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 | Riga Region Local Customs | Tips 1 - 10 of 41 |  |
While walking in a downtown of Riga, I've found many nice squares and buildings with all wall painted. The same thing I saw only in Copenhagen. This way of decorating buildings is quite ineteresting, as these pictures are always painted and gives more colours to the town. Leave a Comment
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Riga is a major cultural centre with many events taking place throughout the year. Gadatirgus is an annual arts festival in June, focusing on traditional Latvian arts and craft.
The Folklore Festival is held in the first week of June, at the Open Air Ethnographic Museum, with explorations into traditional literature and song.
The Midsummer Festival causes a mass exodus from the city, as the locals head to the countryside for some serious partying in June.
The Riga Summer Festival, in July, brings an array of chamber and symphony orchestra performances at venues throughout the city. Leave a Comment
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A traditional Latvian tipple is Riga’s Melnais Balzams or Black Balsam. This is a thick, black alcoholic liquid which supposedly cured Catherine the Great of fever when she visited the country. Nobody knows how it’s made because the Latvians refuse to disclose the recipe but if you are sampling it, try it in your tea or coffee first as it is quite strong. Strangely enough it’s also quite an effective hangover cure which is always good to know after all those bouts of Vodka. :-) Leave a Comment
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Many steeples on Riga churches are topped by gilded cocks. Latvian folklore the cock stands for vigilance and safeguards from evil, when it crows for the third time, the devil must retreat back to hell.
The practice of placing a cock on the spire of churches stems from Middle Age Europe, where the cock also had a practical use as a windvane. Leave a Comment
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1. You see three cars in front of you, and you think you are in the traffic jam.
2. You are happy that underground parking houses are being built, but you never park your car there.
3. You have your umbrella with you during all the year round.
4. You speak min 3 languages.
5. You are not surprised by phrases "horibly cool or ungly beautiful", you actually understand what they are about.
6. You regulary meet members of the Parliament and automatically say hi.
7. You saw Raimonds Pauls in slippers and without security guards.
8. You are surprised if your new acquaintant does not have a cell phone.
9. Every year in the end of june you go with your friends to countryside to drink beer with shashlik.
10. You are used to spend long time abroad on expalining where Latvia is located.
11. You are very surprised if a foreigner knows where Latvia is situated and knows its capital city!
12. You are proud that Lat is the most expensive currency in Europe.
13. Phrase "go to the seaside" means 15-20 min drive for you.
14. You sincerely consider yourself an European. if not Western, so at least the Northern, but never Eastern.
15. You are not surprised at grammar mistakes in Russian on big commercial posters.
16. You are used to watch movies in English, video in Russian, weather forecast in Latvian.
17. You are used more to Scandinavians than to Russians.
p.s. the ones in bold ARE SO MUCH TRUE :] Leave a Comment
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Karums - nobody can really explain what Karums is. It tastes similar to cheese cake, however, Latvian don't consider it to be a dessert. It's small (45 g), sold almost in any food store in milk product section. We eat it for breakfast or snack. You can get vanilla Karums, chokolate Karums, Karums with nuts, citron Karums, etc... It is the most popular product in Latvia according to official market surveys.
Caraway cheese , or any other kind of cheese. We simply love cheese, and it is very different from typical French or Swiss cheeses.
Black bread - just get into a supermarket and find bread section. There are tens of sorts of black bread - sweet, semi-sweet, not sweet, with corn, with caraway (you see, we like caraway). I think we have the best bread in the world!
Latvian beer -We are very proud of our local beer [as all Lithuanians and Czechs are :) ]. Leave a Comment
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In ancient times, when Riga had still not been built, a very large man named Big Kristaps carried people across the Daugava River on his back, letting them off at the spot where Riga now stands. Kristaps had built himself a hut nearby on the right bank of the river.
One night he awoke to the sound of a child crying on the left bank of the river. He waded over, picked up the mournful babe and began carrying him back across to his huy. The child suddenly became very heavy mid-stream, and it was only with the greatest of efforts that Kristaps made it to shore.
With his las ounce of strength, Kristaps laid the child in his hut and dropped off into an exhausted slumber. In the morning he awoke to discover that the child had transformed into a coffer filled with gold. Kristaps was a humble man and did not spend a penny of this treasure until his dying day. After his death the money was spent to build Riga on the spot where his hut had once stood.
At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the citizens of Riga sculpted a replica of Big Kristaps from a 2.36 metre long pine log and placed it on the shore of the Daugava River. The sculpture now is at the Museum of Riga History and Navigation, but there is a new copy of Big Kristaps placed in a glass hut at the Daugava River. Leave a Comment
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Christams Market startes in the first Adventa. Adventa it is a 4 weeks befor Christmas. Christmas Market is not very old tradition, it started on 2001. Here people buying presents for themselves, for relatives and friends, here can find tasty Latvian smoked fishes and smoked meat. In Christmas market you'll find decoration for your house. Leave a Comment
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(1813-1883)
Composer. He spent almost two years in Riga between 1837 and 1839 and was the musical director of the Riga German Theatre. In this role he produced over 20 German, Italian and French operas. According to legend, he found the inspiration for “The Flying Dutchman” on the stormy Baltic Sea when he was leaving Riga, when he was in a depressed state of mind due to unpaid debts. The former premises of the German Riga Theatre are now used as a concert hall bearing the Wagner name, and the street on which it is located is also named after him. Leave a Comment
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Latvian opera performers, including Inese Galante, Ingus Petersons, Egîls Silins, Elîna Garanca Sonora Vaice and Inga Kalna are known on opera stages around the world.
Pianist Vestards Shimkus won the 2002 international Ferenz Liszt piano competition in Los Angeles.
Violinist Baiba Skride took first prize at the Queen Elisabeth competition in Brussels in 2001.
The youth choir “Kamer” won top honours at a European choral contest in Goricia in 2004.
A play called “The Auditor”, directed by Alvis Hermanis, won the main prize at Salzburg theatre festival that was called the Young Directors Project.
Composer Peteris Vasks received the Herder Prize in Vienna in 1996, was nominated for a Grammy in 2004 as Best Classical Music Act, and won the main prize "The Music Record of the Year" at Cannes International Music Fair MIDEM in 2004.
Finally, the violinist Gideons Kremers is globally known and a laureate at UNESCO’s International Music Council. In 2001 he and his orchestra "Kremerata Baltica" with their disc "After Mozart" won a Grammy Award.
These and many other artists have brought Latvian culture to the entire world. Leave a Comment
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