Inese Dūka

Where the wild horses run...

Hmm... It has taken me less than 3 months to write something new in my wonderful homepage… ;-) Ok, ok… I know it’s dreadful. But at times I am just overcome with sloth… So I just had to find a great reason to over come it. And looks like I have found it…

Arta invited me for a ride again! This time we headed west. As far west of Latvia as it goes. So our destination was Liepāja. One of the biggest Latvian cities that lies on the very coast of the Baltic Sea. Both of us were really curious but for different reasons. Arta had never been there. Well, that is not quite true, her father flew her there when she was 5 years old, but that doesn’t count, does it?… During our trip I remembered that I actually had been already 3 times to Liepāja. The most recent one being in 1996. But somehow the city hadn’t managed to impress me. So I just wanted to see if my opinion has changed. As I believe in criticising things that you know something about… First-hand knowledge preferred…

Saturday, the 9th of October was the date. We had agreed that Arta would pick me up at 9 o’clock. Already at 8 I was woken by her worried phone call. She was wondering whether we should go, as the morning was rather bleak and drizzling. The drizzle didn’t seem like an obstacle for me…

So a bit after 9 Arta was at my doorstep and we embarked on our journey. Well… first we had to find a gas station and fill her up… but after that we were finally ready to leave the capital city. It was around 10 am. We were an hour late. And time was important, as it already gets dark before 7 pm and we had a drive of roughly 230 km ahead of us. The first half of the journey I was very familiar with because originally I am from a tiny village near Saldus, which is halfway to Liepāja. But once we had passed Skrunda (some 30 km west of Saldus) the road was new to me too.

The weather cleared up somewhere after Saldus so we were driving towards a rather clear sky and some sunshine too! We were pleasantly surprised by the well repaired roads but not pleased at all with a crazy/drunk hitch-hiker who was so keen on going somewhere that he walked almost to the middle of the road… Once we got to Grobiņa we were pleased with the sight of a whole garden of wind turbines. That warmed my heart greatly, as I first saw such things when I first went to Denmark… Both of us were getting hungry but before we headed to Liepāja for some food we decided to take a look at the Kapsēdes dižakmens – the big stone of Kapsēde. It is the highest stone in Latvia. Though first we got a little lost and found Rudais akmens – Gingery stone…

Then it was finally off to the city of Liepāja and to find some place to have a decent meal. Very fast we were able to find a nice and very convenient parking place right next to the central post station. And even faster we found a place to eat. Looking through the window it seemed to be a very posh place but we entered nonetheless. And were pleasantly surprised. At least by the prices. Both of us had pork chop the size of a big guy’s palm and something to drink and we paid just 3.30 LVL!! And the meal tasted really good too. All the while we were sitting and marvelling at the interior. Because everything there was fake… Even the flowers on the table… But altogether it actually looked stylish!! ;)

We had decided to devote no more than an hour for sightseeing in Liepāja, as we had promised Arta’s mom to take pictures of a cult spring further south. But as soon as we entered the church of Holy Trinity it was clear that we’d have to change our plans. From outside it looked just like any old church. But the inside… Was uncharacteristically posh and golden for a Lutheran church. That was the result of a fierce competition between the German parish in Liepāja and in Rīga. So at one point till 1912) the organ of this church was the biggest in the world!! As in many other churches in the bigger cities you have to pay in order to be allowed to take pictures. Here it cost 0.50 LVL, which I was willing to pay, as I really liked the interior. For another very modest 0.50 LVL we were allowed to climb up the tower to enjoy a bird’s eye view of Liepāja. The buildings are not so nice as looking on Rīga from St. Peter’s tower but in Liepāja you get to see the sea. And the whole ascent to the top of the tower is far more interesting. You get to see the tower clock’s mechanism, the bells and even the joists above the vaulting… very interesting indeed!

Then we headed to the old centre of the city, where nowadays is the market. Some of the little streets could impress even me!… After having bought some snacks for dinner we headed back to our car to drive to the seaside. Though before that we also went to the canal to see the fishing boats and the nice wooden sculptures.

It was very nice to see some waves in the sea because the couple of times I have been to the seaside this summer the sea was very still… As soon as we saw almost everybody bent down we understood that they must have been searching for amber washed ashore. After some initial hesitation on our part (after all we grew up with the horror stories how people thought they had found amber but it turned out to be phosphorus and they ended up being badly burned) we embarked on the hunt ourselves. For both of us it was the first time we have found amber ourselves. When our parents were young that was a very usual thing to do when visiting Liepāja. After all we sing about the Amber Sea… I guess we became slightly greedy and we ended up leaving the city of Liepāja only a bit after 5 pm…

Our road lead straight down south towards the Lithuanian border. Our destination was the Sventājas svētavots – the cult spring of the river Sventāja. After talking to several locals we reached a road over a field into the valley of the river Sventāja though no visible signs of the spring. On the other side of river we noticed a post with some coloured inscriptions. We took it for a sign of some sight. Hehehe… all of a sudden I realized what the colours on the post signified… That was the Lithuanian border post… good that we didn’t attempt to cross the river… So in the last daylight we found the cult spring. Its water is said to have great healing power. Yes, it did look very nice with its straw roof and the biggest bird-cherry tree in Latvia… but that’s also where it ends… see for yourself!!

This was to be the last stop of our journey. Wonder why the title of the story involved wild horses?… we didn’t get to see them – their working hours were over 2 hours before we arrived there… but at least now we know them and are planning a trip to see them at the end of the month when Mogens is back in Latvia!