Winter chillZZZZs and folk dancing in Rīga

Outside at Vidzemes tirgus

...and so I took my camera in hand, wending my way toward the center of town, zigzagging across past the Vidzemes tirgus (market) [right], then down Tērbatas iela. I stopped in several shops along the way—though I can't say if I was more interested at the time in shopping, or simply thawing a bit.

Taste Latvian and buy local products sign

A sign in the small corner lot exhorted us to Taste Latvia! and to look for the sign of the spoon in the green oval to tell which are the real Latvian products [left]. Obviously, there are many things which need to be imported, particularly hard goods, with the demise of a large part of Latvia's industrial capacity—which was mainly assembly and finish work, not end-to-end production. You would hope that Latvia would do better in the agricultural sector, but, milk prices are still low, it's reported on TV that wheat isn't "quite up to standard" for export. The latest on the news was that the Jelgavas sugar factory can't make ends meet because it's competing against no-tariff imports as well as smuggled and counterfeit (imported sugar in fake Jelgavas sugar bags!) knock-offs.

As we write this, the Latvian Beet Farmers Association meets with the new Jelgavas factory management tomorrow to negotiate prices for 2003, so there is hope yet!

Back down Tērbatas iela, it was slim pickings at my favorite consignment store. However, I did find a well-used book, Latvju Rakstniecība Portrejās, by Alberts Prande—Latvian Writing in Portraits, from Latvia's first independence. It's a compendium of Who's Who in Latvian literature going back to the anonymous carvers of runic characters on ancient kokles (Latvian zithers) [below]. I had it wrapped (paper tucked at the ends, no tape) and stuck it under my jacket to carry it—for I had committed what is still the cardinal sin of Latvian shopping... I didn't brought my own bag!

A kokle found in lower Kurzeme,
on which is engraved the Latvian representation of the year 1282 (significance unknown)

The ancient Latvian runic characters deciphered, by M. Siliņš

I headed back out into the cold. Further down Terbatas iela was the antique book store... all collectors' items—too expensive...