BACK FROM RIGA
back in dublin. i took a long while to get in today. watched some tv and got breakfast. after a few weeks away there’s nothing in the fridge and the apartment needs cleaning. and our lone plant almost died! but i watered it and it looks good now.
some of the more striking impressions of riga before i forget them all…one of the things that really struck me was the cultural performativity i witnessed in all of the ethnic restaurants i visited. in japanese restaurants the waitresses wore ‘kimonos’, and in indian restaurants saris with bhindis. the waitresses in a korean restaurant dressed like korean air flight attendants from about 10 years ago. the unsettling thing is that in all of these establishments the wait staff were female and local, creating a strange feeling of unintentional ethnic parody, a sort of benign objectification which while meant to be charming, had the effect of making me feel like a participant in some kind of touristic play-acting turned in on itself… me: a visitor to latvia, visiting japan or india (with latvians performing as japanese or indian) for the night. it was for me, bizarre and slightly uncomfortable, though the food in every restaurant i visited was really great.
money: prices were much lower compared to dublin. ireland ties with finland as the most expensive country in the euro zone - so this is not surprising. requests for change on a 20 LAT note were recieved like trying to pay with a 100 EUR bill for a piece of bubble gum. there were amber jewelry vendors everywhere. in the baltic region amber is plentiful, and the sight of the golden flecked jewelry was ubiquitous. at night on the weekend the atmosphere was rowdy, with lots of noise and yelling from partying groups until late into the night. our hotel was just across the street from a place called ‘the pupu lounge’ - pupu, i was told translates into breast in english. along one old town street on saturday night we saw a blond girl trussed up like an early britney spears dancing on a bar counter to a heavily bassed up version of ‘toxic’ through the windows of the establishment. the day before we saw a horde of people line dancing to ’step to my lou’ on a wooden platform in the middle of one of the historic squares. they weren’t wearing cowboy hats but the country music vibe was clearly there. - later i found out from one of our hosts that line dancing became popular because women could dance together without being restricted by social custom that women must have a male dancing partner.
riga.. the city, was beautiful. it and the other baltic cities of vilnius and talinn are on unesco’s world heritage list. my memories now include slightly dusty cobblestones, umbrella protected outdoor cafes, beautiful buildings, and stumbling upon a wedding celebration in a small courtyard while on a psychogeographical walk, following the rose petals strewn along the street leading to the church where all the wedding revelers had come from. of course there was the RAM5 workshop, hosted by RIXC, which i spent most of my time in, but i like to treasure the other memories i’ll have of riga and latvia.