Spring and Road Trips

Riga- Old and New

Riga Dome Church 

Spring has definitely arrived in Tallinn…later blooming bulbs are appearing, adding bright touches of red and yellow which contrast the rapid transition to shades of green.  Winter coats have disappeared- although I still stuff a beret in my pocket and wrap a small scarf around my neck-just in case the wind is from the water.. What is most amazing is that in early May, the twilight extends until 11 pm.  The season of ‘white nights’ is approaching, when everyone stays outside singing and drinking around huge bonfires. Supposedly on St. John’s day (June 24^th), there is a tradition of leaping over the burning fires- no one seems to remember why (we will unfortunately be gone by that time- although I doubt that I would be able to stay awake that late into the night.).

These past few weeks have also been a time of multiple road trips, providing us an opportunity to see more of the region. (Although the idea of a road trip feels a bit like an oxymoron. Aren’t we already ‘ on an extended road trip’ in Tallinn?  What does it mean to on  a road trip from a road trip? And what or where is home anyway?)

 Spring road trip #1- I was invited by the US embassy in Riga, Latvia to teach several classes and workshops for ‘International Dance Day’.  We hopped the 4-hour bus to Riga, arriving a day early to explore and see how the city has changed since our last brief visits 14 years ago. 

Orthodox Cathedral

Art Nouveaux Building 

First impressions: Riga is a big city.  It is charming, bustling and quite different from Tallinn in many ways. The older part of Riga is laid out with several wide, green, and well-used parks.  The Daugava River runs through the middle of the city and there is also a smaller moat that provides additional trees and grass for public hanging out. We explored the old town and visit churches as well as the Orthodox Cathedral, which had been beautifully renovated. Its inner sanctuary was filled with colors dominated by pastel blues, pictures of saints and many ornate metal-covered saint icons, fronted by stands for prayer candles. (No pictures were allowed, unfortunately). Next on the spiritual buildings tour, we visited the beautifully renovated synagogue where I remember attending Yom Kippur services 14 years ago. (Unfortunately, we were unable to make it back for services this time.)

Our walking continued, the decorative Art Nouveaux district, is next to the old townand  filled with elaborate, ‘wedding cake’ buildings.  Each building was unique and elaborately covered with stucco sculptures of plants, animals, dragons, cloth-draped men and women and lace-like decorations filling all remaining available space.  Even without a map, it was easy to find the buildings, you just needed to follow the hoards of tourists, walking with cameras out and peering upward.  

Two boys being creative....

Next, the Latvian Art Museu housed in a large mansion with double, ornately carved curved staircases. What is most interesting about local modern art museums is to see how local artists responded to major art trends Impressionism, Fauism, Romanticism, in ways the uniquely reflect their own heritage and culture.  The day we were there, we saw children and adults drawing pictures in front of a photo exhibit, and  we also chatted with a group of young people who were ‘fixing water damage to some of the museum rooms’ as part of the city-wide ‘fix-up Riga day’. Of course, we went to Riga’s  ‘famous’ airplane-hanger central market and wandering around made me wish I have a kitchen so I could buy the fresh produce and cook it up.  It looked like you could get anything at the market –veggies, fruits, fish, meat, cheese, spices (some hard to find in Tallinn,, dried legumes,  flowers, plants for gardens, fresh baked bread and cakes, to name a only part of what was available.  The action was lively, primarily in Russian and the products were more varied and artistically laid out than in Tallinn. 

International DMT dinner

In addition to the sights, I loved meeting and doing some workshops and supervision with members of the Latvian DMT community. I also got to teach a workshop for local choreographers and one for the larger dance community (45 people in that last workshop…whew !!!).  I was impressed by the depth and openness of these wonderful people.  They moved from deep places and asked thoughtful questions. I was also pleasantly surprised by how far both the DMT community and the modern dance community have come since soviet times.   An added bonus to being in Estonia, is that I get to meet dance/movement therapist from all over Europe, including, Germany, Prague, Great Britain, Finland and of course the Baltics.  It is fun to meet with various colleagues and share our work, perspectives and struggles. 

