Greettings from Latvia!!!

Nothing was more memorable to our Mother than the white-sanded Ventspils beach of her youth. OH! It is still there! And the sand is still as white and as fine as powder. And the dunes are still there and the pines still grow at odd angles--blown by the winds of the Sea.
We HAD TO stop there too. Much to briefly--just to take a couple of photos.

But--I have always been drawn to the Sea. And--as I said earlier--being on the beach really, really meant a lot to me.
Here are the three of us--back on the beach where we spent many days as young children. We lived only a couple of blocks away!

Just in case you don't believe how white the sand is here.....Like, a light almond color....

I have no digitals of the other 2 cemeteries where our Grandfather's grave site and our Father's parent's grave site was. Just took regular shots of it.

Anyway--We did visit some people and places--but not everything would be of interest to you all. So, our next "stop" is back in Riga the next day.
Visiting the "Occupation Museum" is a must! It just opened recently--it's nor big, but it is filled with collected photos, information, memorabilia and a lot of printed out, historical information posted all throughout the museum for people to read and learn what all went on.

This was a most serious place to visit, as we all have grown up knowing bits and pieces of what happened. It is a most somber place to visit.
This plaque tells a short history of what happened on that one horrible night of June 14, 1941. The saddest day in out country's History.

This plaque tells you a bit about how we all ended up as "Displaced Persons" (DP's) and spent the next 7 years bouncing around post-war Germany until we emigrated to the USA. That was in 1951. I was then 14. None of us spoke any English. None of us had any money. None of the adults had any jobs.
basically--everyone started from scratch--and we all made it!

And--just as a pint of interest--NONE of us, not Latvians, NOT Estonians, NOT Lithuanians were EVER on welfare or public assistance! Never!

This is just one area in the occupation Museum showing how all the old photos and information was set up for people to read and study.

This is me by a wall of draped Latvian flags. I thought it looked very pretty.

That will be all for tonight. Maybe a bit serious, but I am sure many of you will be interested--some may not.

Not all trips are just for FUN...FUN...FUN....Some are to reconnect with your heritage. More serious aspects of one's life and history. I imagine some of this is hard for some of you to understand.

I am sharing all this with you because this trip was more to me than just the Festival.
I also took 450 digital photos ONLY so I could share it with you all. It was not easy photographing everything all the time with two cameras on hand!

Check out that Google suggestion I posted earlier. You will see plenty of Videos of the Festival!

More to come---soon....Gita

Welcome back, Gita! I find your trip and narrative not only very informative, but it is so interesting to learn about your background, the beautiful country of your heritage and how you came to the U.S. I'm certainly understand how your visit was meant for you to reconnect with your family, friends and loved ones. You are lucky that you were able to find & visit your father's grave site. I'm sure that was very emotional and your entire visit conjured up both tears of joy and sadness.

Sally & I had the pleasure of visiting Gita's home in the Baltimore area. She not only gave us a tour of her beautiful gardens, but we also saw her lovely paintings. She is a very accomplished & modest artist!

This message was edited Jul 27, 2008 9:40 PM

Oh, goody. More Gita trip stories and photos. I've had a long day and will save this treat for myself for tomorrow when I have a few more brain cells firing.

great pictures gita. very beautiful country. waiting for more.

Gita, it's so awful your family was forced to leave such a beautiful place. Was your mom ever able to go back for a visit?

hart,

Much of what is there now--all renovated and renewed--was not there when we left. However--we ALL carried our Homeland in our hearts and still do--to this day.

My Mother never wanted to go. Must have been too painful for her....Also--the hate for the Soviets and what they had done to our people and our country always reared it's head in the older generation. Can't say I blame them.
My mother was a very sad, closed person. I believe she just was not capable of showing love--even to any of us kids.
I don't think she ever got over her husband dying and also never made peace that we had to leave everything behind and never return. She seldom talked about anything. I would ask her over and over to tell me something about my dad, and all she would say is: "What's there to tell?" So, I (we) know almost nothing of him as a person. Also--SO sad!

My Aunt Elma, her sister, also lived here in town. Her kids here and our relatives over there convinced her to go in 1992. And so she did--at age 82. She loved it to death--and it was just wonderful that she did go, because she died the following year.

Her older son (now 68), who lives in VA went for the first time ever 2 yrs. ago. He came back a changed man. NOW, all of a sudden, he is interested in his "roots" and all that.
You know--sometimes it takes a lifetime to do the right thing.........

Thank you for your interest in my pictures and stories.

