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Did you know that Latvia has a Baltic Beach Party sponsored by Red Bull and Coca Cola?

I was embarrassed I didn’t know where Latvia was so I looked it up.  They are just like us here in the U.S. except they are a tiny country and they speak Latvian.  My friend said, ” didn’t Mork from Mork and Mindy come from Latvia?”

Well, anyway, I decided I wanted to learn about Latvia.  They, like us, are suffering a recession after years of grotesque prosperity. Corruption in their government has created a  health care industry that no one would use as a template.

The Soviets occupied the country after driving out the Nazi’s.  Latvia  regained independence in 1991.  14 governments in 16 years and now Ivars Godmanis has led a new four-party centre-right government since December 2007.

They have billionaires and ads for Mercedes SLS AMG,

they have brave women…

and they celebrate being rich and being beautiful.

They have something called the Day of the Blonde in the city of Riga.  Rumor has it the first Christmas tree was decorated in Riga in the 1500′s.

They celebrate many days of independence from things that happened while under Soviet rule. Latvians don’t like to be called Russians –>different culture, different language so don’t do it. Their comments become foul and cruel and fists pound tables if you call them Russian or Soviet.  They are a proud new member of the EU and NATO and are working hard to straighten up their democracy and stay prosperous and free.

Somewhere between Ventspils and Kolka cape in Latvia (ex-Soviet country) is located two radio telescopes (also known as “zvjozdachka” – the star), that in those days were one of most secret elements in soviet army. There are two antennas left – RT-32 (main dish is 32 meters in diameter) and RT-16 (16 meters). The smallest one – RT-10 – was taken away when soviet soldiers left Latvia in 90-ies. With those antennas Russian forces were able to spy phone calls everywhere they wanted. So what are they doing with these two now?

This guy had a pretty impressive collection of car photos, here is one of them and his comment…

“I am from Latvia. Some people say, in Latvia is the biggest percent of
exclusive cars in northern Europe. I am a starting photodraph, and my biggest
passion is taking some nice shots of cars.
You can look at my latvian car
collection, and I hope you like it
and it will be great if you publish this photos right here, because people
think that Latvia is a very poor country.
Who knew?