Fucking Latvia – alternative guide to Latvia. Comments, impressions, tips, photos
We have come across some blogs that feature photos of Latvia. All of them seems to be made by individuals, with more or less sense of humor. We decided to choose three our favorites. There’s a guy that takes random photos of Riga every day. The other one is the website with probably the longest domain name in the world – millionreasonswhylatviaisthebestcountryintheworld.com. And then there’s a photographer who shoots the things that remind of the Soviet past. Enjoy!
Flag of Latvia is not just a nation’s flag, it’s like a sacred icon. You can guess that it’s not that commercialized as, for instance, American flag. You won’t find a shorts or toilet paper of it. If you have such a business idea, you might end up in prison. You might get punished if you display it on a simple stick or touch it with dirty hands.
A couple of months ago there was a case in Liepaja (small town in West Latvia). On one of Latvia’s many mourning days a janitor displayed Latvia’s flag on a broomstick. He did it just because he couldn’t find an appropriate shank (it was broken or something like that). So the guy got a big fine for this and was accused of motherland’s betrayal. There have been also cases in the past where people were criticized that they have “touched” the flag unduly or at the “wrong moment”. It is also bad for a foreigner to touch the Latvian flag as Latvians will think that you want to make fun out of it. Latvians think that the flag is a part of their body, something very personal. Actually it’s better not to touch it at all. Also if you forget to put the flag out on a mourning day (well, Latvia has only 5 festivity days versus 9 mourning days), you probably won’t get any fine at all or very little one. So, our best advice – avoid the flag!
Latvia is a tiny country in a shape of a screwed rag in North East Europe. Latvians prefer to say North Europe as “East” sounds more Slavic and “sovietic”. If you get on Ryanair from Stansted it will take you 2 hrs and 20 min to reach Riga. There is also airBaltic that flies around major European cities (Berlin, Rome, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen).
Small map of Latvia
Latvian flag
For the most of the history Latvians have been slaves to all the neighboring countries, but Estonia (well, they’ve been always too small for that) and only at the finale of World War I in 1918 Latvia got independent. In 1934 a guy who looked like Peter from Family Guy decided to take everything in his own hands, so a bloodless dictatorship was established. Apparently Latvians liked him and most children of that time recalls those years as the best in the history of Latvia. In 1940 Latvia let herself to be occupied by Soviet Army and for the next 50 years Latvians became slaves again. Those were the years when most people fucked their brains and some people say Latvia still has not been able to recover from this rape that lasted so long.
Fragment of Latvian national hymn, the guy who filmed shakes his hands a lot, most likely cos it’s very thrilling moment
Today Latvia inhabits about 2,2 million people and just about half of them are Latvians. About 200 000 (officially less) citizens of Latvia live abroad (mainly in Ireland) because now it is the Latvian government that constantly fucks Latvia. Riga, the capital, is the biggest city with almost half of population living there. It also means that everything outside Riga is boring countryside.
A view on Riga
Latvians speak Latvian language, which comes from a Baltic language group (yeah, not Slavic) and Russian is also commonly used among those of 25 years and older. Some English is usually spoken by all young people as they choose it as a foreign language at school. In Latvia you can still find some nice things to do – from fucking beautiful chicks to cheap booze and even exotic sightseeing.
