Cake

The weekend!

You would think that - being on holiday - it would make no difference to me, but this part of the city is a mix of commercial and residential, so it is much quieter than on a weekday. In addition, many apartment dwellers will have summer houses in the country (or family there to visit) and so they escape to make the absolute maximum of the short summer. 

To us Brits a “summer house” conjures up a vision of the “second home” strata of society - reasonably prosperous. Around here often it means a small plot of land used to grow fruit and vegetables with a fairly basic dwelling on it - no heating, perhaps running water and perhaps an “outhouse” in the garden.   

I decided to change my routine to mark the weekend’s arrival. I went to the supermarket to buy lunch to make for myself in the apartment instead of eating out. I was lucky, and what I bought turned out to be exactly what I thought it was. 

In another change to routine I took the tram in and out of the city centre rather than walking. I was lucky there too - I got where I wanted to go. The announcements on the tram are in Latvian only, so I got a crash course on how to pronounce a few street names. 

Aye, still learning. 

My only real tourist experience today was to tackle the Latvian Academy of Sciences building - Blipped. It is also known as Stalin’s birthday cake, which is weird because the building dates from 1957 and Stalin died in 1953. I suppose it is the thought which counts. 

It is a feature of the city’s skyline, obviously, but I had never been there before. It has an observation platform on the 17th floor, so I reckoned the building would be quiet at the weekend and the lift would be safer. The views from the top were worth the €6 fee. One is an Extra.