Day two Riga and road to Tartu.

Day two in Riga was another day of walking around sucking in the sights and the feel of the city, there are some great looking buildings here, would like to come back in the summer and do some cycling around, but now it’s grey and wet ,no snow (boo hoo). In the evening we had our first gig together, Louis Zezeran , founder of so much of the comedy in the Baltics hosted the show slick as ever, the cellar was packed with (mostly young) students from all over. It was a really nice gig, an open minded audience that knows their comedy, not the tight assed easily offended pc mob. The cellar we played in ‘Nakablab’ is an alternative music venue, so the setting was just right for some ‘rough around the edges’ comedy. Good on ya Riga! See you again sometime.

I wonder if the sun still exists?

So now it’s 10am on day three and we are getting ready to drive the three/four hours to Tartu in Estonia, the first town in the Baltics I ever done Comedy a few years back, so it’s a bit of a ‘coming home’, looking forward to this one always a big crowd, but first the drive, I’m expecting to see trees, lots of trees on the way.

Talking to people last night before and after the gig, the main topic of conversation was about refugees and the fear of Islam. It seems that it dominates everything in this united europe (?) of ours, public opinion seems to be black or white, for or against taking in refugees there seems to be no middle ground and things seem to be getting more and more hardened. I fear for the future and what it will bring, we’ve had peace so long now in most of europe, how long will it last? There are no easy solutions to the refugee crisis, people who say otherwise are populist fear mongers or fluffy P.C. tree huggers. It seems that what started as a hopeful ‘Arab Spring’ has turned into a cold winter of discontent for us all. In his poem ‘IF’ Rudyard Kipling wrote “if you can keep your head while all around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you ...…..

So off to Tartu, a three and a 'tad' hour drive from Riga, started great , we hit a speed bumb just as I opened my yoghurt and bam- yoghurty flavoured jeans and backseat! Louis Zezeran at the wheel, so a very smooth drive, trees trees and more trees ,till you reach the border then there are a few buildings and more trees till you reach Tartu. 

I prefer snow and freezing cold to grey rain and freezing cold, but you can't choose the climate change you get, this is it, wet wet wet, and even the group with the same name sucked big time. 

Nice to be back at Tartu though, enjoyed my last visit here looking forward to this one. Let's do it! hope the rain stops soon and tomorrow it's Tallin . tonight I'll be counting trees to fall asleep, but first the gig.

We could fit a whole new refugee city in here.