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Hello there!
Loki opened this forum on my request so I think it is my duty to make the first posting! I try to give you a fitting impression of my former home country and to show some interesting pictures. I am also of 1/4 German ancestry because of my grandfather, so I will say some words to the history of the shown pictures.
This is Latvia in Northeastern Europe:
And I come from the western part of Latvia, the name of the region is "Kurzeme". "Kurzeme" is the latvian word for "Kurland" and "Kurland" is the historical name of this region given by the order who settled there in medivial ages.
Kurzeme is known for the wonderful countryside and nice, historical villages and cities. Many of these cities have also German names because they were founded by the Teutonic orders or were extremely influenced by them. And Kurzeme was for a long time a part of the Hanse. (It´s like that again after the fall of the Sovjetunion when we regained freedom.)
This picture shows the situation in Latvia during the time of the Teutonic Knights:
There you can see also some of the old German names for the cities in Latvia.
Daugvapils - German: Dünaburg
Liepāja - German: Libau
Ventspils - German: Windau
Jelgava - German: Mitau
Kuldiga - German: Goldingen
Rēzekne - German: Rositten
Jēkabpils - German: Jakobstadt
Now I will post some pictures of my region, Kurzeme, to show you the beauty of the country and it´s towns and villages!
A typical village in Kurzeme. Talsi.
The broadest waterfall in Europe! "Venta Rumba". The waterfall of the Venta River near Kuldiga.
The famous bridge of Kuldiga. There are often international film crews! For the remake of the German movie "Die Brücke" least year for example.
Our beautiful baltic coast! The water is very clear there.
But don´t forget the thousands of smaller and larger lakes in our country!
The preservation of old traditions and customs if very important in Latvia, for young and old people.
Just visit my home country, you will never regret it!
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