Rīga- a cautionary tale of being sandwiched between Germany and Russia (in a non-fun, non-sexual way)

So you know I’m a slut for architecture, right? Like I get off on flying buttresses and Moorish arches. All I’ll say is that I’ve never seen an exposed brick load bearing wall that I haven’t liked. *Wink*

Anyways, Latvia wasn’t ever somewhere that came to mind upon thinking of architectural hotspots. That misconception, however, was swiftly dispelled, thanks in part to British queer middle-aged neo disco icon and songstress from SoHo Jessie Ware. Wikipedia describes her music genre as “sophisti-pop” and I agree, but only because you have to say ‘fist’ to say ‘sophisti-pop’, and I agree with anything and everything when it comes to fisting. I’m not going to explain in this post what the relationship between Jessie Ware and Latvia is; you’ll have to wait for my next post for that juicy little tidbit (thats what we call hooking the reader in the biz).

Rīga (the capital of Latvia) is a city of about 800,000 people on the Daugava River close to its mouth on the Baltic Sea. Having been founded over 800 years ago, Rīga has been on the receiving end of an absolute shitload of invasions and occupations. First came the German Christian missionaries, which evolved into the Livonian Order. Then came Poland-Lithuania. Then Germany, the sequel. Then the Swedish Empire. Then the Russian Empire. Then the Germans, again. Then (briefly) independent. Then the Nazis (Germany- part 4). Then the Soviet Union. Then, finally, independence again. This revolving door of oppressive foreign powers brought successive waves of architectural and cultural influence. This is reflected in Rīga’s huge variety of architecture styles, from Baroque to Beaux Arts to Brutalist. It made me wet, honestly (the architecture, not the conquest- you pigs).

The thing that really stood out to me about Latvia are the spirit (and spite) of it’s people- I mean that as the biggest compliment, and I’ll explain how. Maybe it’s the constant ping ponging back and forth between oppressive assholes, but the people of Latvia are fucking metal. For starters, their flag represents the blood seeping out from a wounded warrior on the battlefield (lore tells that a wounded sergeant was placed on a white sheet, and he bled so much that when he got up off of the sheet, all that was left was a white stripe where he had been, surrounded by blood). Their national language was standardized across the country from a concerted effort during the years of the Russian Empire rule to galvanize the peasants against the rich (veryyyy Luigi Mangione coded we live), and every Latvian, confirmed, has an absolute liver of steel (I learned this after taking tequila shots with a bartender one night and learning that 5 shots back to back was nothing). It seems like the Latvian people continue on strongly just to spite the assholes who want their land and honestly? I fucking LIVE.

Anyways- here are some other fun Latvia facts:

Did you know that Latvia fucking loves Elvis Prestley? Or they think that tourists do? Because, I kid you not, there were Elvis Prestley-esque covers of the most random songs blasting every night from a local square where my room was (my favorite had to be Creep by Radiohead. Like, you truly haven’t stared into the abyss until you’ve heard an Elvis style cover of that song in fucking Latvia of all places).
Did you know that Stoli vodka is bottled in Riga? Fun fun funnnnnnnn
Did you know that Rīga has the second highest number of Art Nouveau buildings in the entire world behind Paris?
- Now- do you actually believe that fact, or do you think I just completely made that up. Maybe this entire post is a lie? What if my name wasn’t Matt and I just gaslit you this whole time? Imagine…