Town Hall Square in Tartu

Spring road trip #2: Tartu.  Arriving back from Riga I had two days to teach a few classes before hoppingon the bus again, this time to teach a DMT workshop in Tartu, Estonia for staff at a school for children and adults with several mental and physical disabilities. And, of course, we arrived early to explore. Highlights included wandering this small university town- the ‘soul’ of Estonia which was green, easily walk-able and edged by a broad flowing river.   For me the high point of our exploring was going to the Song Festival Museum and spending time viewing films of song festivals going back to before World War II.  I was deeply moved and tearful to hear the songs and stories of how music and dance kept Estonian/Baltic identity and spirit alive. The power of these two creative art forms was a unifying and transformative reality throughout the times of war, invasion and oppression.  For me, the Baltic journey toward autonomy and independence is such a strong contrast to more contemporary struggles for freedom, and, although the lived experience for local people was still oppressive and traumatic, it seems so much less violent.  In conversations about this with local Estonians, I an not sure how much of possibility of the ‘singing revolution’ reflected a different time in history, what was a reflection of Baltic/Northern European cultural characteristics and how much has to do the with what other means were or were not available for that struggle.

Tartu - view from St. Jaani Kirke

Tartu River 

Spring Roadtrip #3: And now we are sitting in the Tallinn airport, to fly to Copenhagen for 6 days. We will have several days to explore and then I will be attending a body-base attachment workshop while Bruce visits a student who currently lives in Aarhaus.  More later…

Food appendices: As spring approaches, the food options are becoming more varied and fresher. Traditional Estonian (and Baltic) food reflects the seasonal options of lands that are located far to the north and so dark and cold much of the year. Estonian traditional dishes include potatoes (which actually have a rich creamy taste and are served boiled and topped with dill for flavor); cabbage in all forms (both pickled and used in place of lettuce or any other green leafy vegetable);  a seemingly infinite range of pork products (with different words to describe each form, cut and age of the pig involved); fresh and smoked fish of many types (although salmon seems to be the default fish product).  The traditional Estonian soup is hernesupp or dried pea soup made with pork (of course) and carrots (NB: the plural of soup is supid –giving rise to many possible puns in English); many types of mild cheese and many different varieties of yogurt, kefir and cultured milk products, often in a range of fruit flavors.  A wide variety of fruit is available, although we are especially enjoying oranges from all over (Spanish blood oranges, Moroccan clementines and Italian juice oranges). I am also making a lot of apple and pear dumplings, wrapped in pastry dough. Finally, Estonia has outstanding dark bread…although we have to search in local markets (turgs) and bakeries (pagars) for the best dense, multi-grained loaves. 

View of Tartu from Fortress Hill 

Beyond local fare there are many different immigrant tastes available. The large and varied Russian population has contributed a special soup called Soljanka- made with at least seven types of meat (usually pork, ham and sausage), tomato, vegetables, plus pickles and olives and served with a dollop of sour cream.  The immigrants from Kazakstan and Azerbaijan contributed all sorts of flame-seared meats or shashliks, usually served with bread and cabbage salad, as well as meat dumplings with sour cream (these are called pirogi, or pelmeni or Russian ravioli, depending on the restaurant). Another basic staple is chocolate and fancy cookies and cakes…its hard to image how people stay so thin when they seem to be constantly meeting friends for coffee and sweets !!!!

Riga Market produce

Pickles and cabbage for sale

Less typical foreign foods are also available, as we have mentioned before, Asian restaurants seem to offer a combination of South Asian (Indian), Chinese and Thai foods…although the flavors are a bit more subdued that you might find in other places of the world.  However, we have also been able to find some incredibly delicious food in our explorations of Tallinn and other cities. In Riga, I had dinner with a few local DMTs and we want to an incredibly elegant French restaurant- with curry and scallion infused butter spread, a rich, dense  fish soup, good quality wine and perhaps the richest beef bourguignon I have ever tasted. In Tartu we went to a Chinese restaurant that, surprisingly, had only Chinese food- and one of the dishes was a spicy sauced eggplant dish—crisp on the outside and meltingly soft on the inside.  We have also found some delicious South Asian/Indian restaurants in Tallinn (most Asian restaurants seem to have cooks/chefs from India or Pakistan).  Of course Japanese sushi is also the big rage everywhere we have gone, and across the street there is a cheap, basic sushi place, complete with Manga films on the wall and waitresses (all are young women) in kitty ears headbands. There are also many pizza and Italian places, although we often opt for more varied options. So, we are not going hungry and it is fun to see spring produce slowing make its appearance in the local stores and markets.

Well, I better leave some details for Bruce, tervitustega (with health…) Barbara