Named for it's ancient inhabitants, the Latvija or Latgallia, one of four Baltic tribes which emerged in the region around the 5c AD, specifically in present-day Latgale. + Greek suffix ia = land of 🔍. The meaning and origin of the roots for Latvija are so old as to be unknown - likely from a Proto-Latvian language..
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With historic charm, Art Nouveau architecture, medieval castles and lush National Parks, Latvia is a unique & affordable destination off the beaten path.
@ a glance essentials:
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Language:
Latvian
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Many Locals can speak basic English, particularly the younger generations in large cities.
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Water safety
Generally Safe to Drink
Currency:
€ Euro
Local Transport
There is a bus network in large cities but smaller towns will require a car.
................................................... Some Lativian curses feel quite quaint, like calling someone a Kabatas pīpētājs = Pocket piper (meaning someone who brags but does nothing) or the simple classic telling someone to "get lost" by saying Ej uz mežu!
or bekot! or = Go to the forrest or pick mushrooms!
Creative Local Curses -
Post Ice-Age the region of the Baltics🔍 that would become Latvia was inhabited by the Kunda culture, with Indo-Europeans not migrating from the southeast🔍, until around the 3c BC. These tribes became known as Balts after the Baltic Sea🔍 (Latin balteus = belt, as it stretches around the land.) Though they traded with the Roman Empire and later Byzantines they stayed mostly separate from the rest of Europe, preserving unique linguistics (including the Finnish Language) as well as pagan customs/ mythology. That changed in the 12c however, when the region was targeted by Germanic crusaders of the Northern Crusades.
a bit of background...
CHECK OUT THE:
By the 13c the Germanic crusaders had incorporated a large part of the Baltics in their Teutonic Order. They first named the territory Terra Mariana (Latin: Land of Mary) then later Livonia, (Estonian liiv = sand) After the Livonian War of the 16c Poland, Lithuania and Sweden all ruled portions of what would become Latvia, until, over the course of the 18c, the entirety of the region was conquered by the Russian Empire🔍.
With the 1917 Russian Revolution the region was briefly part of the German Empire, but Latvia quickly declared independence in 1918, defining a Latvian state🔍 for the very time as a constitutional republic. Then a bloodless coup set up a dictatorship in 1934 until WWII when it was annexed first by Russia in 1940, then Nazi Germany and then the Soviet Union again in 1944, as the Latvian SSR.
Latvia finally regained autonomy after the 1987 Soviet perestroika, the peaceful Singing Revolution, followed by a Declaration on Restoration of Independence, and officially recognized as the 🔎Republic of Latvia in 1991.
Must Try Local Cuisine:
Cold Beet Soups: sweet & sour Aukstā Zupa & Biešu Zupa w/ radish, cucumber & boiled egg + Kefir† - sour milk
Frikadeļu Zupa - meatball soup ∞ Skābeņu Zupa - sorrel soup w/ pork & barley
Kartupeļu Pankūkas - fried (grated) potato pancakes w/ sour cream & lingonberry sauce
Aukstā Gaļa†† - cold meat in savory jelly w/ horseradish ∞ Griķi - (meaning Greek) - buckwheat porridge
Jāņu Siers - fresh cheese made of milk & curds w/ butter or cream, eggs, salt + caraway seeds
Sniega Bumbas - traditional Latvian cheese; small, fluffy balls flavored w/ garlic or rolled in basil, herbs & tomato,
[produced by Trikātas Siers (Three Cats Cheese) one of the oldest Latvian dairies]
Siļķe Kažokā ("herring in a coat") - herring salad between layers of boiled veg, eggs & sour cream/ mayo
Pelēkie Zirņi ar Speķi (Speck), - smoked pork-belly bacon, w/ peas & fried onions
Kotletes - burger; pork, chicken, beef /sometimes fish ∞ Pīrāgi - small buns filled with bacon & fried onions
Syrniki - dessert of fried cottage cheese pancakes garnished w/ honey, fruit jam, sour cream, or applesauce
Rupjmaizes Kārtojums - a layered dessert of crushed rye bread, cinnamon, jam & whipped cream
➿➰➿
† Traditionally made by shepherds storing dairy in leather travel bags †† Traditionally pork ears & head, but beef or chicken are used today
SEE
DO TRY
&
VISIT
What to Where to Why . . .
