The Baltics - Tallinn & Riga

Latvia State University - Riga, Latvia, USSR

I took this photo from our hotel room window, which looked out over a park separating Old Riga - the city's historic center - from the campus of the national university. The park borders a small canal that follows the outline of the city's medieval fortifications, most of which were dismantled in the mid-19th century. The university's iconic "main building" is in the center of this photo. The domed tower is an observatory. It tops a science building a block or so behind the main building.

I shared a hotel room with my friend, Geoff, and two high school boys from Florida. A private bathroom was not included. Instead, common bathroom facilities were located on each floor. This was typical of our hotels in the Soviet Union. Other than the bathroom arrangements, I recall the hotel as pleasant and attractive.

After breakfast, my travel group met with our Intourist guides. They welcomed us to Riga and told us about the plans for our time there. Then they went through a list of "do's" and "don'ts" to follow while we were in the Soviet Union. The "do's" were pretty much common sense - stay with the group, pay attention to the scheduled time for meals and excursions, and so on. The "don'ts" were a different matter:

• Don't talk to local people unless they are introduced by our guides.
• Don't give or accept gifts unless our guides give the ok.
• Exchange currency only at official locations. We were warned that we would be approached on the street to exchange currency at better than official rates. Don't do it. It's part of the "black market." (More about that later.)
• Don't buy or sell clothes or personal items on the street. Again, the individuals are involved in the black market.
• Don't photograph military or naval facilities, equipment, or uniformed soldiers and sailors.
• Don't photograph factories, bridges, dams, power plants, transmission lines, airports, train stations, port facilities, or other industrial or "infrastructure" facilities.

I think we were given a written list of these prohibitions, but unfortunately I did not save it. The penalties for breaking the rules included possible expulsion from the country. I was sufficiently intimidated, and I steered away from most of these activities. Some other members of our group were more bold.

After the meeting, I returned to our room to find Geoff in an awkward conversation with two of the hotel maids. They apparently spoke some German, as did Geoff. (I had studied German for a few years in school, but I was a mediocre language student and no help at all in this situation.) The maids were angry because our roommates had left a mess - bedding and clothes on the floor and so on. The message was that we were a bunch of slobs, and they should not have to clean up after us. Geoff managed to placate the maids after a few minutes, and they left. We cleaned up the room.