Ligo weekend…
Hi, everybody. I hope you all are well, and that the weather back home was as pleasant this last weekend as it was here in Latvia. After about two weeks of very rainy weather, we somehow managed to get nearly perfect weather for the Ligo holiday here. Before going any further, I should help you understand what Ligo is. So please watch the following video:
As the video explained, Ligo is all about being and feeling close to Nature, and so to help everyone get ready for the four-day festivities, on Wednesday there was a Ligo market in the church square, where everyone could purchase flower and oak-leave wreaths, in addition to the all-important Janis cheese and bread, which are the staple foods that people share with friends and family.
There was also a center stage at the market, where festive folk songs were performed. I once read that Latvians have some two thousand folk songs relating to this holiday. Here, in the picture above, these adorable little girls were participating in a short game of trivia about Ligo. To me, this was the highlight of the entire market experience. Not only were they funny, but Brittney and I just love to listen to little kids speak Latvian. They speak a little bit slower, which definitely is helpful for us, and they are perhaps more playful with the language than adults, or at least it seems that way.
So on Thursday, the day that Ligo began, we faced a decision. We weren’t sure whether to stay in Riga or head out somewhere, anywhere, into the countryside. At one point Valters had planned on having us come to their celebrations, but unfortunately there was a change in plans, and thus we had to resolve where to celebrate. Everyone told us that we had to leave Riga, that Ligo is not Ligo unless your in the countryside, but we just were not sure where to go. So ignoring the advice of everyone, we instead stayed here in Riga, in part because we had agreed to meet up with two American scholars that recently began working in the archives, but also because we thought that the list of Ligo events in Riga looked sufficient enough, what with three stages and lots of different food tents. In the end, however, it turned out that we definitely should have listened to everyone, as the celebration in Riga was really disappointing. Simply put, it was not traditional enough for me, or at least not traditional enough according to what I had read and thus was expecting. Instead of great folk music and dancing, there was more contemporary Latvian music, which I guess I am just not too fond of. Maybe the good music came later into the night, since the party ended at 4 am, after sunrise, but I wouldn’t know since we went home at midnight because I was getting sleepy. Yeah, I know, I guess I will have to endure a summer of laziness.
What was not disappointing, though, was the food and weather. As you saw in the photo above, the food selection consisted of typical Central and East European staples like potatoes, cabbage, and sausage, and all of it was really tasty. The weather, as the photo of the picturesque right bank of the Daugava River suggests (and by the way, the festivities were held on the street closest to the river), was ideal. It stayed around 65 all day and night, and there was only the slightest of breezes.
Pictured here is one of the many bonfires that were lit at sunset. This is important, as you learned in the video above, because the fire replicates sunlight and literally signifies the victory of light over darkness for at least this one most important day out of the year. And below is an image taken near the entrance of the festival (no, I’m not on anything, it just pays to have long arms).
Another reason why we should have left Riga is because the city was completely dead from Thursday until Sunday. Just how dead? Well, check out these photos of a normally busy intersection in the central region of Riga. And just so you can get a sense of how long the days are, I took this picture a little after midnight. And sunrise is I guess sometime around 3:30-3:45 a.m.
In case you are wondering, yes, the building on the right side of the street says "steak house." This seems like a funny place from what we have observed while walking by. The waitresses wear "Western" clothes, there are saddles for bar stools, and they play American country music.
Since we had a long weekend and were looking for a new place to go for a stroll, on Saturday we decided to head for a new seaside location. This time we journeyed north and ended up in Saulkrasti, which we thought was much more beautiful than Jurmala. It is more pristine, and there are some really picturesque white sand dunes there.
I know that the following video is not particularly exciting, but I have to include it for my dad. He has told me numerous times that he, a landlocked farmer in Nebraska, would like to hear the sounds of the seaside. And since there are actually some small waves at this location, I hope that he will enjoy this short clip. And Dad, I have to say that there might not be anything more relaxing than taking a stroll on the beach. The sound of the waves, the fresh, crisp smell of the sea, and the feeling of the fine, white sand on your feet — it’s an incredibly soothing experience.
