Riga 3

Velta was tending the bar with few customers so we chatted a bit.  Bartending whilst creating a career in the film industry.  We will keep in touch on FB

Back to the Disterers Republic try their gin

The bartender understood my instructions on adding Blue Curacao to change a martini to a “Blue Whale” (albeit sans vodka).  Perfect !

Looking at the parts burnished by people unable resist a wee touch the armadillo reminded me of Greyfriar’s Bobby

Very impressed by the quality of local craft brews so far

It didn’t take long for me to become part of this N. Ireland Stag Do.  The craic was good

Hot and 2.5 miles so far, dogs need a rest.

Look up! Amazing what art adorns old buildings

The Ukrainian flag high over what I’m told is the TV building. Slava Ukraine!

The monument to the 1905 uprising

The 3 are the Latvian Riflemen Monument

Now the point of the Baltic part of the trip:

A dozen years ago, in the Plockton Inn, I met a waitress from Estonia who spoke the cleanest, most accent free English I had ever heard and I commented on that. Shea asked if I wanted to hear her Russian which was probably perfectly pronounced too. Why? I asked.  She told me that in Estonia children were taught Russian so they could speak with their invaders, and English so they could speak with their saviors! My American mind was blown!! I recalled that a few weeks before this wander when I saw that Estonia schools would no longer be teaching Russian as they were no longer afraid of being invaded by their aggressive neighbor. So I decided to visit Estonia to ask people what they personally felt about security at home with the war in Ukraine going on.Planning the trip I found that there was a ferry that crossed the Baltic from Helsinki to Tallinn so add that to the the bucket list and check it off.

I probably spoke to 75 people in Helsinki, Tallinn & Riga about their feelings and am very happy with what I learned. They are not afraid.  They don’t lose sleep because they trust their governments and NATO, and that the second most powerful military in the world turned out to be the second most powerful in Ukraine. Nobody fears a nuclear attack because the Russian oligarchs, whose children are educated in the West, want them t grow up to be billionaires, not dust. And there is a consensus that the Russian Federation will collapse in a few years, faster if Putler falls out a window, because they produce nothing other than military equipment, the people are tiring of sending sons to the meat grinder and with the sanctions on the only exports, oil & gas, the economy is failing. I agree.