Going back in time...Soviet Russia

Today Rob and I visited a town on the western coast of Latvia called Karosta. Karosta was constructed in the late 1890's as a naval base for the Russian Tsar, and later served as a base for the Soviet army. Up until 1994 Karosta was home to more than 25,000 military personnel and their family. The city was complete with naval shipyards, military hospitals, soldiers' barracks, and housing for all military personnel and family. In 1994 Latvia gained its independence and the Soviet army moved out of Karosta, leaving the town abandoned but intact. Eventually some people moved into the town but there are hundreds of huge Soviet buildings still standing that are falling apart...and extremely spooky.
We went to see the Karosta military prison (very appropriately featured on Ghost Hunters International, fyi) and got a tour from an ex-Soviet military officer whose goal was to let us experience what life was like for soldiers in the prison.
A typical day for the 80+ inmates started at 5 am when the single bathroom was opened for only 30 minutes (and soldiers could just use the bathroom twice each day). That was followed by 18 straight hours of marching, military indoctrination, military training (aka running while wearing a gas mask for 2hrs), and doing other manual labor. The soldiers went to bed at 11pm and slept in concrete rooms on a wooden slab--no pillow, no blanket. Then, repeat until the soldier had completed his sentence.

FYI: Though stylish, the mask isn't as comfortable as it may appear.

Outside of the prison, this small, basically abandoned town has some spectacular sights. We were just walking down the tree-lined street, looked to our left and saw this:
It's a huuge, elaborate Russian Orthodox naval cathedral! The Tsar built this cathedral, a royal palace, and other impressive buildings to complete the naval base. Not exactly what we expected to see in a town of about 7,000 current inhabitants!

Even though the history of this town is kind of crazy, I hope somebody eventually gets the money to restore those huge Soviet buildings. It's a really beautiful and interesting place.
***And if you're dying for more pictures, here's another slideshow. :)