Liepāja can certainly be described as a city of contrasts. Today, we went from one extreme to the other!
Our hotel is not far from the beach. You can't see the beach from the hotel but you can walk there in about 10 or 15 minutes. You walk through a leafy green park, with lots of walkways and bike paths, and it feels like another world. The paths lead you to the beach which has lovely soft white sand. Today was cool and windy, so nobody was swimming but on a good day, lots of people must take advantage of the good waves and soak up the sun.
After visiting the beach we continued walking through the park and past some lovely old wooden homes and a bathhouse with large columns on its facade. These date back to the early 20th century, when Liepāja was a health resort.
We continued our walk along a walking trail through town to see various buildings along the way. Some were in much better condition than others, and we continued to encounter extensive road and pavement works going on everywhere. We finished our morning by walking along the canal which serves as a small port.
We had a bus ride to Karosta which is a neighborhood in the north of Liepāja. Karosta was a military harbour built by the Russians during the late 19th century. It used to house 40,000 personnel. Today, it is described as like a ghost town, with lots of unoccupied buildings. The main attraction there is St Nicholas Orthodox Church which, strangely enough, was used as a gym and a cinema by the Soviets. It is now a working church again. The church is situated in a very odd environment, surrounded by thousands of what look like run-down government flats. We found this very strange. The old military prison is also a main attraction and has been preserved and is now a museum. We didn't visit the prison but apparently visitors can be locked up for a few hours or overnight and be yelled at by the guards!
