Riga airport is small. Border passing, baggage claim, and getting out of the building are all done in an instant. Everything is quick and unbelievably easy. While dragging two suitcases out of the airport, I cant help but think about Israel.
For foreigners, Ben Gurion airport, the main international airport of Israel, might be the most difficult place to be in this country. Whether you try to get into the country or get out of it, the first thing you face is bombardment of questions. The questions are fired at a person in such an authoritative and almost accusatory manner that it makes one feel as if by trying to enter the country, one is doing something inappropriate and thus has to rationalize his reason of being there using the most perfect reasoning possible. I understand that Israel, being targeted for hatred and attacks by some, has the need of conducting such procedures to protect its citizens from possible mishaps, but I have to admit every time I was done with the questions at the Ben Gurion airport, I felt abused and exhausted by suspicions. Groundless suspicions. They have neither reservations, nor limits of projecting themselves, and one has to almost fight to lift up the suspicions imposed on him ruthlessly. Every time I left Ben Gurion airport, I got this clear notion that treading on the border of Israel is not supposed to be a carefree experience.
I wait for the bus to get to the center of Riga. An electronic board shows the time as 11 pm and temperature as 10 degrees. I look up. The sky has the spectrum of colors between blue and black. This is my first time in Riga, but I recognize the sky immediately. I've seen these colors of sky nowhere else than in Finland, Estonia, and Sweden - namely Baltic countries. Once again, I'm reminded that this part of the world has got strikingly blue colors and cool crispiness in the air. And that smell. I take a deep breath. Goodness. I had no idea what to expect to see once arriving in Latvia, but surprisingly familiar colors of the sky, the air, and the smell embraced my exhausted body and put me at an ease in a second.
I'm back in the Baltic.
I wait for the bus to get to the center of Riga. An electronic board shows the time as 11 pm and temperature as 10 degrees. I look up. The sky has the spectrum of colors between blue and black. This is my first time in Riga, but I recognize the sky immediately. I've seen these colors of sky nowhere else than in Finland, Estonia, and Sweden - namely Baltic countries. Once again, I'm reminded that this part of the world has got strikingly blue colors and cool crispiness in the air. And that smell. I take a deep breath. Goodness. I had no idea what to expect to see once arriving in Latvia, but surprisingly familiar colors of the sky, the air, and the smell embraced my exhausted body and put me at an ease in a second.
I'm back in the Baltic.