Surprising Finds:
📍 Cinevilla | Slampe - built as a film set for the historical drama Defenders of Riga | 2004† the complex is a complete
replica of 1920s Latvia. On 370 acres of land, it includes a small town, a ‘Riga-esque’ city & traditional Latvian
farmland. It is possible to visit the set and even spend the night in one of the replica buildings
📍 Pirts 📸 - Latvian saunas (wet) to purify body & spirit, most with pirtniek, trained sauna experts. An amazing
experience, the ritual can last up to 4 or 5 hours!
📍 Karosta Prison | Liepāja - Nazi, then Soviet, prison shut in 1997, the only military prison in Europe open to tourists.
Offering tours & overnight experiences with prisoner garb, interrogation, harassment and being locked in a cell
for the night††. Ghost Hunters International once called Karosta “the most haunted place in the world.”
📍 Memorial in Smecere Pine Forest | Madona - haunting half buried granite skulls, a memorial to ~700 Jewish mass
shooting victims who lost their lives there in 1941, when the Nazis arrived in Latvia
📍 Secret Soviet Bunker | Ligatne - top secret Cold War bunker hidden beneath a spa facility, now open for tours
📍 Doll Garden | Sabile - a creepy garden filled with hundreds of smiling straw doll people
📍 Bridge to Nowhere | Irlavas - a railway bridge in the middle of a meadow, c.1940,
abandoned when WWII broke out
📍 Pokaini Forest Stones - mysterious heaps of stones in an otherworldly wood. Some believe
the stones have powers, the forest is a healing center, an old pagan sanctuary or even a
gateway to a parallel world. Visited by psychics, some people bring offerings to enhance
the stones’ powers and it’s said taking the stones away from the wood is dangerous
with rumors that people have suffered or died soon after visiting the forest
† The film depicts Latvia in 1919 during its war for independence
†† Guests must sign waivers for the harsh treatment, not all of the guards speak English, and visitors are often
surprised by the intensity of abuse.
My Favorite Spots:
Seaside Towns:
📍 Port city Liepāja - known for it's Seaside Park, 3m long Karosta North Pier;
stretching from the ruined fortress more than a mile out into the Baltic Sea
(one of the largest in Europe,) Cathedrals🔍 Holy Trinity with huge mechanical
organ or ornate, gold-domed orthodox Saint Nicholas Naval Cathedral and the
Northern Forts; crumbling ruins of concrete Tzarist Russian bunkers c. 1908
📍 Jurmala, (just outside Riga)- with beaches nightlife & Mr. Morberg’s house, a 19c. Neo-Gothic
colorful wooden house that looks like a fairy-tale palace
📍 Ventspils - elaborate 19c wooden villas, open air museum, waterpark, lighthouse and narrow gauge railway,
plus it's own Vent currency†
📍 Cape Kolka - @ the very tip of the western peninsula with "Houses of the Sun" in the national park, massive barrels
converted into rustic 'cabins' with no plumbing or electricity just one end made of glass looking out to the sea & the
small wooden Church of Saint Mary Star of the Sea, c. 1935 with crowned steeple in the nearby village
~
📍 Cepures Pasaule / "World of Hat"†† | Riga - a unique ethnic museum dedicated to traditional & ritual headwear from
around the world; ritual crowns, African shaman masks, Mongolian wedding headdresses, Shamanic 2m high hats,
traditional bonnets made of human hair, bark, feathers, jewels e.g. Many can be tried on and the museum offers
workshops on making traditional headwear.
