-
- I missed a lot of good places in the Latvian capital of Riga because in the middle of every block, or sometimes at several points in each block, there’d be an archway and tunnel leading to a courtyard, sometimes surrounded by apartments but sometimes by bars and cafes, like this Tex-Mex joint.
-
- I think Matt Hagengruber and I had our best meal at this Turkish restaurant on the road to Plovdiv. Look at all the kebabs on that grill!
-
- And in Plovdiv we heard these two old-timers. The one on the right was wearing a U.S. Air Force hat. The guy on the left? Isn’t that the kind of hat you used to see on donkeys? And I’m not being disrespectful.
-
- Outside the Red House Centre for Culture and Debate in Sofia, Bulgaria, Matt Hagengruber unwinds, and unties.
-
- Hipsters drink coffee in Plovdiv.
-
- Also in Plovdiv, buildings of more recent vintage loom over a partially excavated Roman theater.
-
- In Sofia, at the entrance to what was either a church or a church-connected building, a trio of, apparently, patriarchs.
-
- In Jelgava, Latvia, we came across a car belonging to a Harry Potter fan.
-
- Speaking of cars, this Jaguar was for sale in the Frankfurt airport. If I could have squeezed it into my suitcase, I would have bought it.
-
- An angler in Jelgava fishes in one of the city’s two rivers.
-
- In the Museum of of the History of Riga and Navigation, there were all kinds of model ships, including this one, which stood about 6 feet high.
-
- Downtown Riga, where there are so many beautiful buildings.
-
- In the courtyard of a monastery attached to the Riga Cathedral, this stone head, so reminiscent of the Toltecs of Mesoamerica, was on display. The sign next to it was a bit confusing, but the head was apparently a religious object associated with some pre-Christian inhabitants of the region.
-
- This beautiful patio was part of my hotel in Riga, but it was too wet and chilly to use. Next time…
-
- In front of the Presidential Palace in Riga, candles were lit on Nov. 11 to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
OK, now that I’ve posted these photos, I am well and truly done with writing about my travels to Bulgaria and Latvia. (Just click on any thumbnail and it will take you to a slideshow.)
Can I close by extending my thanks to everyone who made this trip possible? It all started, as I mentioned in the first installment of Travels with Xavi, with Matt Hagengruber, the former Gazette reporter now working at the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria. He and his colleagues had to find an emergency fill-in for a journalism professor who was scheduled to make presentations on media literacy and related topics in Bulgaria and Latvia but had to pull out.
Matt asked me to be that fill-in, and after passing muster with the powers that be, off I went on what was surely the strangest and most unexpected adventure of my life.
It was several days before I could feel anything but overwhelmed, but in time I felt unbelievably lucky, and honest-to-God honored to have been involved in this project, especially after I witnessed how important it was to all the many people I met in Sofia and Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, and in Riga and Jelgava, Latvia. I was infected with the sense of seriousness everyone conveyed, because over there the debate about press freedom and freedom of expression is not merely academic; it’s life or death, and holds one of the keys to the future of those countries.
I’d thank people by name, but considering that I couldn’t put a face to more than three or four of the several dozen business cards I came home with, let me extend my general thanks (make that THANKS!) to one and all.
