been in Poland just over 24 hours now and have walked around quite a bit to get a sense of my surroundings, even though I'm only here one more day. Before hitting the somber notes from a day of visiting and walking around the Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps (I'll compile my thoughts and aim to publish tomorrow), here are a few of my (sometimes amusing) impressions of Poland.
I love the way the light was hitting the
church in the central square.
Polish has vowels. They don't like writing them, or saying them, but they do exist if you listen hard enough. It sometimes sounds as if they are trying to fit as many garbled sounds into one word as possible, and every now and then, if I listen hard enough, I can pick something out either because it has a cognate in English or there's some similarity to Russian, which I studied 10 years ago. I was thinking about how to phrase this and was thinking that a Wheel of Fortune reference would probably be in order, but they all seemed long-winded to me. Alas, I can't always be witty.
There is an obsession with receipts. Don't get me wrong, I love me a good receipt when I paid for something and need a record of it, but I do NOT need a record of when I go to the bathroom. Today, I had to use one of the public toilets that cost 1zł (zł stands for złoty, and it's currently about 3.89 złotych to 1 USD). So 1 zł, about 25 cents. To use the bathroom. And I got a receipt. I was trying to think about who I might need to show the receipt to, but came up empty. Instead, it just proved the obsession with handing out receipts here.
Obviously there was a giant marijuana leaf walking down the
street. Oh, you mean that's not normal?
Poland is ridiculously cheap. Further on the theme of money, I have determined that Poland is really cheap. Part of it is a favorable exchange rate (at the upper end of the range over the last decade), but in general, things just seem very cheap. No complaints, just an observation.
If there is a line, Polish people will find a way to swarm it. Queuing, to steal a term from our friends in the UK, is not a Polish strong suit. Cutting lines and trying to push five people through a space clearly meant for one person at a time appears to be a common occurrence. The corollary to this impression is that personal space is just a foreign concept.
You have two religion options--Catholic or Jewish. It seriously feels like everyone is in one of those two camps. I suppose there's good reason it feels like this; official statistics say that 33 million people, 87.5% of the population, are Catholic. Strangely, there are only about 20,000 Jews in Poland, but the strong current of Judaism through Polish culture and history is evident. As such, while most citizens may be Catholic, it definitely seems that most tourists are Jewish.
Wawel Castle Cathedral
Finally, it's nice to blend in. I'm used to traveling places where I stick out just by virtue of being there. Or me carrying a backpack is a sign that I'm an outsider. In Poland, I can look like a local (although I think there is a distinct Polish look, which has as much to do with physical features as it does the average person's way of carrying himself or herself) even when I'm carrying a backpack. Or rolling a suitcase down the sidewalk, because it seems normal. I get that part of this is being in a city like Krakow, and being in a tourist section, but I found this to be true even the farther away from the train/bus station I got. I don't automatically stick out.
Smok Wawelski, Krakow's very own fire-breathing dragon!
As of now, I've really only spent time in Old Town Krakow and some of the surrounding neighborhoods. Tomorrow I hope to go to Kazmierz, the Jewish district, which has many synagogues and other Jewish-y things about it. We'll see what I find!
For today's video, I bring you one I took of a street performer. There are a lot of street performers in almost any major city in the world, but I find that they are much more visible here in Krakow. I even saw a bit of a dueling music interlude between this man playing the guitar and a guy with an accordion a little bit later. It was pretty sweet!
It's been 10 month since I used this blog, in large part because at some points it felt more like a chore than an enjoyable thing to do. But now I'm going off on another adventure, and so I figure there's no better time than now to try to revive it and see if it holds. So off to an entry!
I don't believe in horoscopes. I absolutely LOVE to read them, but the idea that the positions of random stars and planets in made-up houses could somehow determine my fate and the fate of the hundreds of millions other people born around the same time of year as me across many different generations is, frankly, preposterous. I love reading them, though, because I find it a way to think about what's coming. It's impossible for one person to focus on everything all the time, so I sometimes use my horoscope to focus my energies and give me a little bit of direction. Sometimes, however, the horoscope confirms already-created plans, as it did this month.
I'm off on an adventure today. I've been telling friends for weeks that this is my soul searching trip. I went straight from college to real world and never did those few weeks to find myself. Well, now here's my chance. Three weeks of travelling will hopefully let me find myself, my wants, my dreams, and when I return, strengthen the relationships I value while cutting those that are a drain on my being. I've had mini versions of these in the past, but this is one that I'm doing completely on my own terms.
Which brings me to my horoscope. How are these related? (I promise, this ordering all makes sense in my brain!) Buzzfeed had a "What's your horoscope for November" page, and this is what mine is:
It’s okay to feel introspective this month, Sagittarius. Take stock of YOU and your feelings before the holiday rush takes over. Delve deep rather than wide.
Woah.... That was my plan for November! I suppose I was looking for some sort of confirmation about how to do my soul searching (remember, I see horoscopes as guiding forces), but this was almost too spot-on.
And with that, I will make November an introspective month as I traipse around Eastern Europe looking for myself, delving deep into my soul as I explore the beautiful countries and cities and sites my destinations have to offer. Stay tuned to hear about the locations I visit and the things I find out about myself!
I almost forgot my video. Thanks to the very funny Jimmy Fallon:
