Latvia

Latvia was a pagan country right into the 12th century. Traces of that paganism remain today as evidenced by the wide practice of herbal medicinal remedies, water divination, and summer solstice celebrations. Latvians have an attitude to nature that expresses a belief that there is life in all things that come from nature. For instance, a wooden whistle bears the spirit life of the tree. Latvian cemeteries are in forrests because the decaying body gives life to the tree and the tree gives life to the whistle, which embodies the life in the tree and the spirit of the body. There are many songs played on the whistle that tell of the death usually of a young girl, whose spirit comes to life in the song played by the whistle made from the tree from which it was formed. Rather nice, don't you think?

Latvia is a country that has been repeatedly occupied throughout the centuries first by the Germans, then the Poles, the Swedes, the Germans again, the Tzars of Russia. Finally Latvia declared itself to be an independent country which lasted only until the Bolsheviks took over after WWI. Then in WWII, first the Nazis arrived, staying for three years or so, setting up a labor camp that claimed thousancds of lives, not through extermination, but through hard labor and starvation. Then the Russians came in and "liberated" Latvia from the Nazis, deporting many thousands of intellectuals and dissidants to Siberia, where few survived the harsh conditions. Finally, on May 4, 1991, Latvia declared itself an independent state. The Germans were the first to recognize Latvia as an independent country, the Russians the second.

One day we went to the site of the Nazi labor camp outside of Riga. The camp was burned down as news came to the Nazis that the Russians would soon be there. In place of the former camp structures, there is a large field with massive concrete abstract sculptures depicting the agonies of the people in the concentration camp. In the photo above, the men in line are helping to support fellow prisoners. The man with the raised arm at last declares victory over inhumanity.

We enjoyed an excellent presentation by a professor of music at a university in Riga. He talked about what can be learned about a culture through music and song. He demonstrated various instruments typical to Latvian folk music: the whistle, the flute, the kokles (a stringed instrument resembling an autoharp) and the bagpipe. Bagpipes in Latvia??!! Yep! Some of the folk song lyrics are hysterically sexually explicit. It was a fascinating lecture as well as the lecture on Latvian history.

We toured Riga its markets and museums, attended an organ recital played on the largest pipe organ in the world, a musical program at a school for the arts, and a cello recital. I liked the physical layout of the town and would liked to have spent more time there. Oh...and I waded in the Baltic Sea!

Photos from left to right, top to bottom: By the Baltic Sea; sculpture at the Nazi labor camp; a view of Riga Old Town; the Hanseatic League building in Old Town Riga.

Lithuania

We visited the rare book room at Vilnius University established by the Jesuits in 1570. There was an amazing exhibit of rare important books: Vesalius' anatomy drawings from the 16th century, Copernicus' notes, illuminated Gregorian chant songbooks. Upstairs from the library in the observatory were globes from the 13th century depicting wolves and scorpions in the underworld.

Following this, we visited the Baroque Vilnius Cathedral and its chapel to St. Casimir, a revered Polish saint. During the Russian occupation following WWII, the plan was for the cathedral to be used as an automobile repair shop for German army vehicles. The mayor of Vilnius stalled long enough for that idea to be dropped. The cathedral was then converted into an art gallery. Many religious buildings were converted into storage facilities, granaries, art galleries, shops, and so on during that period. After Lithuania declared independence from Russia in 1990, the churches reverted into places of worship. Lithuanians are 84% Roman Catholic and about 10% Lutheran, the rest being Russian Orthodox Catholics and Jews.

Just when I was having negative thoughts over the downside of group travel, up comes a musical dance and instrument performance at a school for the arts in Vilnius. The students in this music program are selected and trained beginning in the 5th grade and participate until graduation at 18 or 19. They gave a very impressive performance of Lithuanian folk music. The best part was they invited us to dance! This is the kind of thing an independent traveler would never be able to experience and what a treat it was!

Before we departed Vilnius to bus it to Riga, Latvia, we spent an afternoon touring the castle at Trakai, a medieval structure on an island in a lake where kings would come to celebrate conquests over the Crusaders. Interesting that the Crusaders came to Lithuanian long after it was completely converted to Christianity. We think to plunder and pillage? Yes we do.

(Obviously I haven't figured out the picture position thing. Castle at Trakai top center, University reading room left, student musicians right.)

Errata: In a previous post Kronenborg castle should have been correctly named Kronborg Castle. Oops.