LAG International Traveling Report 2005 

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Notes from the Field

(Edited by Julienne Gard)

Kris Jones

June 13, 2005

Greetings from Germany regarding Iceland

Iceland was a very busy trip with limited Internet access so I am writing to you from Germany.  I will keep this message short as there is limited time available.

We have just spent four days in Germany visiting friends who are wine makers on the Mosel River. We will be leaving for Riga, Latvia this evening. We booked a 2 ¼ hour flight on Ryan Air for €15 ($20) online.  On 20th June we will fly on Ryan Air from Riga to Stockholm for 3 cents. Yes, I do not believe it either.  Since deregulation of the airlines there are good deals for flying in Europe. These flights are to secondary airports of course, similar to Jet Blue out of Long Beach Airport.  Check out ryanair.com for yourself.

Iceland was great, although I recommend that you take more than a week to circle the island. It is larger than it looks on a map of the North Atlantic, many of the roads are small and gravel. We travelled 2300km (1500mi) in 6 days. Having to go to the head of the fjord and back would sometimes take 40 minutes to travel 2 miles. Most people were taking 2 weeks to do the trip, which is better.  Iceland Air would only allow a week on a free stopover.

Some impressions from Iceland:

1.                      One of the hardest things to find in Iceland was ice for the cooler, go figure. It took me half an hour and visits to 3 stores to find ice. I ended up having to go to a restaurant where they gave me ice from the drink dispenser.

2.                      No US beef. When we arrived we went to the NATO base store to purchase cheap American food for the week. One of the rules is that US beef cannot go into the Icelandic economy. They do not want our GM-fed, hormone laden, potentially Mad Cow disease infected beef.  Think about that the next time you have a hamburger.

3.                      Notorious nightlife without night. Reykjavik is famous for its nightlife. We went out at midnight, just after sunset. It never got dark and the sun rose again at 2:30AM. There were a lot of really drunk people.  You do not see that much in California since we have to drive.

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Kris Jones
June 20, 2005

Hi Everyone: 
I have 51 minutes left on my internet hour so I had better get to it.  We fly out from Riga tonight to Stockholm. Latvia has been an interesting experience. I just saw the President of the country for the 2nd time in 6 days--getting a bit routine. Last Tuesday,

June 14, was the Latvian memorial day for victims of communist oppression. The President and most of the government brought flowers and gave speeches in front of the memorial to freedom. They were remembering those that were lost. Very moving. The President made sure she talked to as many people in the audience as she could, I think in an attempt to show that the government is now free and open. We decided to stay in Latvia for this week and not travel to other Baltic States. A week is too short to get to know more than one country and have time to relax also. After a couple of days in Riga, we took the train to Sigulda to see a National Park and some castles. On Friday we went to Jarmulda, which means seashore in Latvian, and includes a string of seaside resorts along 20km of beautiful beach west of Riga. This is not only the main seaside resort for Latvia but also for much of western Russia. Most of the people there were speaking Russian. It is hard to tell who are Russians from Latvia and who are from Russia. One of the legacies from Soviet occupation 1942-1992 is a more than 50% Russian population. The Latvians feel that the Russians are invaders and make it difficult to get citizenship, even if they were born here. So the Russians born here since 1942 do not have a country since they are not Russian citizens. The Latvian Russians feel robbed since they argue they are Latvians also and helped in the fight for independence form the Soviet Union. This situation is easing as Latvia is gradually allowing more Latvian Russians to become citizens. Latvia seems to be a place in transition: between the east and the west with German and other western tourists along with tourists from Russia and other parts of the East. It is also in transition between its communist occupied past and its western capitalist future. It joined the European Union just last year. There is construction everywhere and property values are climbing. I talked with an American Latvian man from Indiana yesterday. He has visited Latvia almost every year since 1992. He said that in 1992 there were very few stores and petrol stations and that especially in the last 5 years many new businesses have opened, making prices also increase. As I noticed in Berlin when I visited in 1990, freedom is for the young people while the older people are trying to survive on their $160 a month pensions. I am now in a large Internet cafe with over 100 computers in central Riga. Almost everyone here is in their 20s. The next few days will be busy in the Oslo/Bergen area looking at fjords. The weather report is for rain in Bergen so this section may not work. Of the next 4 nights, 3 will be spent on trains and 1 in Bergen. Midsummer will then be spent with friends in central Sweden. 
 

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Kris Jones
June 27, 2005

Greetings from 62 49.9" N & 15 18.5E: