Liepaja, Latvia

We spent today in Liepaja, Latvia. I had no expectations of Liepaja since I had never even heard of it until checking to see what the next port on our itinerary was. Here’s how the daily Currents introduced it. “Liepaja is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region and the third largest city in the country after Riga and Daugavpils.” That wasn’t especially helpful since I’d never heard of them either.

Only 2 cruise ships dock in this port each year, ours being the first one this year. You would have thought they would be eager to see us. Ha! I won’t go into any of its history, but since regaining its independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, Liepaja has been working hard to change from a military to a modern city. Although currently home to 70,000 residents, Liepaja didn’t even appear on the map during the secrecy of the Soviet period! There are buildings here that look really nice while others are still in disrepair. It’s obvious that Liepaja is trying hard to make a comeback but rebuilding obviously takes time.

There is a good public transportation system here, although we were dropped off in the city center and did not need to use it. It consists of buses, trams and trolley-buses (which we did not see).

 

active tram system

view of waterway from bridge

a fair amount of graffiti

crumbling buildings

while a nice hotel sits nearby

 

modern buildings co-exist with ones like this

 

buildings in various states of repair

We took the shuttle into the heart of town just to have a look around. We walked a few blocks down to an outdoor/indoor market. I noticed that the majority of the vendors were older women selling their fruits and vegetables to other older women. Neither the vendors nor the locals were friendly. Normally I’m able to smile and greet someone and get a positive response. But that wasn’t the case here. I’ve always heard that a smile is the universal language, but no one returned one despite my best efforts. 

scowling vendor

 

The produce was beautiful with an abundance of blueberries, curly yellow mushrooms, many varieties of tomatoes, currants (?), various other vegetables and the largest watermelons I've ever seen. Their weather is obviously ideal for growing food, at least in the summer.

one section of the open market carried clothing (cathedral in background)

 

Latvian is the native language but there are some who speak Russian as well. Perhaps a few of the younger generation might speak a little bit of English. I was clearly at a loss trying to communicate with the elderly woman whose pink dahlias I photographed. I tried to tell her how beautiful they were but she couldn’t understand me, nor could I understand what she was saying to me. Perhaps she thought I was asking to buy them. So after going back and forth a few times, I finally thought to say the word “dahlias” and she responded positively. I hated to disappoint her but I really don’t have a place for them on the ship. 

 

gorgeous dahlia

 

After strolling through the veggies and flowers, we went inside where there were more vendors selling anything from baked goods, meat, candy, personal goods, etc. Some of the meat looked like what we might find at home (although ours is generally packaged) and some you couldn't possibly identify. Let's just say that no part goes to waste. They even had whole fresh turtles (only minus shell).

 

don't look if you have a weak stomach

on a tastier note...

The weather was once again perfect (high of 71) so after milling around for an hour or so we decided to hop on the shuttle bus and head back to the ship for some lunch. With the weather so pleasant, we enjoyed eating on the deck. 

There's not a lot I can share about Liepaja due to my own lack of knowledge and experience. We obviously would have seen and learned much more had we taken an excursion today, but we were satisfied to just to enjoy being outside and seeing what we could on foot. Based on that alone, I would say that Liepaja is an interesting city with lots of contrasts, one that is in the process of re-building itself.