10.2.18 For those of you who don’t know, Daugavpils is Latvia’s second largest city and is sometimes thought of as the most Russian city in Latvia. According to Wikipedia, it is over 50% Russian. As I look at the Wikipedia page, I am struck by the complete desertion of the city from 1920-1950 when the …
Nav Brīvdienas 26.9.17 Yes, it is true. This is not a vacation. This is not a trip. This is real life! After three weeks of being a Latvian worker, doing the daily commute, and getting my ducks in a row, I am exhausted and content at the same time. From my blog posts, one might …
Atvasara September 10, 2017 Atvasara is the Latvian word for a day like today. It was cold all this week. I even wore gloves, a coat, and hat while riding to school. Then, suddenly, it warmed up to a balmy (for Latvia) 23 degrees Celsius, which turns out to be just 73 American degrees. So …
Today, the fine people at the Latvian American Shipping Line will be coming to my house to take away the crate of possessions that I have deemed important enough to take on my excursion to Latvia. The packing process has been going on in my mind for months now. What to take, what to leave, …
Jēkabpils December 30, 2016 I had planned to wake up this morning and just go on a road trip somewhere. I got started late, but I put my finger on the map and drove some 130 kilometers to Jēkabpils, the tenth largest city in Latvia. What I learned is that there are no straight lines …
Note: Okay, I finally got to it. If I hurry, I’ll still get four hours of sleep tonight before we fly back. But I can sleep on the plane, right? Enjoy… Smiltene: Vitauts’ Home I know I’m not spelling this right, but I’ll correct it later. Dad lived on a farm for sixteen years and …
Jurmula to Riga Ansis is the host with the most. We left Abragciems for Riga in the morning, but it was raining, so our plans to stop along the beaches to see the white sands was no longer possible. We did, however, sprinkle dirt from Liesma and Arnold Grinvalds’ graves onto the Latvian soil and …
Some months ago I asked dad what he would do if he finally won his millions of dollars. What did he need that he didn’t already have? His response after some thought was, “I would like to go back to Latvia one more time.” My response was, “We can do that right now!” With some …