Gita

I think it takes a long, long, long time for people to get over something like that. During the Civil War, Sheridan and Hunter (Hunter was a native Virginian so I think he was hated even more) did a march similar to what Sherman did in Atlanta. They burned homes, barns, mills, destroyed or carried off crops and killed or carried off livestock. Sheridan bragged later that a crow flying over the valley would have to carry his own food. They left the people here with nothing in the fall just before what would be one of the worst winters on record.

In Lexington, they burned part of VMI and gave the former governor's wife 10 minutes to get out of her house before they burned it.

Anyway, you still find people here from the old families, generations later, who talk with bitterness about the Burning and how if affected their families. I remember my great aunts talking about it.

It's wonderful that your mother was able to go back and add some good memories to the bad ones. I'm so sorry her early experiences made your childhood so painful and made it impossible for her to open up with her own children.

Hart--maybe you missed something........I know I ramble on......
My Mother never went back. It was my Aunt (her sister) that went back the year before she died.

...ahem...Just the facts, Maam! ....:o)

Gita, I'm really enjoying your fascinating posts. Thanks for taking the time there & here to do it. It gives all of us a glimpse into another beautiful, tragic and hopeful world. Your family's experiences are so much a part of the American fabric.. It's so wonderful that you and your sisters made this trip together and were able to share it with your nephew. Just meeting your Aunt was worth the passage! Keep the epic coming!!

I'm sorry, Gita. I misread. How sad that your mother was never able to go back.

Gita, your posts here are wonderful - your country is SO beautiful! I have learned a lot by reading your posts. The photos, and especially your paintings, are terrific.

Thanks again for sharing so much - beauty, pain, growth, pride, but most of all, love.

So enjoyed reading about your trip...some things are indeed difficult to let go..thank goodness we have never know such horrors...should most certainly thank the Lord for such freedom we enjoy each day...

Gita, love the white sand...what memories you have been given by family members in Latvia..are you still working on translating the book you were given to do? Know it was difficult translating, but you were so enthused with it..

Betty,

What i was translating was my deceased Aunt Elma's Diary--not a book. It was hand-written, in Latvian on a small steno pad. Hard to decipher at times.....

I finished it about 2 months ago and saved it to my Documents and sent it to my cousin in VA who asked me to do it.

Gita, I just suggested to John to read and see your pictures of the trip. He loves history and would very much impressed with what you have put on these pages. Shirley said every thing that I would want to say and she very nicely covered it. Amazing and we are lucky to have you within our midst.

Thanks for sharing, am looking forward to the next installment of pics and history.

Ruby

OHHHH....It is getting late--but i do want to post the next segment of pictures and stories.....
Can't stop in between--or one of you Guys will jump in and interrupt my postings. SO! I have to finish up what i wanted to share with you.

Please know that the BIG Opening parade, the BIG choir performance and the BIG Folk danmcing show was all a week after we got there. We did a lot of sight-seeing before all that. The week after the BIG performances was almost an anticlimax.

More pictures of the lovely Riga, it's buildings, the National Cemetery (WOW!) etc.....

SOOOO--Here we go!!!

Walking back to our apartment one day, my sister pointed out a VERY beautiful, ornate entrance way to a Church of some kind--except it was concealed by some columns and an entrance to a parking area--or some such thing.
WHY??? Because during the occupation--the Soviets did not want anyone to see it!
It was beautiful! I walked right through all the "barricades" and took this picture.
Just another example of the lovely architecture in this City.

This day, there was supposed to be some concerts in this town square by groups from different countries. Our cousin, nata, really wanted to see it---------SO--we walked the 2 miles+ again to the center of the Old Riga to see it.
Frankly--we all agreed--it was a disappointment! The most beautiful thing there was the real-flower cascades on each side of the stage. They were arranged (somehow) on a netting of some sort. I am sure they HAD TO have water of some kind--as they were there for days!

Here's a close view of the flower decoration....

Here's a picture of some more ornamental architecture.

This was a Retro Streetcar we saw on a street. It was just sitting there. I am not sure they were actually running it or if it was just a display of transportation past.
I know that here in Baltimore--at our famous "Inner harbor" tourist area, they have a similar retro trolley that transports people along the waterfront streets.

I am trying to add to it's charm.....;o)

Now we head to Riga's National Cemetery--a very, very solemn, cherished place.
I told you before how much I love old Cemeteries. Well--this one is beyond special.
We only walked through the main roadway, so I am sure there are many, many more wonderful grave sites and monuments I never got to see.

