The ol' USSR

Riga, Latvia

Sorry it's been a while since I posted. I think all the trouble I'm having with pictures is discouraging me a bit! I am going to buy a mini laptop that will make it easier (and cheaper) to get online and also let me take care of photos, so once I figure out how to get it, I will have it!

I'm currently in Riga, Latvia, having just traveled through Lithuania and soon I will be off to Estonia. All three baltic countries were formerly in the USSR and it's an interesting place to visit. Things are mostly like western europe but every now and then you see some big communist piece of architecture or an ugly old athletic stadium or something like that and you realize that this place used to be very different.

It's funny, these people have only been independed since 1991 and although there are still problems with crime and poverty and so on, they have come a remarkably long way in a short amount of time. I think the more I travel, the more I am impressed with how resiliant people are. I have only been in Latvia for a couple days so I can't say too much about this country yet, but I spent over a week in Lithuania and visited many of the communist area sites, like the former KGB headquarters and prison (they actually shot people in their own basement), and learned about the gulags and how easy it was to be taken there. For example there's a freedom monument here in Riga. If you put flowers there, or were sympathetic to it in anyway you'd get an all expense paid trip to Siberia. Kind of funny that the government represses something actually called the Freedom Monument. I wonder if the Russians really had any concept of what they were doing, or if they were just following orders and ignoring the rest.

In Lithuania there is a place called the Curonian Spit which is a tiny little strip of land about 1km wide that goes for about 100 km along the baltic cost. It's a bit of a mystery how it formed and on it you can cycle or travel along. There are huge and beautiful sand dunes where from the top you can see the Baltic Sea on one side and the Curonian lagoon on the other. Beyond the dunes it's forested and there is wildlife everywhere. I wish I could get the pictures to work...

As for me, things are going well. I feel like I still have a lot of energy now that I have taken a couple of days off at the beach. However, I got myself a pretty solid sunburn yesterday so I'm going to be sore and itching for a few days. Also, I think that stupid recurring sinus infection that I had in Canada is coming back as my throat has been sore for a while. If it gets worse I will have to go see a Latvian or Estonian doctor and try to score some antibiotics. Damn this thing is frustrating. it just won't go away. I'll probably have to do the same thing again in a few months... Maybe some oldschool chinese medicine dude will know of something that can actually fix it!

After Estonia I am flying to Turkey and I'm really looking forward to it. Still trying to decide when to work teaching english in China but I think I HAVE decided that Shanghai is the place for me. It's the first place in China I have been truly excited about the prospect of living in. Lucky for me it's a big city that should have lots of work.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm off to do some writing to try and solve my money woes.