Finally, a couple more photos. The first one is of a cemetery in Saulkrasti. As you can see, it’s a bit different from cemeteries at home. I guess I would say that here the cemeteries look and more importantly feel like gardens. I’m not sure how best to put this, but I feel more at ease in Latvian cemeteries. And I would say that on average people here incorporate this space, i.e. as a public space, into their lives more successfully than we do. For example, although you can’t see them very well in the photo due to the dense vegetation, near every gravestone is a small bench, and it is very common, or so I am told, for Latvian families to gather in the cemetery and have a picnic lunch and an afternoon of conversation and drink, while, of course, also attending to the flowers and plants. In other words, people go there quite often during the warmer months. The second picture, then, is of the gym where I have been playing basketball on Wednesday evenings. Gram and Pop were curious to see what a Soviet-era gym looks like, so I thought I would post a photo for them.
Where did spring go?
Good day, everyone. I hope you are all well. Sorry it’s been so long since our last blog post. In case you don’t know, we were lucky enough to have Brian and Peggy come visit us, so we didn’t really have time to sit down and write. It was so incredibly nice to see some family again, though perhaps it was a bit strange because it made living abroad somehow seem less abroad, if that makes any sense. Anyway, as you can see from the low-quality photo (digital cameras are still not the best indoors, especially from a distance), Brittney was überexcited to see her dad, who looked so tired and jet-lagged that I’m surprised he even recognized us. Really, it’s amazing what jetlag does to a person.
With that in mind, we tried not to run them ragged (you will have to ask them if we succeeded — Brittney is doubtful), and so rather than trying to pull off a grand, whirlwind tour of Latvia and the Baltics, as we had originally planned when we first found out they were coming, instead we stuck around the Riga area and tried to show them what day-to-day life is really like here. So on Saturday we wandered around aimlessly in Old Riga, ate at Lido (which is perhaps the most popular “traditional” Latvian restaurant), picked up some food at the Central Market, and took in the sights at some of Riga’s picturesque parks. On Sunday we took them out to the Open-Air Museum, where there was a special craft and folklore festival. There were so many vendors selling handmade clothes, fabrics, pottery, jewelry, and homemade food that I really have no idea how many there might have been there. Let’s just say that we didn’t see all of them — and we were there all day long. Besides seeing all of the impressive goods for sale, I was also pleased that Brian and Peggy got a chance to watch Latvian folk dancing, though our own incessant tango with the HUGE Latvian mosquitoes kind of put a damper on the experience (the mosquitoes really aren’t bad where we live in Riga, but they are horrendous in the forests).
After having our energy depleted by the incredibly unusual warm weather (while they were here it was above 85 for three days, and this was an all-time record for June — thanks Brian and Peggy for bringing the nasty Midwest heat with you), on Monday we kind of took it easy. We did a walking tour of the Jungendstil region of Riga. Then that night we ate at one of our favorite restaurants here in Riga, which has a lovely outdoor patio (sorry, I always forget to take a picture while we are there). Peggy and I had the Latvian porkchop, Brittney enjoyed the pasta primavera, and Brian ate steak (yes, Gram, he agrees that nothing beats a steak from Nebraska).
Tuesday was probably the hottest of the abnormally warm days, so it worked out well that we went to the seaside that day. We didn’t do too much while we were there, mostly we just tried to relax. Our landlady was kind enough to let us crash her summer cottage, which is only a couple hundred yards from the beach, so we had a picnic lunch there in the backyard, under the welcoming shade of the apple tree. Later we then made our way to the sea, which, I was later told, was unusually cold due to some strange, unseasonal water currents, which brought sub-40 degree water clear up to the shore. The Bay of Riga contains hundreds of thousands of sandbars, so at times we found warmer water that had pooled behind a sandbar, but otherwise the water was so cold that it felt like thousands of tiny knives stabbing at your feet and legs. Just for fun I convinced Brian to journey out with me to water that was mid-shin deep, and boy, let me tell you, that was painfully cold! Still, despite the frigid currents, we saw a few crazy young guys who were trying to show off their youthful manliness to the beach-goers by sprinting out into the water. What a bunch of crazy hooligans! The rest of the day we just strolled on the beach, walked up and down Jurmala’s main boulevard, and took a walking tour of the local mansions (sadly, the cute little summer cottages are being replaced by ostentatious homes built for the super wealthy Russians). Then, after we had a nice meal at a trendy outdoor Asian restaurant, we hung out at the beach until sundown, which nowadays is around midnight. As you can see for yourself in the following photos, it was a splendid sight.