This old Cemetery is basically filled up. It is called the "The Brothers Cemetery" (Bralu Kapi) and started out to be the equivalent of the "Arlington National Cemetery" in Washington, DC. Many soldiers that fought for the freedom in both wars--and also against the Soviet regime are buried here, but in time, many other respected persons, dingitaries, authors, poets in out history, composers, and such were buried here as well. Lets face it--burial spaces are not easy to come by.
And so--they opened a "Brothers Cemetery #2" next to it--One trolley stop further....
We started there--as out cousin's ancestors (and ours too by family lineage) are buried there.
I really want to try to convey to you the image of these old Cemeteries.....Many of you have said you can "see" what I am telling you about.
So, picture entering a Cemetery through old, wrought iron gates and walking along well-trodden, wide paths amid ancient trees with old grave sites on either side. Many of the grave sites are so old--SO beautiful! There are well kept ones--and there are forlorn ones. BUT--if there is anyone left from the family, they will be taken care of.

What does that mean??? Well--anyone coming to visit a loved one's grave site would not even think of coming without flowers in their hand. They could be picked along the roadside--just a few daisies--or purchased in any one of the beautiful Flower Stands outside the Cemetery. Most grave sites have a vase hidden somewhere, and water is available nearby from hoses.
They also have a small rake somewhere. To me--this is one of the most respectful and beautiful of traditions. When you visit--you do whatever you have to do--place fresh flowers in the vase, discard the old ones, etc. BUT---when you leave--you rake all the soil surrounding the grave site and never step on it again. Such respect!!!! Wish more people here had it!

So--here are photos of some outstanding monuments to some outstanding people in the Latvian history. Wish I had had time to wander for a couple of hours throughout this old Cemetery.....I could just get lost in it!

This monument is for a beloved conductor that had died. can you tell?

These are the "White Crosses" area--to all those deported and lost in the distant tundras of Siberia--that never returned to their Homeland.

This one--I don't know who it is for--but it is just so poignant.....
I LOVE BIG monuments.....

Here's another one we passed along the walkway....

Those monuments are amazing, love the flowers around the stage area, that is so cool.

Here is my ALL TIME favorite. It is beyond beautiful and emotional...AND--simple!
A grieving Latvian maiden--dressed in her national dress, head bowed in sorrow. The long braids.....so typical--and still a tradition among all the Folk Dancers. Look for it when I post the Parade pictures.

This monument is for someone named Zigfrids Meierovics . I remember the name from my earlier years but am not sure if he was a famous Author? or Composer?
But--I love the dignity and reverence of this Monument. It is as if she just stopped by to pay her respects.....

This message was edited Jul 30, 2008 10:27 PM

This is a "wild" monument to a writer of some sort. Seems he was somewhat radical???
Looking at the abstract, tortured rock-sculpture next to him...Hmmmmm.....

This is the entrance to the "Bralu Kapi" Cemetery. As everything else--it is ornate with struggling, mourning figures of men and women.
Just think! You have to walk a good 1/4 of a mile to even get to th entrance! THEN--you have to walk along another lovely, long Promenade, lined with Aspen tyrees, to even get to the Cemetery.

Here is the entrance viewed from the road as you approach it.

This is a view half way into the approach to the Cemetery.

This is the well-kept grounds to the right of the approach. The small, white stones are for all the fallen soldiers in both WW1 and WW2. SO NEAT!

Here are the grounds to the left.

Here is the somber statue at the very end of the long approach. You can see it from the first photo of the more distant approach.
It is of another young, Latvian maiden holding the Latvian flag and a wreath--with fallen young men at her feet.
It WAS the young men that went to war! And it was all the young women left behind that mourned them.
Another beautiful, meaningful monument.....

This is a picture of the Promenade along the side of the approach to the Cemetery.
I found this a rather unique--but nice--custom all along the Parks and Streets and Walkways.

There are these OLD Aspen trees--with thick trunks (therefore old)--but they keep trimming them back so the new growth is close to the trunk and makes them look very orderly. It also keeps them from overwhelming the view--wherever you need to see something. We saw this all along the streets and the Parks and in the Cemeteries. Nice!!!

NOW--This i later in the day. We are back in Old Riga, having walked around again until we were hungry and thirsty for some of that good old Latvian beer.

This was in another "Square" between the buildings and Churches. They are all over the place--and so are the cafes and outdoor restaurants. This particular "Square" had FOUR different outdoor restaurants around it.
This is the one we chose to have some chow and cold beer at. It was very hot this day--and we wanted to sit somewhere under the shade.

Parked nearby was a horse and buggy for rent--in case you wanted a romantic ride along the cobblestone streets.....

See St. Peter's Church in the back? I wrote you all about it before.....And--some more of the lovely buildings.