Latvia has an extra street light symbol: red + yellow = almost green.
The Daugava River in Riga is ridiculously blue. The photo does not do it justice.
Riga skyline from one of the many tall churches.
More Riga skyline.
You guessed it.
Ilze, climbing the bell tower of the same tall church.
A street weaver. Ilze had never seen a male weaver and insisted I take the photo.
Paddle-boating on the Riga canal.
How risque, paddle-boating in a dress.
My first dinner in Latvia. Cold beet and kefirs soup. Surprisingly delicious.
Inga and Ilze with Mojitos.
Inga and Ilze, sunning by the Baltic sea.
Baltic sea.
That there yellow's canola fields.
Sigulda silver smiths - they do it the 8th century way because that was before any non-native tribes had invaded the region. I suppose it is more pure. They gave me one of their amulets for singing a song in Latvian.
Here I am grinding flour for tomorrow's bread.
Traditional dresses and flower crowns for Ligo (St. John's Day) - the older woman gave me her bouquet because I was foreign.
Burning flower crowns while singing folk songs.
A glimpse of a castle in Sigulda
I have included two photos, but it is truly amazing how many photos we managed to squeeze out of the novel idea of a face peering through a hole in a rock.
Notice the older lady's bouquet peeking out of the hole.
This is one of many such sculptures in the park in Sigulda. It was on the cover of my guidebook, so I figured it must be important enough to deserve a photo. Ilze's family told me that the sculptures each represented a Latvian fairy tale, though they couldn't figure out which represented which.
The same castle in Sigulda a little closer up.
Ilze's graduation - here she receives her diploma.
Ilze with her boyfriend Kristaps. Very sweet.
Apparently everyone gives new graduates flowers because Ilze had to have two people help her hold all the flowers she received. Here she is with her mother, brother, boyfriend, and father.
Mexican food Latvian style. Not quite right.
Sunset on the beach.
Camping with Ilze's fellow graduates - all with degrees in Spanish, therefore, I could speak with them.
The tiny "wigwam" where 5 people managed to sleep.
Typical Latvian food for Ligo.
More typical Latvian food. Hope you like dill and sour cream.
Ligo cheese. It tastes like pumpernickel bread, but it's cheesier.
homemade buns stuffed with ham and garlic.
Here I am making my own flower crown with nine varieties of flowers which I picked from a random meadow off of a dirt road in Latvia. Nothing more relaxing than picking wildflowers in a meadow. At first I was concerned I wouldn't find the requisite nine varieties, but it turns out that Latvian meadows are rather fertile.
Ilze had to help me with my crown. I was struggling.
Tada.
the Gauja river in Sigulda.
An interesting means of arriving at the bottom of a hill. This was no theme park, merely a mode of transportation.
More Gauja river views.
Notice the oak-leaves in the gondola. Oak leaves, symbol of masculinity and Saint John, were crammed in every crevice imaginable this weekend.
Castle ruins and Ilze.
Castle ruins and moi.
Awaiting my knight in shining armor.
A cave.
There must have been a musician inside the cave at one time, perhaps the old man in the last photo.
The lone swan of Sigulda. They brought two, but the male flew off to live with his lover in Riga.
I like this red cross.
I thought this door was interesting.
Reminds me of Slovakia, but with bricks.
I probably have 20 photos of castle windows. Now I take them out of habit alone.
Probably one of my favorite photos. Notice the not-so-subtle juxtoposition of old with ancient, of medieval decay with soviet decay.
Some wooden totem poles. Ilze and I think they are ugly, but they are evidently quite popular in Latvia. I'll let you decide.
The, um, ayuntamiento of Sigulda. I think that is something like a capitol building or perhaps a local courthouse. I was never very familiar with the organization of local governments in Europe.
I took this photo only to annoy the Americans that were waiting to head down this rather long walkway.
Ilze's mother's garden.
It's quite large.
And full of edible goodies. Cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, black currents, etc.
An orthodox church in Riga.
Riga is famous for Art Nouveau buildings.
More Art Nouveau.
Peculiar graffiti
Fast food Latvian style: Palmeni. You fill your bowl with various ravioli-ish things and they weigh it.
Old fashioned church with cool ceiling in the Open Air Museum. They collected historic houses from all over Latvia and put them in one park near Riga.
They way things were way back when. Ilze says the crossed horse heads are a symbol of fertility or something like that.
This house is decorated in the fashion of the early 19th century.
Windmill!
or evil giant?
It looks staged because it is.
Ilze, Latvian Smile.
Latvian tepee. Evidently they had a similar idea to the plains indians.
Grey peas with onion and bacon sauce. "Country food." I actually loved this dish though it looks unappetizing.
Latvian children amuse themselves by making Maple seeds into green pinocchio noses.
Another windmill!
Pre-soviet Latvian style house.
No idea.
