In March, I went to Riga, Latvia. It looks like this. It's fairy tale grunge chic.
Above are the three brothers: three buildings which flaunt their Gothic, Baroque and Dutch Mannerism architectures. The architecture below is just called tiny.
Even the fences are cool.
This is the best picture I got of the Stalin's birthday cake building, which is now called the Academy of Science. It's 108 meters tall and towers over the otherwise less impressive area.
The other main Soviet artifact is the Latvian Riflemen Monument, which is a tribute to the Riflemen from WW1, especially Lenin's favourites.
The beauteous marvel in Riga is the House of Blackheads, on the right. Notably, the location of the first Christmas tree (awkwardly outside and to the left).
Explained below, this was a merchants' club, and they chose an African head as their, uh, decorative motif.
They advise to take this into historical context and not find it troubling, but I failed.
Excellent and also troubling is the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.
It's the best museum on horror and death I've ever visited, and these are surprisingly numerous! I learnt about mass deportations, and I later learnt that this lead to multilingual/split families upon repatriation.
I'm making Riga sound gloomy, which it wasn't at all. To regain your optimism and cheer, please note that the Latvian Mycological Society named the cute little parrot toadstool as the Mushroom of the Year! They love their mushrooms. Singapore (3x bigger) doesn't even have a mycological society.
In March, I went to Riga, Latvia. It looks like this. It's fairy tale grunge chic.
Above are the three brothers: three buildings which flaunt their Gothic, Baroque and Dutch Mannerism architectures. The architecture below is just called tiny.
Even the fences are cool.
The other main Soviet artifact is the Latvian Riflemen Monument, which is a tribute to the Riflemen from WW1, especially Lenin's favourites.
Explained below, this was a merchants' club, and they chose an African head as their, uh, decorative motif.
They advise to take this into historical context and not find it troubling, but I failed.
It's the best museum on horror and death I've ever visited, and these are surprisingly numerous! I learnt about mass deportations, and I later learnt that this lead to multilingual/split families upon repatriation. 
I'm making Riga sound gloomy, which it wasn't at all. To regain your optimism and cheer, please note that the Latvian Mycological Society named the cute little parrot toadstool as the Mushroom of the Year! They love their mushrooms. Singapore (3x bigger) doesn't even have a mycological society.
