I’ve been in Latvia for two weeks and I’m settling in for ten months of living in the country’s second largest city, Daugavpils, population 82,000.  The city has everything any small city has, restaurants, a university, stores, hospitals, churches, one synagogue, a library, music, theater and an incredible Mark Rothko Museum.  Rothko is the most famous person from Daugavpils. 

Latvia is one of three countries that make up the Baltics, Lithuania and Estonia are the other two.  The Baltics have a rich and painful history.  They were under Russian and Soviet occupation from 1944-1991.  The Second World War and Hitler saw the slaughter of nearly all the Jews living in the Baltics. What was once a thriving Jewish community, 70% of Daugavpils was Jewish, barely shows up in the census.  My grandparents escaped from Lithuania in the early 1900’s when the Baltics were occupied  by the Russians. 

As I walk the streets of my new city, people look familiar to me.  Somehow I blend. I notice that people don’t stare at me and often approach me speaking either Latvian or Russian.  I assume I look familiar to them as well.  The DNA is deep. 

The food is reminiscent of all the food I ate growing up–food that my grandmother made and came to be comfort food for me. Potato pancakes, known to Jews as latkes, are everywhere, on every menu, whether an upscale restaurant or street food.  Everything is served with sour cream.  Borscht, cold beet soup, comes with sour cream and hot potatoes to add to your soup.  There are blintzes, crepe-like, stuffed with cottage cheese or meat, knishes, empanadalike, stuffed with meat or potatoes. No matter what they are called, the taste is the same and the comfort is embedded in the food. 

We spent the weekend in Riga, the capital, and a large cosmopolitan city with lots of Michelin restaurants and everything else a large city has to offer. Most people spoke English and even though I felt very comfortable, I was glad to get back to Daugavpils.  It’s a great walking city and totally flat, as is the entire country.  I found a great Olympic pool to swim in and a place to try my hand at pottery.  I’m teaching a few English classes to people in the community that just want to practice their English. I suspect that Steve and I are among a very small number of expats.  Given that, I can tell that we are already becoming known to the community.

Next week I actually leave my new home to fly to Madrid and meet a Peaks Island friend to walk 200 miles of the Camino from Leon to Santiago.  I’m ready and excited about the challenge.  When I last walked the entire Camino from France to Santiago, 500 miles, I was 68. At 75, I face new challenges.  My knees don’t work as well, I’m not as fast as I was, and my body feels a lot more aches and pains.  With all of that, I am confident and ready to walk and looking forward to  embracing the miracles I know I will encounter along this journey. I don’t know if I will look like anyone or even fit in.  What I do know, is that in a month, I’ll be back to my new home fitting right in.

With love and gratitude,

Marsha