A shopper's paradise and Latvia's Switzerland

Lest you think Latvia is just a bunch of old Soviet prisons, here are some pictures showing a little bit of the rest of the country.

Riga, the capital, is the largest city we've been to so far. It has an Old Town section with cathedrals dating back to the 13th century and cobblestone roads lined with little kafejnikas (cafes) where people sit and visit.
Riga also has the largest market in the Baltic region--housed mainly in 5 converted Zeppelin hangars in the heart of the city. It started in 1930 and is still going strong. Each of the hangars has a different theme: dairy/cheeses, meat, fish, breads/pastries, and veggies.

This is me, clearly in paradise. :)

Outside of the hangars are hundreds of individual stalls selling anything your heart could desire. For all of you Bostonians, it's like Haymarket on steroids.

This is Rob, also in paradise (sampling a delicious Latvian pastry from Hangar #2).

After we'd had enough of the hustle and bustle of the city, we took a day trip to Sigulda, a little town known as "The Switzerland of Latvia."
It was a beautiful fall day and all of the leaves were changing colors. We hiked around, took a gondola ride over the river, and saw some cool old castles (we still can't believe we're really doing all of this!).
**More pictures below:

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. :)

Tallinn, Estonia: Let the Adventures Begin!

Here's a catch-up blog post for anyone who's been wondering where the Ellis' have disappeared to...

After a very laid-back summer, September has been completely full and is flying by! After Rob finished his internship, we had a few fun trips (pictures to follow on some later posts).

Skipping forward to the present, we flew into London on Sept. 19 and had about 10 days to kill before Rob's school started. We decided to begin our European, year-long adventure with a trip to the Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

On Monday evening we flew into Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. We took a bus into historic "Old Town" Tallinn where all of the cool sites are. By the time we got in it was dark and this was our first real view of the city:
Cool huh?

The Old Town looks a lot like it would have back in the 13th century; stone towers and walls, meandering cobblestone roads, and old churches. A lot of the buildings still standing today were originally built by merchants/cobblers/brewers/etc who were prominent medieval citizens.
We learned about a really interesting part of the Baltic countries' history when we visited the Estonian Museum of Occupation. Estonia only gained its independence in 1918, then at the beginning of World War II was invaded by Soviet Russia, then Nazi Germany, and then again by Soviet Russia (remaining behind the Iron Curtain until 1991). With each wave of occupation, Estonia took a beating (it's tough to be a little guy trapped between two of history's greatest bullies).
People were friendly (and spoke at least a little English), and the food was awesome. My absolute favorite were these huge Estonian pancakes stuffed with either savory meat/cheese or sweet fruit combinations.

Raspberrry and Sweet Milk (aka sweetened condensed milk) Pancakes

We also found a place that served old-school (as in Medieval) Estonian meals complete with Troubadours and medieval costumes.

Mushroom soup with spelt bread; and sausage made of bear, elk, and boar with turnips, sauerkraut, lingonberries, and onion jelly...yum

Since this post is already long enough, if you'd like to see more of our Estonia pictures just take a look at the slideshow below.

Next stop....LATVIA!