More From Latvia

While I'm away for Thanksgiving I thought I would leave you with some more of my favorite images from Latvia.

This photo was taken from the front of an old school building we stayed in. We walk down to the end of this path take a left and walk a mile to the beach of the Baltic sea. I gave this an Orton photo effect.

 Here is the original.

This next shot was taken on a solitary walk I took through the cobblestone streets of Tulsi, Latvia. We spent the bulk of our stay in Tulsi and I fell in love with the timeless, peaceful beauty of this country town. The cat in the window just reminded me of images I had only seen in books up until that moment - images of villages untouched by modern times
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The architecture of some of the older buildings in Latvia's capital, Riga, is like most any European city - simply magestic and breathtaking.  I took several pictures of buildings; I was fascinated with them. Riga's history dates as far back as the 12th century. I also have pictures of the Powder Tower, the only remaining tower of the original wall that once surrounded the city in the 14th century.
The thing that saddens me about So Cal (and the US in general) is the lack of regard for history and historical landmarks.  You always have to make way for all things Modern. But that is another conversation all together.

 

While traveling down the coast of Latvia, we stopped in a little village, in the upper room of a small school I saw these children intently working on something - the light streaming in gave the room a warm, red glow and I took my camera out for a quick picture hoping I would capture the moment.

 

Since I traveled to Latvia back in 1995 and only had a film camera (on loan) I scanned these pics in to the computer. But they are straight out of the camera!

Did you know that the Latvian language is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn? Well, that was the case some 10+ years ago. It was still fairly rooted in it's ancient past and only a small percentage of Latvians were speaking it as Russian was the official state language during the Soviet occupation. When Latvia regained it's independence in 1991 the task of reestablishing Latvian as the official language began.

Latvia is one country I wouldn't mind returning to again someday.

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