Published by Vinayak Hegde on 29th March 2010
I was planning to hitchhike from Parnu, Estonia across the international border to Riga, Latvia but better sense prevailed and eventually I dropped the idea. In Latvia, I stayed with another couchsurfer JE. JE was an interesting guy – 20 years old, just out of college, optimistic about the future of his country (considering the multiyear deep recession in his country) and a budding politician. I was asking many questions on Latvia CS group when he offered to host me. He was really curious about India (I found a lot of people in Latvia who were curious about India and were keen to know more). Much of the information he knew about India was from the documentary series “The Story of India” by Michael Wood.
Riga, the capital of Latvia is like a live architectural exhibition. The Daugava river that runs through the center of the city provides a magnificent backdrop to this beautiful city. The city is especially famous for it’s German Art Nouveau Architecture and is recognized as World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Latvia has been alternately been occupied by Germany and Russia over the last millennium before it’s independence. The video below shows it beautifully in the form of a cartoon.
Riga has the finest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in all of Europe. One of the unique aspects of German Art Nouveau is the use of faces and floral pattern in the facades of the buildings. In fact it is downright spooky as you see the faces on the building facades peer back at you in a variety of contorted expressions.
