RIGA AND MASKAČKA is like an enigma to me. After 4 years of traveling to this city I still know very little about Latvia. "Perestroika", a woman said as she passed the above picture at Centraltirgus. Remoddeling, gentrification, even Riga is "developing". Centraltirgus is a huge historical market by the river Durgava, lying there as a fortress between Central RIga and Maskačka.
Latvians and Russians has a most tested past. For most Lativans the Soviet Union is still like a dark cloud. And on the other side; Russians are longing back to the time when Latvia was part of Russia.
In Maskavas Forštate, or Maskačka you will hear Russian most of the time. What makes this part of town interesting though, is more than old (and new) ethnic conflicts. It is a beautiful and very peaceful part of this city.

The neighborhood has one major street, Maskavas Iela. Every 5 minutes the tram is almost the only sound you will hear. You can walk for miles, it feels, without any noice at all. No people outside. Only a few men sitting in a park, with a bottle most likely, or worshippers hustling up Maza Kalna to get to the sermon. At then there is the Russian cemetary, even quieter. Old people minding the graves, sweeping the deck, or just sitting there on a bench. They even bring lunch boxes and coffee to their  ancestors graves. It was not until I´d been in Riga 4-5 times that I discovered the jewish sculptures in one of the green spots. I discovered a memorial with wreaths. Then I realized this must be one of the spots where jews were slaughtered in the beginning of the big war, a story most hidden. Nothing left of the used to be jewish graveyard, except those new symbols.

People come to Riga to see the Jugend style city, and for the sake of Maskačka I hope they don´t change that routine. This part of town is a non-tourist zone. The houses as beautiful as the houses downtown, and far more mysterious. So much harder to put into understandable language.

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