New Year’s Eve Toast: Take Two in Riga

 

On New Year’s Eve in Riga, the capital of Latvia, my friends and I went to a renowned restaurant in the old town. The seven-course Réveillon dinner attracted revelers from many nationalities, with the largest group from neighboring Russia. The band was playing oldies and the waiters were busy refilling our champagne glasses, when at 11 pm all the Russian patrons boisterously stood up. After kissing and hugging one after another came over to us for a toast. Sensing my surprise, a young blond woman pointed to the time on her Rolex gold watch: 12 am. It was midnight in Moscow! We kissed (the Russians no longer kiss strangers on the mouth like the Soviets did) and hugged. Then everyone sat down and resumed dinner and conversation. At midnight Riga time, we all got up again for a second toast, just as jolly as the previous one.

At dinner, we were treated to French champagne, but the previous night at the opera we tasted the Latvian variety, Ŝampanietis Rīgas, or champagne Riga. If the wine is imported from France, Spain or Italy, the bubbles are Latvian. The result is a light sparkling wine of decent taste. I am sure that the prickly French will soon object to the fact that the Latvian call the stuff champagne!

Over the Christmas and New Year holidays, Riga was brimming with tourists, mainly from Russia. This Baltic nation, and Riga in particular has always attracted Russian interest. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great snatched Riga from the kingdom of Sweden. He even contemplated moving his capital to Riga. His second wife, the future Empress Catherine I, was possibly Latvian. During the Russian occupation thanks to its port and industrial activities, Riga was the third largest city of the Empire and was never a backwater place. Very much to the contrary, the Russians regarded Riga as their cultural playground, both by aristocrats during the Czars period or retired armed forces personnel during the Soviet regime. According to an American friend of mine who was studying in Moscow in the 1960s and travelled to Riga, the city “was a whiff of Europe in the grey lands of the USSR”.

                    

Russian immigration was encouraged during the Soviet occupation which in turn dispatched train loads of Latvian citizens to Siberian gulags. Now about 30% of Latvia’s two million inhabitants are ethnic Russians. The Baltic States were independent between WW I and WW II and they became independent again in 1991. Since the mid-2000, Latvia has once again become one of the most popular destinations for Russian tourists principally during the Christmas New Year period.

Riga has been designated 2014 European Capital of Culture (jointly with Umeå in Sweden). A tourist windfall is expected during the celebrations. January 17 has been earmarked as the official kick off. Tourists will discover the city’s well preserved historic center and its rich collection of Art Nouveau buildings which illustrates its pre-Soviet bourgeois past.

                   

Classical music is also high on the city’s agenda. Performances of Rienzi, Wagner’s first opera will start the musical festivities. In 1837, when Wagner was working in Riga, he began composing Rienzi but had no time to finish it. In three years he had accumulated huge debts and as no one wanted to bail him out, he decided to flee Latvia to avoid prison. During his entire life, Wagner lived beyond his means and was always on the move running away from either his creditors or his mistresses’ irate husbands or both.

On January first we lived an historic moment: Latvia switched to the euro to become the 18^th member of the much maligned currency club. At the stroke of midnight we could use euros and were given the first shiny coins featuring the Latvian maiden and the Latvian’s coat of arms. At first, the local population was not keen on the euro fearing price increases. The switch apparently went well and now the Latvians are warming up to the euro. A new prime minister has been elected, a lady who will have to make sure that Eastern European “financial tourists” don’t flush too much dirty money into Riga’s banks, otherwise Latvia risks becoming the Cyprus of the Baltic.

                   

Riga is branding itself as the stag party capital of northern Europe, possibly as a way to separate themselves from Eastern European tourism. Hordes of British men lured by cheap booze and friendly party girls visit the city, courtesy of low cost airlines. This is not lost on the zealous Russian mafia, which is welcoming them with its dedicated staff of blond beauties. Many stag party goers get caught in the girls’ nets and return home with an empty bank account.

The three Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, are always lumped together by the ignorant rest of the world. They couldn’t be more distinct, culturally, linguistically and religiously. The Baltic Sea and the three-century long Russian and Soviet occupation are their only shared links. According to cognoscenti, Latvia is the most Baltic of the three countries, Estonia and Finland were separated at birth and Lithuania is Poland’s baby sister.

In 2010, I visited Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania which is smaller than Riga, less touristy, slightly provincial but with a more picturesque historic center. Riga’s so-call medieval old town is a bit of a letdown; however the Art Nouveau district compensates for the disappointment. I have read many positive comments about Tallinn, the capital of tiny Estonia; coincidentally stag parties are not yet the rage in this city. A 2015 New Year toast in Tallinn looks like a worthwhile option to consider.