Latvia has another crap PR campaign

Latvian Institute, the organization, which main task is just to waste some money and make some crap adverts about Latvia, has failed again. They have wasted some 20 000 lats on a new website that looks like it was made only for people over age 60 with research degree in history of Latvia. The website Latvia contains heavy overloaded textual information about Latvia, so you have to scroll and scroll for ages, imagine if you have to read it, it probably takes a week. There are just a few boring stock images but all are no better than the ones we can find putting keyword “Latvia” in Google search. Besides that it is a failure from marketing point of view, the website did work just about few hours yesterday and eventually crashed down due to too many visitors today (because there were news on daily Diena, so everybody went to see). So, if you are lucky, try the link in a few days and see yourself that it is the same old bullshit about amber, Brainstorm, black balsam and wooden houses. And you know, Latvians always wonder why it is so hard to promote/sell a good image of country… well, thanks to shit like this.

Andrejsala in pictures

I have mentioned Andrejsala here already a few times. I am sure for some it sounds like a good place to hang out. I think some photos can help to get an idea what kind of staff is going on there. See something on Flickr.

Grand Theft Auto in the streets of Riga

It is not a secret that bus drivers in Latvia are people of “special category”. Some of them have the same driving culture as their sons who play Grand Theft Auto or any other video games that need “special” skills controlling a vehicle. Look at this guy in peak hour in center of Riga. He definitely knows what he is doing. I think passengers feel it’s not a boring journey either.

Where to meet Latvians

When you go to a foreign country it’s good to know a bit more about their people. Most of Latvians are online and they use Latvian version of Friendster, Facebook and Myspace called Draugiem.lv. It means “for friends” and its English version is called Frype. Once you are there you can “meet” almost anyone – nice chicks, ugly boys, celebrities and even politicians. And there is no age limit, you can find newborn babies and grandmas, which makes it good place for pedophiles or some other weirdos. Lot of young girls like to display photos of wearing underwear or swimsuit, that’s kinda must-have thing for all 16-18 year old girls. To sign up it’s free but the only bad thing is that it is by invitation only (well, probably to avoid perverts like you), but you can apply there and you might get invited. When applying it’s good to write not just “I am cool so let’s make friends” (cos you will just sound like some foreign jerk), but be a bit honest and handsome, don’t tell that you have muscles or nice face cos originally this site is not for dating or any sexual adventures, however, once you are in, you can start your flirting, meeting, or finding people you met on your last trip etc, cos everyone is there by their real name (well, that’s the site’s policy). But be careful sending some love poems to minors, you can end up in prison. There was already a case last year and a 50 year old daddy got sentenced for having a crush on 13 year old girl.

Story about people who run Latvia

Once upon a time there were three friends – Aivars, Ainars and Andris and the time came for them to leave home and seek their fortunes.

Aivars, Andris, Ainars

Before they left, their mother told them ” Whatever you do , do it the best that you can because that’s the way to get along in the world.”
Aivars built his house out of straw in Ventspils because it was the easiest thing to do.
Andris built his house out of sticks in Saulkrasti. This was a little bit stronger than a straw house.
But Ainars built his house out of bricks in Riga.
One night the big bad Einars, who dearly loved to eat fat little boys, came along and saw Aivars in his house of straw. He said “Let me in, Let me in, Aivar or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in!”
“Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin”, said Aivars.
But of course Einars did blow the house in and ate Aivars.
The wolf then came to the house of sticks.
“Let me in ,Let me in Andris or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in” “Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin”, said the Andris. But Einars blew that house in too, and ate Andris.
The Einars then came to the house of bricks.
“Let me in , let me in” cried Einars. “Or I’ll huff and I’ll puff till I blow your house in”
“Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin” said Ainars.
Well, Einars huffed and puffed but he could not blow down that brick house.
But Einars was a sly old boy and he climbed up on the roof to look for a way into the brick house.
Ainars saw Einars climb up on the roof and lit a roaring fire in the fireplace and placed on it a large kettle of water.
When Einars finally found the hole in the chimney he crawled down and KERSPLASH right into that kettle of water and that was the end of his troubles with the big bad Einars.
The next day Ainars invited his mother over . She said “You see it is just as I told you. The way to get along in the world is to do things as well as you can.” Fortunately for Ainars, he learned that lesson. And he just lived happily ever after!

Fucking cheese

In the news they say that this year inflation in Latvia has reached 9,5 %. It’s bullshit if people say that prices for food are cheaper in Latvia then, for instance, Germany or UK. No way, unless you count cigarettes and alcohol (but they warn that in 2 years time there will be no difference there either). So, what is then cheaper? Locally produced food, of course. Let’s talk about cheese, cos I like cheese. They have “Krievijas siers” – Russian cheese, which is probably most commonly used cheese, besides “Holandes siers” (Dutch cheese, quite similar to Dutch Goya). But it’s quite simple cheese, not sure if a Frenchmen or Italian would even consider it a cheese (cos it tastes a bit like nothing). There’s also some cheese with some kind of a taste, such as Talsu ritulis, Līgo siers and Siera desa. First one (Talsu ritulis) is available in 4 types, however the best are 2 – chilly (with red pepper taste) and greenish (with some basil or some sort of similar veggie taste around). I would say it’s the best among all, cos they have some sort of taste, are soft in the middle, a bit even juicy, and sold in a round shapes.

Selection of Talsu ritulis

The second one – Līgo siers, is a variety of cheese that is usually consumed around Latvian midsummer’s celebration. Try it, but I don’t find it anything special. Most Latvians also eat it just around that holiday. The third one is Siera desa – a smoked cheese, similar to Bavarian cheese as it is known in the Britain. A year ago I was buying smoked cheese for some 1 Ls for a piece, now it’s around 1.10 Ls.

This is Siera desa, just one of many versions (cos being produced by many factories in different packing, shapes and smoke degree)

If you want to buy brie, camarbet, gondzola or cheddar, forget it, it’s all imported and cost more then in France, Italy and even UK. Well, if you are an American, probably you have no clue what we are talking here about :p