Goose Tour 2009: The Vanguard Has Arrived

Some of us ended up heading to Riga a few days earlier than the rest of the group. Andy, Sarah, Joe and myself arrived on Saturday, July 4th around 5 pm local time and were met at the airport by our guide, Zanete (it's kind of a Latvian version of Jeanette or Janet). She was standing outside the baggage claim holding a sign with "Wild Goose Chase Cloggers" printed on it. This was the first time that I've ever been greeted in such a fashion, and I kind of expected that the paparazzi would have been alerted to our presence. I also braced myself for the inevitable onslaught of screaming teenage girls, but there was hardly anybody around, and those that were there didn't even give us a second glance. Oh well....

We got settled at the hostel where we are staying, cleaned up, unpacked and debated the merits of sleeping (we all had been up for around 36 straight hours by that point) versus heading out for a beer and a look around. Beer won. We're located right next to a train stop, so we were soon on our way to downtown Riga.

We wondered around for a bit, bought some groceries and various items, and caught a train back to the hostel. Sleep soon followed. FYI: they mow the lawn at 6:00 am here in Latvia.

We headed back to downtown this afternoon and snagged some coffee. Zanete met us at the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, and we were given a tour by a guide named Edgars. The museum shows the history of the occupations of Latvia by both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany (Latvia finally gained her independence in 1991). A very somber place, but a great museum nonetheless with a nice collection of artifacts and photographs.

We wandered around some more, grabbed some dinner, and headed back to the hostel, whereupon I typed up this post. Following are a few of the photos that Andy and I took:

Our guide Zanete