In Latvia, the first port was Liepaja. Here we did not have any planned meetings with organisations, but we knew there had been a lot of international artistic activity going on here some years ago and we wanted to trace the tracks. These activities took place in the part of Liepaja called Karosta, a former war harbour area used both by the Russians during the 19.th century and by the Soviet Union during world war II. The art activities here where managed by a few swedish and latvian artists. Sadly enough it has all died out and the gallery buildings are now abandoned. We made a full day excursion on bicycle in the area and found a lot of emptied houses and a very empty harbour where all the half sunken war ships now has been taken away. Albert, who has been here before, collected photos of things that has changed over time. The bunkers by the shore are slowly taken over by nature, as are the old industrial and war associated buildings on land as well as some of the living houses. This is a very strange area where a lot of people still live and play. We had some contact with swedish artists Filippa Arrias and Jesper Nordahl, who own a flat in one of the art-houses in Karosta, and we were given the possibility to use this flat in the future for the project if needed.

For the crew, the experience of Karosta and the traces we could record of history being around, was one of the stronger impressions of the journey. It is easy to understand that this area has an attraction on artists. In Liepaja we also met with a friend of our crew member Albert, a priest and social worker named Martins Urdze. We were taken to his church and he told us about the big needs of poor people that he tries to help. He also told about the role of the churches during Soviet times, when it was not allowed to speak about your belief, and many churches secretly took part in the resistance movement. Later the same day we met with his wife, Aija Druvskalne-Urdze, who happened to be one of those who used to be active in the artistic activities in Karosta. Now she works in the University of Liepaja as dean of the Art and New media departement. We got the impression that they were making very interesting projects.