Riga: Diplomacy at the Belarus Embassy

Posted December 1, 2014 by admin
Belarus

Riga

Latvia

September 6, 2014

                       

                Diplomacy at the Belarus Embassy

“Sorry. Your passport photo is unacceptable.  Your passport photo is on a blue background.  We require a photo on a white background.”

“It’s a nice photo, isn’t it?” I inquired, hoping for a bit of flexibility that is probably non-existent.  (May I humbly say, “My looks and my demeanor usually go a long way in many countries.”)  But this young punk of a consular official was unimpressed.  “Yes, he agreed, “It’s a nice photo.  But it needs to be on a white background.”

Riga: Smiling Faces

Posted December 1, 2014 by admin
Latvia

Riga

Latvia

September 5, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

In response to my letters and photographs from Latvia, my old friend and classmate Paul G. wrote the following:

“Thanks, Jan, for the virtual tour.  My wife and I will never visit many of the locations that you experienced.”

Paul’s sentiments are certainly understandable.  For most Americans who travel to Europe, Latvia is not a favored destination.  England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain top the list.    Who can gainsay the decisions to visit Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower, Checkpoint Charlie, the Coliseum, or the Plaza de Toros? 

And yet, the decisions of many Americans are now changing.

Riga: Central Market

Posted December 1, 2014 by admin
Latvia

Riga

Latvia

September 2, 2014

To:  Jeff Z. and Bob A.

cc: Family and Friends

Since you are both engineers with a specialty, respectively, in transportation and geotechnical engineering, I thought you would appreciate the structures of the Riga Central Market.  The market is the largest in Europe and lies across the Daugava River from the Old Town of Riga.

The market of course is dotted with outdoor stalls that display towering piles of fruit, vegetables, flowers, recently picked mushrooms, and consumer products.  Everything from bananas to berries to boxer shorts to bras is on offer.

Riga: Art Nouveau

Posted December 1, 2014 by admin
Latvia

Riga

Latvia

September 4, 2014

To buy or not to buy? 

As the American actress Mae West (1893-1980) once remarked, “I never let anything tempt me, unless I can’t resist it.”

On Alberta Street, I couldn’t resist the book Art Nouveau in Riga.*

Despite my protestations, my pleadings , my sob stories and my best negotiating and bargaining skills, the Latvian (or was she Russian?) saleslady did not budge from the asking price of ten Euros for the book.  Honestly?  It is worth every penny.

Riga: Vermanes Park Stroll

Posted December 1, 2014 by admin
Latvia

             A Stroll Today?  Chess Anyone?

Riga

Republic of Latvia

Sunday

August 31, 2014

On this sunny weekend afternoon, family and friends and friends and neighbors get out of the house and promenade, play, perform and pose in the public park.  What could be more civilized? 

Not counting the pointillist masterpiece by the French painter Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884), I first encountered this civil and civilizing world-wide phenomenon in Greece fifteen years ago.   

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