Riga II

A Georgian appetizer plate looks like my worst nightmare. Little blandly-colored blobs that look tuna- or mayonnaise-based. Ew. But the blobs are actually good, and made of things like beans and nuts not tuna or mayonnaise. According to the guidebook, the purpose of Latvian food is to provide fuel to farmers for working in the fields. It is hearty and heavy and not bad, but not that interesting. Enter the best Soviet holdout that I know of -- Caucasian food. When it's good, it's flavorful and interesting and different and really good. So far we've had one mediocre Georgian meal and one pretty good Georgian-Armenian meal, presided over by one of those pushy/helpful women who told us exactly what to order (at a restaurant whose menu warned you'd be charged 50 lots (about 75 euros) per hour if you stay past 10pm), and tonight I'm drowning my first-solo-meal-of-the-trip sorrows in scary-looking appetizers and Georgian wine. (Not sorrows exactly, but my friend that I was with for the first part of this trip is a good travel companion.)

Anyway, today the Latvian State Art Museum finally opened so now I've seen some Latvian art. It's a good museum, but 19th and 20th century Latvian painters and sculptors basically did what European painters and sculptors in general were doing then, so there wasn't much there that was super new. The depressing thing is that the works are presented chronologically and in the mid-1930's they just end. The Baltics finally got theiry happy ending, at least. Now if only the EU would step in and demand some better opening hours.