I wrote this post on the 4th of July, 2021. One day earlier, we came back from a 6 days car trip to Riga.
My beloved Kamilka and I spent a marvelous time in Riga, starting from the 26th of June, 2021. We came back fully relaxed and happy that we went to the capital of Latvia. Why Riga? The partial answer you will find in one of my first posts, named “Central-Eastern Europe.” Of course, some people would say that Latvia lies in the northern part of Europe or Eastern. Still, I think that Latvians would agree when I write that their country belongs to the broadly defined Central-Eastern Europe. Undoubtedly, our voyage to the capital of Latvia was very photographically profound to me. I made more than 1700 photographs.
Moreover, I made 120,296 steps (on average of 20,049 per day). How long distance is it? It is ~91 km (~57 miles). Of course, I was not walking only alone but also with my beloved Kamilka.
Did I enjoy sightseeing of post-Soviet blocks of flats and Russian wooden architecture?
Of course, I enjoyed it. I feel the enormous desire to photograph not only Warsaw and other cities of Poland. The truth is that I want to take pictures in cities placed in post-Soviet countries. All these places, starting from Estonia on the north and ending in Ukraine, excite me and scare me. Also, countries that did not belong to the Soviet Union but were on Russians’ influence during the Cold War (communist countries behind the Iron Curtain, starting from my homeland, Poland, to Bulgaria in the south) are tremendously exciting countries. I would also add all countries that formed former Yugoslavia.
But why does this enormous region of Europe both excite and fright me?
It excites me because I cannot believe that these lands bore such geniuses like Nicolaus Copernicus, Frederic Chopin, Joseph Conrad, Stanislaw Lem, Zdzislaw Beksinski, Wislawa Szymborska, Fyodor Dostoyevski, Anton Chekhov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Harry Houdini, Robert Capa, Mark Rothko, Alphonse Mucha, Franz Kafka, Nikola Tesla, Marina Abramovic, Emir Kusturica, Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, Mikhail Bulgakov, Slavoj Zizek, Marc Chagall.. and many, many more!
On the other hand, this particular region of Europe scares me, because of its bloody history and constant threat from Russian politics, with Vladimir Putin on the forehead. Ups… I forgot that I wanted to write about Riga in this post. Undoubtedly, I will write more about this city in the future.
PS
Photographically, I recommend seeing the Dyjament district, my Dear Friend.