Some say that the sky here in the Baltic region is a more vibrant shade of blue than elsewhere in the world.
Perhaps I should say, for those of you who are wondering, that the reason why the water is so calm is mostly due to the aforementioned sandbars, which extend quite some distance into the sea. As a result, in some places I guess you can walk out a really long way before you reach deep waters. Because the water is so shallow and calm, some people describe the Bay of Riga as the world’s largest bathtub, albeit an ice-cold one. But really, it is a perfect place to take the kids, because you don’t have to worry about them getting hit by big waves or venturing out too far (especially when the cold water will make them turn back anyway).
So, to finish telling you about Brian and Peggy’s stay, on Wednesday, their last day in Latvia, we hung out in Old Town, did some shopping, and went to the Occupation Museum, which documents in a very emotionally provoking way the lingering horrors here of what occurred during one Nazi (1941-44) and two Soviet occupations (1940-41; 1944-91). I hope they did not find it too depressing, and I hope that they don’t think that I talked about European and Latvian history too much, but surely one cannot understand one’s encounters in Latvia without a basic understanding of what has occurred here si
nce the thirteenth century. And on that note, from my point of view, it was great to be able to share with family my passion and love for this place and its people and history. I often feel sad and frustrated that my family does not fully understand what I am studying, and why it means so much to me, so it was nice to share with Brian and Peggy a key part of my life that truly can only be understood by being here. I guess the best way to summarize what I am talking about is Brittney’s friend Jill’s comment (in case you forgot, she was here in early March) that for the first time in her life she actually felt History. And I can attest that this stirs the soul unlike anything else. It’s a weird, very personal feeling, both somber and euphoric all at once, yet at the same time you’ve never felt so close to all of humanity and the sorrows and joys of centuries past. In fact, just this week I again had this experience while standing at the foot of the Freedom Monument, which was covered with flowers in honor of the nearly 16,000 victims of the June 14, 1941 deportations. In the wee hours that fateful morning, Soviet authorities rounded up many of Latvia’s best and brightest politicians, academics, artists, businessmen, etc. — and not just the men, but also their entire families, including the elderly and children — and put them in railroad cars destined for prison or Gulag camps. Many were later shot and thousands died from the horrible living conditions, and those who survived only made it out after, in most cases, some ten years plus of hard labor. Here, at right, is a photo from the other day. And below is one of the monument at the train station where people were forced into the train cars.
Well, it’s hard to believe that spring is already over. Where did it go? It just flew by. And now, this week, we will be celebrating Ligo, or the summer solstice. This is the most significant holiday in Latvia, and everything shuts down from Thursday through Sunday. We aren’t exactly sure yet what we will do, but for sure we will be attending the Ligo events here in Riga, which last all night long on the 23rd. Hopefully I don’t just fall asleep somewhere in the middle of a park, as it’s been a very long time since I have tried to stay awake all night long (maybe in this case “night” isn’t the right word, though, since there is only about three hours of dark). We will be sure to post plenty of photos from the celebrations. Finally, I have to share with you one more photo, which I actually took yesterday. Since the weather is incredibly nice now, the tourists are arriving in Riga in swarms. And as a result all of these ridiculous tourist attractions are popping up everywhere. But this, at least in my opinion, takes the cake (see below):
It's called "Dinner in the Air." You get 90 minutes to savor a meal while enjoying an aerial view of Old Riga and the Daugava River.
The experience costs between $150-190. Seems interesting. But we wonder what happens if you need to use the toilet, as we didn't see any sort of facilities up there.
crookedtimberofhumanity 