THE SIGN HUNTERS

LATVIA: Winter. Ethnographic museum. Rīga.

Written by Laszlo, 23 February 2018

This morning while I was having breakfast, I watched a video on YouTube about Rīga, the picturesque capital city of Latvia (click here to see the video). It interested me to see that little film, as it shows Rīga in the summertime, while two weeks ago when we carried out our sign hunting mission, it was proper winter there, the temperature was constantly around -10°C.

Nevertheless, watching this short film reminded me that I had still not posted anything and shared some of my better shots with you. Well, I should not really complain, because I have about one hundred thousand photos that I have not shared with anyone yet, but, at the same time, I am trying to keep our audience up-to-date with our most recent projects, so I think in some regards, it is best to catch up!

When we did the sign hunting, we had a long walk, and it was interesting to see how far the sign actually was. No surprise, because Rīga is the largest city in the three Baltic states and home to about one-third of Latvia's total population which means, currently about 650 thousand out of about 2 million people live in the capital city. The total area of Rīga covers about 324 square km, so that is a lot of walking if you want to see everything. Also, I mentioned while out on the field that Latvia's, thus Rīga's ethnic composition is quite diverse; about only 46.2% is actually Latvian. The second largest minority is composed of Russians (37.7%), and there are also small numbers representing Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians and other nations. You can actually see and hear this diversity which is beautiful!

During our Rīga sign hunting trip, we, of course, went to see other things too as you know our motto: "sign hunting is not only about the sign, it is about everything else". I think we managed to squeeze a lot into those days, and I think we managed to squeeze the most random and, at the same time, awesome things in, including the Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum which is the largest and oldest in Europe. My pictures this time introduce you to this beautiful location in the winter, and will also take you to Rīga's historic centre.

Enjoy the moment and let's explore Rīga together!