Dancin' in Riga

While I want very much to jump to the end of this story, I'll start at the very beginning. Because it's a very good place to start.

The bus left Tartu at 6:30am, bound for Riga. I was on my way for a concert, "Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games" which started at 7pm. With a four hour ride to Riga, I had lots of time to kill. I tried to sleep a bit on the bus, and managed to spend about an hour somewhere between conscious and unconscious. When we arrived in Riga, I spent about two hours in the bus station reading. I finished "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," Agatha Christie's first book (checkin' off another book on the 2015 Reading Challenge!) and started the next book before deciding I should go pick up my concert ticket.

Can our malls have staircases
like these?

It had started snowing, and I bobbed and wove through vehicles to the mall. It was somehow bigger than I was expecting, having passed it several times on my list visit to Riga. I wandered through every floor, and even went into the bookstore. The English selection seems larger than in Tartu, and they were a bit cheaper. I nearly bought a book. I thought about it, I looked at it, I started reading it. But I stopped myself. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is still up for debate.
     It looks like Riga is the place to be to buy shoes as well. There were so many stores full of gorgeous, classic shoes. If I had space and money...

Cars like these make me feel like I live in a Top Gear episode.

Feeling productive after scratching off the first step to get to the concert, I headed for the centre of town where all the public transport seems to converge. I'd originally planned to walk to the arena, but I figured why not give public transport a try. The more I travel, the more I realize that, aside from the potential language barrier (and most machines have several language options), public transport is pretty easy to figure out. My problem becomes that I like figuring out how it works by myself, which means it takes a bit longer than if I asked someone how to get from point A to point B. I walked between stops, looking at where each tram/bus/trolley-bus went when it left the centre. And I just moved from stop to stop until I found one going where I needed it to. This process took probably a bit more than an hour. But I did it all on my own!

Once I had tickets to the station bearing the arena's name, I looked for a place to eat a late lunch/early dinner. At first, I headed toward a pizza place. The prices on the outside were pretty cheap and the number of people inside told me it was probably tasty. But the quantity of people meant there was little, if any, room for li'l ol' me. So I headed to my back-up plan: Oriental food. If you don't know, I love Oriental food. I've only tried one of the Oriental restaurants in Tartu, but have plans to try a few more. But! there was plenty of room in this place, and I ordered some sweet & sour pork (one of my favourites). While very different from the stuff at home, it was also really good. I prefer the rounded disposable chopsticks they gave me to the rectangular, splinter-filled things you get in the US. These were some good quality chopsticks, for being single use (and even if they were multi-use).
     Anyway, with a table to myself, I pulled out my book and ate. I slowly drank my Fanta, after all I didn't have anywhere to be for a few hours. Once I'd finished the book, I packed up to head to the arena.

So I get on the tram, and I get off at the stop labelled "Arena Riga." I do not see an arena-looking building, so I pull out the directions from the Arena's webpage. Unfortunately, it only labels larger streets, and in very small print. And the map I have of Riga shows mainly Old Town. In map-limbo, I figure I'll wander until I find it. You can't hide an arena, can you? And I've given myself roughly 2 hours until the show. I thought about heading 3 hours early, but figured if the stop's right in front, I'll just be standing out there. Hindsight is 20-20, and I should have probably gone for the 3 hours.

Anyway, I wander right a few blocks, then back. Left a few blocks, and then I try straight. I refer several times to the directions from the website, not finding any of the same street names (if I'm honest, I didn't quite follow the instructions, but I was in the right neighbourhood). About 30-45 minutes later, I find the first street name that matches. I follow the street...

And find a second name that matches. Now the directions say "go up the street until you see Street 3." Streets go both ways, and I'm not sure which way is "up", but I try to match the convergence of streets to the little tiny map. Five-ish blocks later, I'm starting to worry about time, and I haven't seen anything. I've wandered around, left and right. I've resigned to asking for directions. I pop into a shop and ask the lady there if she can give me directions, to which she replies, "No." That's the first time I've even attempted to ask for directions... that I remember at the moment, so a big step. That didn't pan out. So I start heading back toward the point on the map that I knew where I was.