📍 Ungurmuiža Manor (Museum) - one of the best-preserved, & only surviving baroque-style wooden manor in Latvia
📍 Ancient Beekeeping 🐝 Museum | Musteika - a tiny village practicing an ancient, natural method of beekeeping in
hollowed out pine trees. The museum. is full of traditional beekeeping equipment and history (in Lithuanian
mythology, bees are “God’s holy bugs.”) Plus nearby Hotel Pušynas in the Soviet resort town Druskininkai & it’s
open-air museum, Grūtas Park, a large collection of Soviet-era statues
📍 Molėtai Astronomical Observatory & Ethnocosmology Museum | Kulionys - 1st museum in the world dedicated to
exploring humanity's cultural relationship with the celestial world.
📍 Araisi Lake Fortress - wooden recreation of a 9c lake village
📍 Daugavpils Fortress - c. 1810; only preserved 19c military fortification of its kind in Northern Europe
† “Earned” doing online activities; banknotes may then be withdrawn in Ventspils, and used for discounts at local attractions such as museum tickets.
†† Claiming to be the world’s 1st & only museum focused exclusively on hats. Gathered by Latvian anthropologist & linguist Dr. Kirill Babaev.
Most Known For:
♦️ Riga 📸 - with the Jugendstil District - one of the highest concentrations of Art Nouveau
architecture in the world, massive central market (largest market in Europe) & the 14c
Brotherhood of Blackheads, now a museum: once a guild for unmarried merchants
🔸 Latgale - Land of Blue Lakes with its own dialect known for camping, hiking & cheeses
♦️ Jelgava - with 18c palace (historically Mitau Palace) the largest Baroque-style palace in
the Baltic states, built as a residence for the Dukes of Courland in their capital of Mitau
🔸 Gauja National Park with 10K year-old Gutman’s Cave, sandstone Virtaka Cliff carvings some of the richest
Livonian† petroglyphs, pagan symbols' whose meanings are still unknown, plus canoeing & floating down the
Gauja River, cable car bungee jumping & ziplines through the forests
♦️ Great Kemeri Bog boardwalk in Kemeri National Park, Dzintari forest park
🔸 Castles like Cesis; one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Latvia, ornate 18c Baroque & Rococo Rundale
Palace & Gardens ('Versailles of Latvia') or the city of Sigulda with 19c Krimulda Manor, Sigulda Castle, ruins
of the 14c Krimulda Castle and nearby 11c red brick Turaida Castle
♦️ Venta Rapid Waterfall†† | Kuldīga - Europe’s widest waterfall
† The are fewer than 300 people of Livonian ancestry alive today, and their language is considered extinct, not to mention knowledge of their ancient culture
†† Only about 6 ft high, however. Spawning fish, migrating upstream, can be watch from the banks leaping over the rapid (in the spring & fall.) The Duke
of Courland invented a technique to catch up to 100 salmon a day using baskets placed all along the waterfall in the 17c. Today, Kuldiga, still boasts
that it's the only place in Europe where fish are caught out of the air.
👀 NOTABLE LATVIANS:
♟️ Mikhail Tal | Youngest World Chess Champion 🚀 Anatoly Solovyov | Cosmonaut
👣
🌀 Jāņi & Līgo / Midsummer (June 23/24) - celebrating summer solstice (but always on the same day, not
the actual solstice) with bonfires, wildflower wreaths and traditional songs & dancing through the night
🌀 Riga Opera Festival - celebrating opera & ballet or Staro Riga Light Festival - a winter tradition of
hanging festive lights on buildings & bridges with music, theatre, dance and food stalls set up on waterfront
🌀 Latvian Baltic Song & Dance Festival (every 5 yrs) - celebrating music, dance, and folk costumes dating to 1873
🌀 Cesis Castle Medieval Fair - traditional medieval clothes with food, art and dancing
Site Key:
Five Star Recommend
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