January 24th, 2010 
Sheila Simkin New batteries in my camera, men tearing up the sidewalk in front of Hotel Irina trying to find the electrical problems, we strolled over to the Central Markets right by the bus terminal. The gigantic Central Markets is the Baltic’s largest marketplace and were originally used as Zeppelin hangers during World War I. Each of the five hangars/buildings sells something different…View image. For example, meat, fish, groceries and dairy products while stands outside the hangars sold everything from fresh produce to clothing.
We picked a hangar/pavilion/building (whatever you choose to call it) at random and this happened to be all meats. Chickens, huge hunks and sides of beef, all parts of a pig and more. How about pig ears with sauerkraut… The second building was loaded with cheese. What kind of cheese you might ask? I did recognize goat cheese but haven’t a clue about the other varieties since every little sign was in Latvian and most of the sellers only spoke Latvian. There were also stalls selling honey. Jars of liquid honey, honey combs, candles and little figures made of honey.
The next building smelled wonderful as soon as we walked in. Cole slaw, sauerkraut, pickles, beet products, pickled garlic. Very yummy smelling and looking. By far, the most interesting counter with a pleasant woman who only spoke Latvian, sold tins of horse meat, moose, boar, cow, and what also looked like moose salami.
The produce building was boring. The outside produce section was more interesting with fresh fruits, vegetables, watermelon, those little orange and red berries that I think are lingonberries, or a form of lingonberries, along with newspaper kiosks.
Back into Central Riga with colorful trams…View image…and inside a gorgeous mall selling Prada, Kenzo and other name brands with equally beautiful, thin and gorgeous blondes handing out perfume flyers.
Continued after that to the hotel to replenish power in my camcorder but still no power. The very nice receptionist let me plug into an electrical socket operated by generator while we ran back out for a fast dinner before the concert and to get caught up on the group news. It seems that when when Patty came back to the hotel last night, a man in a hoodie was standing in front, ripped an amethyst necklace off her neck when she approached and ran. She and Signe paid a visit to the police station to fill out a report. FYI: There were also signs in the tourist office to watch out for pickpockets. Patty is short, wore her jacket open with the necklace showing, and it was a situation of two women alone. With a man present, I don’t think it would have happened but be careful.
Ate an early dinner at Chili Pica…View image, a chain throughout the Baltic Republics…View image…with a large and varied menu. ex-Marine had pizza, we split a greek salad and I tried typical Latvian mushroom dumplings. Their dumplings are little half-moon shaped ones, similar to ravioli and not the big fluffy ones I expected. Tasty.
It was raining again by the time we walked to the Small Guild for a chamber music concert at 6:30 p.m. with Diane Ketler on piano and the Latvian Radio Music Chorus. The Small Guild is exquisitely decorated in gorgeous wood paneling…View image, and stained glass windows. I think the figures in the stained class were the guild members…View image. The first piece was Brahms which we liked. The second piece was a piano concerto written by Peter Vask that was very powerful, but long and boring. It was a good thing we didn’t voice our opinion out loud because it turned out that the composer was sitting right in front of us! The chorus sang four very short songs, intermission and we were out of there. Just not our cup of tea but the ambiance was fantastic.
Another full day scheduled for tomorrow…
The “Historic Baltic Republics” will be continued in February, 2010…
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