Time keeps ticking, and I finally find a road lined with cars. That's usually a pretty good sign there's a building full of people nearby. The cars wind toward a large building. Good sign #2. That building is... not the right one. Dang it! But there's a stream of people flowing past the building to another one. I check the street name, and sure enough, we've reached street 3! Joining the pack, we find another good-sized building labelled "C." Great. At this point, I've got around 15 minutes until the start of the show, and I'm not even entirely sure this is the right building on this street. Going to the front of the building, right where I'd put big light up letters spelling out "Arena Riga" (if that is indeed what this is), I find nothing. Continuing to look for confirmation, I find smaller than expected lights displaying the arena's url. Good enough for me.

They check my bag (not unexpected), and confiscate my water bottle. All right. Sure. This place is usually an ice rink, but why not. I will then be more intrigued at this when people bring their beers and other such beverages into the concert, but whatever. After "security," I attempt to use the cloak room to stow my backpack, but they don't take backpacks. Luckily, the seats are high enough off the ground that my pack slides underneath. Not quite what I'd planned, but it works. The LOTD:DG logo lights up a large screen and the Celtic tunes I know and love waft quietly through the arena. Eventually, a woman with an English accent comes over the speakers asking that phones be put away. The lights dim, and the ticking begins.

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I sometimes wonder if I would be as connected to Celtic "culture" if my name wasn't Celtic. I mean, I sat through that entire performance with the most ridiculous smile on my face, because Irish dance and tap make me unusually happy. I have the same feeling when I hear bagpipes. It's another one of those things to add to the list of, "Man, I wish I could do that!" If I wasn't so old...

I'd noticed this when I'd watch the old LOTD movies my mom has, but while I'll admit Michael Flatley (or in this case the man playing the role of the LOTD) has skills, he doesn't seem to actually do as much as his "background crew." He does a lot of walking across the stage and gesturing at others. Then he pops through the middle of whatever's happening and does the signature arm moves while he taps away. Oh, I'm not saying it's not impressive, because it is, but he almost seems more the name that the guy doing the most work.

Anyway, it was fantastic. Per usual, there's a bad guy trying to steal the title of Lord of the Dance, and there's a dance off between a blonde & a brunette. The Lord of the Dance, through the power of movement, vanquishes the evil and gets the girl. The lighting/projection/graphics were awesome, and most of the costumes were pretty spectacular. And only one dancer fell. Overall, I loved it. It was definitely worth the huge layover and bits of panic as I tried to find my way. I'd do it all over again in an heartbeat. And the smile stuck on my face all the way back to the bus station.

The musicality of the Latvian nation definitely showed through a bit. You can't help but clap the beat, and they were not only on beat, in sync, but were able to change the tempo as the dancers sped up. They put every American audience I've been part of to shame.

I was the youngest person for many many rows. And while I feel a bit bad about recording this, it was the encore. Nearly every other person around me, however, had whipped out their phone at some point to record a portion of the actual show. So, I feel I still have the moral high-ground. Stage lighting makes it hard to see, but half the fun of Lord of the Dance is listening. You can see one of the light blobs moving around in the front; that's the Lord of the Dance. The show actually starts by saying evil has the upper hand now since the Lord of the Dance has been replaced with a younger upstart. Kudos Michael Flatley for pointing out your superiority. There's a recording of him at the beginning to get the ball rolling, and at the very end of the show he has a dance sequence were 3 Flatley's try to outdo each other. I know that he participates in the show when it's within the British Isles, and I'm wondering how it changes. Does he just do the portions he's filmed live? Does he become the Lord of the Dance? That second option would change the show quite a bit...

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"Take one long sip & remember how great
life tastes." I'm hoping the "long sip"
doesn't mean drink all 1.5L at once.

I walked back toward the station at which I'd gotten off the tram, and waited. Since I'd left, construction had started up at the station, throwing a kink in the works. But Since I was headed the other direction, it wasn't as big a deal. Roll with the punches, people. Roll with 'em. I ended up getting back to the bus station an hour before my bus, and without any drama. Seems I didn't need to spend the energy looking up the number for cabs, in case the show ran late/I got lost/etc. Made this a cheaper trip than I'd anticipated. Always better than the alternative.

I'm writing this from the bus, headed back home for the night. I've replaced my confiscated beverage with one much tastier, whose label currently suits my mood. Between that and my giant juustustritsel, I should be covered for the ride back. The big question is: what do I read now?

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While I thought about spending my time visiting embassies/consulates, since the map I have of Riga shows where they all are, I did not end up doing so. But, by chance, I did pass a couple:

So, I'm not entirely sure this is actually an embassy, because I didn't get a good look at the flag to confirm it was that of a nation, but I think it was the Japanese flag.

Icelandic Consulate