The Pension... sounds like a dodgy three-star hotel, doesn't it? Well, that's kind of right. Except, it's a dodgy three-star hotel which has a top-secret nuclear fallout bunker hidden underneath. How top-secret? Super-promise-you-won't-tell-anyone-cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die top-secret. The bunker's existence was only revealed to the public in 2003, twelve years after Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union. We arrived at midday in time for the day's only tour of the Bunker (yay!). Unfortunately, the tour was not offered in English (boo!). (Tours in English can be booked in advance and are run if there are sufficient numbers.)

Waiting in the reception area for our tour to begin, I felt like we'd travelled back in time. When the bunker was created, a Rehabilitation Centre was built on top as a cover. This Rehabilitation Centre is now billed as a day spa. This term conjures up imagery of gleaming white surfaces, the smell of scented candles, and relaxing music piped into rooms with water features. The reality was 70s décor meets school camp facilities. The predominant colour was a drab olive green. The marketing video in the waiting room showed beefy Eastern European women torturing patients. It definitely didn't meet the Western ideal of a day spa.

The bunker was much larger than I expected. Covering an area of 2,000 square metres, it includes offices, bedrooms, a canteen, its own power station and a well. It was designed to be fully self-sufficient in the event of a nuclear incident. We were shown the very important Party room, which features a bust of Lenin, the USSR and Soviet Latvian flags and a map of Soviet Latvia showing the collective farms.


Our Latvian is a little rusty (read non-existent) so although our tour guide explained the purpose of each room within the bunker, we remained clueless to the details. A room full of maps of Latvia with areas marked in different colours was intriguing. The official website says they are maps which show how much of Latvia would be underwater if dams and hydro power stations were destroyed. A sign which showed how to put on your protective radiation suit was a little scary.



The bunker was built for a day when the world as it had been known, ended. And while you're inside it certainly seems that world has ended. In the bunker, time stands still. It's a snapshot of an era that no longer exists.

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Our visit to the Pension was part of Dubs' Easter 2008 trip. We travelled from Riga, Latvia to Tallinn, Estonia and then on to Helsinki, Finland, spending a couple of days in each city. Other entries from this trip include: Paldiski.

While on the topic of abandoned buildings, I thought I'd post some photos from our trip to Estonia at Easter this year. We were lucky enough to enjoy unseasonal weather for our trip. It snowed! It was very exciting to be exploring a new city in the snow. Everything is so beautiful when covered in a blanket of white.

Only half an hour's drive away from the capital Tallinn is Paldiski. It was once the largest submarine training centre in the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the base was decommissioned and abandoned. Now Paldiski is a small village and a network of crumbling buildings.

On the road out to the peninsula, you drive past rows and rows of deteriorating buildings. These were army barracks which once housed soviet soldiers. Out on the peninsula there is a wrecked bunker of stone and twisted metal. There also used to be nuclear reactors but they were removed in 1995. Apparently, a civilian died in 1994 after being exposed to radioactive material from the disused base (allegedly stolen.)

We drove down a side road and stopped off at one of the old army barracks for a closer view. The buildings are in a complete state of disrepair and are slowly being reclaimed by nature. Roofs have caved in, trees are growing inside rooms and paint is peeling off the walls. In one building, the lino floor had come away, leaving a sea of curling lino tiles.

It was a lonely place to visit and the snow just emphasised the feeling of isolation. It's worth a visit before there is nothing left to see.



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