Any Excuse to Travel

Stories from travels in

Latvia

Light relief?

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed – it is a process of

Shopping, anyone?

Tell me that  it’s not a place for tourists and I’ll move it to the top of my list. Tell me it might be dangerous,

The Cats of Riga

Me: Why is there a  cat on everything? Random local: I don’t know. Me: Why is the cat the symbol of Riga? Tourist Information Office

North of Riga to Majori

A good friend of mine once told me that he envied me my faith. Another, a confirmed ‘dirt man’, thought that it must make life

Point Percy at the porcelain

Notable by its presence I was in Riga, Latvia, last week and it was quite the experience. I know now a lot more about the

Be still my beating heart

There’s a lot in what we choose to call a place. Names come with reputations. I know. I did my first MA in Oxford Brookes

Moving city

It’s been a long time since I’ve visited a city I thought I might live in. No matter how fleeting the thought, it was there.

The door to hell

I was under the impression that the KGB had disbanded in 1991 – but apparently, it, or a version by the same name, is still

Sublimimal messages

As I was reading Henning Mankell’s The dogs of Riga in January, I never guessed for a minute that I would end up in the

The hedgehog in the fog

I don’t think I’ve been this far north in Europe before. Yes, I’ve dipped my toes in the Arctic Ocean but that was in Alaska.