‘Twas Tuesday the 17th February and my 3rd full day in Latvia. Shortly after clambering out of bed and proceeding with a much needed yawn and good stretch, Inese came back into the bedroom as her usual smiley self with a “good morning” and suggested I perhaps should take a gander out of the bedroom window. Upon looking out, I was greeted by a rather heavy, though pretty snow flurry but was informed that temperatures have so far managed to not go too much below 0°C, which is pretty mild by Latvian standards this time of the year.
Today’s site seeing destination was to be The Latvijas Etnogrāfiskais Brīvdabas Muzejs and we had planned the night before that we need to get up quite early so that we’d be able to get ready, such as getting washed & showered, have breakfast and do some errands prior making our way to the museum on the outskirts of Rīga.
Breakfast saw a nice surprise as in addition to the black tea and savoury sandwiches with cold sausage, melted cheese and cucumber in the form of some sliced bread with apple pieces, lots of cinnamon, good sprinkling of white sugar plus a dollop of thick cream put under the grill till they were nicely toasted and caramelised… Yummy! :D
As Inese made a large thermos full of tea for later and packing the flask into her ruck sack, I fiddled about with making sure my DigiCam was functional and that I had my hat and scarf with me so as to keep nice and warm.
With all kit in check and time just gone 10:00 a.m., we headed out to catch the trusty old Nos. 2 tram. After a short wait at the stop, the tram arrived so myself and Inese hopped on… with all new passengers onboard, the tram headed to Rīga city. No need for me to pay the 0.20 Ls today as my 5 day tram & trolley bus ticket was now valid and I just needed to hand it to the conductor to check its validity.
Disembarking at 13. Janvāra Iela, our first stop was Rimi housed in the Universālveikals Centrs on Audēju Iela. There were important things to purchase, top of the list being something to eat for lunch! Inese seemed to know exactly what she wanted as from the various counters picked up some pīrāgi, sometime more specifically known as speķa rauši plus some poppy seed rolls and meringue puffs.
So it was time to head to the check-out and pay for our goodies then the strategically placed displays reminded me that I needed to get some alkaline batteries for the DigiCam as I didn’t have anything which could charge the NiMH cells I brought with me, so I grabbed a pack of Duracell® and followed Inese through the check-out paid for our items.
We were to take either the Nos. 3 or Nos. 6 tram from Krišjāņa Barona Iela to The Latvijas Etnogrāfiskais Brīvdabas Muzejs; though on our walk there, we took a slight detour to Brīvības Bulvāris as I wanted to get a better photograph of The Pareizticīgo Katedrāle since the one taken from the night before didn’t come out very well at all… was a bit like a black cat in a coal shed in actual fact.
Luckily, as trams are frequent in Rīga so it wasn’t long till a suitable tram arrived, which myself and Inese boarded then sat down and enjoyed the 8km ride to Julga, taking about 20 to 30 minutes in all travelling along Krišjāņa Barona Iela, Brīvības Iela then Brīvības Gatve.
Time was now around 12:30 p.m. and we had reached our stop at The Tirdzniecības Centrs and would now make the last kilometre or so to The Latvijas Etnogrāfiskais Brīvdabas Muzejs by foot. But before this, we popped into the shopping centre so myself and Inese could visit the little boy’s and little girl’s room respectively. A good bit of foresight since it would be another 3 to 4 hours till such amenities would be come across again whilst we were getting in touch with Mother Nature on the museum grounds… On a side note, I know that the Rimi chain is near ubiquitous; I certainly didn’t expect to see one inside The Tirdzniecības Centrs taking up half the complex. It did all look a bit odd as the centre was nearly devoid of shoppers, but it obviously does get it’s busy times.
Back outside Inese and I braved the elements and the snow flurry which had been falling fairly lightly since we’ve been out seemed to reinvigorate itself and was now coming down quite heavily as we walked along the footpath parallel to Brīvības Gatve. As we walked, Inese pointed out that if we carried on walking along this route… we’d eventually arrive in Tallinn, Estonia. The 500km trek would certainly not be for the faint hearted as one would more than likely succumb to a combination of hunger, exhaustion or hypothermia if one wasn’t suitably prepared. :D
Just before 1:00 p.m. after about 30 minutes walk, we arrived at the gates of The Latvijas Etnogrāfiskais Brīvdabas Muzejs. Regarding the history of the 100 hectare site, here’s a quote from their own website:
The museum was founded in 1924. Eight years later, when the museum was opened to the visitors, it became a true cultural institution in the republic of Latvia. It may well be that people began to seek the links between Latvia as a nation state and the content and form of the museum.
“The Open-air Ethnographic Museum wishes to collect the cultural manifestations of our nation in the same way that they were created and used in the past. We hope to depict scenes which preserve the content of life in antiquity, as depicted in buildings, their surroundings, their contents, their interiors, and their objects of everyday life and work”. That is how the mission of the museum was described in 1932 by Pauls Kundzins, the museum’s founder and director of construction.
Tickets for normal admission were just 0.50 Ls to 1.00Ls per person and the guided standard excursion is between 3.00 Ls to 8.00 Ls depending on the size of the party, taking about 45 minutes. Inese led the way and the route taken is probably best explained by viewing the photographs I took in sequence. Trundling about the museum in the middle of February when the snow is shin deep probably is sometime best left to the brave though having someone who knew the way certainly helped as the route was quite disorientating at times as everything was blanketed in snow.
In all, our tour took a total of just under 3 hours, which Inese said is about ball-park if you wish to see the museum properly, though we did take a number of picnic stops and I certainly gave the DigiCam a good work out snapping away at all the interesting things I saw. The Latvijas Etnogrāfiskais Brīvdabas Muzejs is very much “sui generis” and definitely worth a visit, which should it occur during any time other than January or February, one might catch on site events or festivities which Latvians celebrate such as Easter, Midsummer Eve, Autumn Solstice and so on.
One other thing which surprised me was the fact the museum was allowed to live on during Soviet Russian occupation of Latvia, even if rather under-funded and neglected since in Soviet China during the 文化大革命 (Great Cultural Revolution), many cultural and religious artefacts were purged. Still, I was left a little saddened by the fact I’m not seeing these bits of Latvian culture in situ since they had been moved from where they originally were, but perhaps that is a better fate than being lost forever and this is what the museum’s primary objective is.
