Qui Transtulit Sustinet

Liepaja and Klaipeda

June 23-23, Ventspils, Latvia – Klaipeda, Lithuania

I took a bus from Ventspils to Liepaja, another Latvian Baltic port and bigger and gritter than Ventspils. Liepaja, with the exception of a long white sandy beach and some interesting dilapidated art-nouveau buildings, was a bit of a bust with absolutely no attractions whatsoever. Furthermore everything was closed because of Jani, the pagan-rooted Latvian midsummer festival. I tried to have a good time in Liepaja, but couldn’t overcome a sense of sinister that I felt in this decaying concrete jungle.



I took a city bus up the district of Karosta, a one-time czarist and Soviet naval base that was touted as an artists’ colony amongst evocative military structures, but was, the exception of an impressive 1908 Russian Orthodox church, nothing more than one of the many Soviet housing projects I’ve seen lately. Liepaja is majority Russian-speaking and feels more Russian, bare, windy, and cold than Riga or Ventspils. I stayed in an overpriced but friendly Australian-run hostel, which was very Australian.



The next morning I crossed the border in Lithuania, Baltic Sate #3. The bus first stopped in the beach town of Palanga before reaching the port of Klaipeda, known historically as Memel. I’d gone from Latvia’s third city and Baltic seaport to Lithuania’s third city and seaport. Klaipeda was unexpectedly charming. I’d half expected a wretched Soviet construction, knowing full well the ravages of the Red Army in East Prussia (called here “Lithuania Minor”) but communist grimness has been evicted from the city center, which is divided into the glossy and sleek malls and restaurants of the New Town and the remaining remnants of historic Memel in the Old Town.



Memel was the most northern and easterly German city, passing from the Teutonic Knights to Prussia (with Swedish and Russian interludes) and then to a united Germany. The town suffered as a result of competition with regional capital Koenigsburg and was stripped from Germany in 1918 and put under a French-administered League of Nations mandate. Lithuania invaded and annexed the town in 1923, before being handed back over to the Reich in March 1939. It was Hitler’s last territorial acquisition before the start of WWII.



The historic center of Klaipeda is dotted with half-timbered houses that look like they could be from Strasbourg and that crowd around the Theatre Square, named for the neo-classical theatre where Hitler made a triumphant speech from the balcony proclaiming that Memel was at last free- from the East, from the Jews. A large dock for cruise ships has recently been built and there city was littered with tourists, mostly Germans and Americans, who would otherwise not head to such an obscure place. Nostalgic Germans I would expect, but loud Americans who crowded into the newly opened bars and cafes were a surprise. I walked to the ruins of the castle, of which nothing remains except some defensive walls. Then I headed back to the hostel where I bumped into the English guy for the third time and an Australian girl from Ventspils. Later we headed to a concert to celebrate Lithuania’s midsummer, apparently one night later than Latvia’s, and saw a band play heavy metal renditions of Lithuanian folk songs.

posted by Andy Schloss @ 11:09 AM