…you know you have. Korean films on Finnish airplanes, what’s not to love?

Some airports are slaughterhouse holding pens (JFK). And some are EVERYTHING TO ME.

Sleepy? Crawl into this free pod and take a nap.

I mean, yes, we rehearsed. But also the Latvian actors brought moonshine. Things that I’m obsessed with currently include: Latvia. And: Saunas.

Here is a love story: A count visits a lord in a castle. While visiting, the count proposes to the lord’s daughter. The daughter says, “But I love the architecture of my father’s castle SO MUCH that I cannot possibly leave.” The count says, “Well, I love you so much that I will replicate brick-for-brick the architecture of your father’s castle.” The daughter promises to marry him as soon as the castle is complete, and so he hurries home to Estonia, and does exactly this. Having nearly completed the castle, each brick of which is a haiku of perfection, the count sends for his bride-to-be. HOWEVER… she has died. The count, heartbroken, falls ill and also dies. And his friends/ family bring his body to the nearly-completed castle, that he might spend even just one night sleeping beneath its roof.

Flash-forward to 2015, and a car containing a designer, director, actor, and playwright is speeding down the Estonian highway (all two lanes of it) and catches a glimpse of perfection, a flash of wonder. The car pulls a hasty u-turn and theatre people spill out into the late afternoon remains of what is either a castle, a tragedy, or a love story.

Former mining town near the Russian border, now a ghost town. The silence is eerie as you walk down tree-lined streets. A few people still live here, and startlingly new bicycles and children’s toys are occasionally scattered among the wreckage of homes.

Haunted or not, here we come.

…leads to an abandoned limestone quarry, in which a semi-submerged former prison serves as a swimming hole for Estonian youth. As one might expect.

The border between Latvia and Lithuania is marked only by a tiny shack where you can exchange currency, and a sign marked LATVIJA receding into the distance. Top-pop stations play Billy Joel and Taylor Swift in both countries, you’ll be amazed / horrified / comforted to know. And if you were wondering what you’ll find at The Hill of Crosses, the answer is…crosses, basically.

…is ready to fulfill all your snacking needs. Also, Riga is a perfectly reasonable city where you can live in a loft with a hammock and a roof deck, and pass the former KGB House on your afternoon promenade. Meanwhile, beautiful young Latvians in skinny-jeans stand outside wine bars on their way to (probably) poetry readings. New York is done, Detroit is…Detroit. Let’s all move to Riga.

I think most countries could improve their tourist potential if their sites included abandoned soviet prisons through which enterprising travelers can wander, without any kind of supervision. Don’t walk into the barbed wire, don’t fall through the floor of the guard tower—especially don’t get any of your surgical needs attended to in the Operations Room—and you’re all good.

Prison pharmacy?

No surgery for me please.