Our Latvia album

Our Latvia album, p. 2

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Cultural life

Dziesmu & Deju Svetki
Childen dancing at the Opera House

Dancitis in performance

Ernas simtgadeAunt Erna's centenary

It’s bleak outside on Erna’s birthday, but omulīgs, cozy and more, inside

Erna's 100th birthday, Siberian deportees who became family through mutual survival

Erna's grandson Arno serenades her

Fine coffee and drink as still life

One of Erna's 100th birthday cakes, yum!

Poetry for Erna's 100th birthday: Blossoms white the apple tree By the sea-side dunes The breeze blows, the petals fall Into the sail-man's boat

Gaida and her mom Erna

Erna and Peters

Campaign season, "Folks who get things done" Fatherland and Freedom party

Silvija and Anda

The cat went to bed early during Erna's birthday celebration

Erna's 100th birthday celebration

Erna and daughter Gaida

Erna receiving flowers on her 100th birthday

Heading to Gatwick, the countryside looks a lot like Latvia

Gatwick destinations, there's Rīga (middle column, five down)

Zina and Kristine

Engaging in captivating conversation…

…and look through pictures.

Peters and Gaida discuss politics…

Attention is momentarily diverted from food, food, food did we mention food?

Pokemon fever strikes!

…until it was time to go home to sleep!

Friends and family

The singers bid us farewell…

…as we start hoofing our way back.

Jaunmokas
Peters' cousin Gaida, mom, and Silvija at the grand manor

AOL Lat Chat
"Live" in Rīga

AOL Lat Chat
"Live" in Rīga, the whole group

AOL Lat Chat
Silvija [right] is horrified at the wide angle lens distortion whereas Peters likes the collection of long Latvian noses

A Jāņi kiss
Neither our first nor last

Zaubes iela
The Bergamani (Iveta, sons Peteris and Toms, husband Janis) with Silvija's mom Anda

Zaubes iela
Janis and sons Peteris and Toms

Silvija and Iveta

Kristine and Silvija

Peters, Zina, Anda, Silvija, Kristine

Peters. Zina, Silvija, Kristine, Iveta

Peters' mom Irma ready to meet family again after more than half a century (and her first airplane flight ever)

Peters' mom Irma ready to meet family after more than half a century

After watching my mom take over her living room packing everything from tools to toilet tissue, I'm ready to fly off into the unknown and unexpected

Ready to fly off into the unknown and unexpected

Looking out the window from my room, my first new day in Latvia

My very first time awakening to a new day in Latvia at Gaida's and Laura's home in Bolderāja

Meeting Gaida's grandchildren Dzintars and Māra for the first time

With their uncle Arno

The oldest generation reunites! (l-r) Aniņa (cousin to sisters) Irma and Laura

Uncontrolled reunion!

Arno (photographer here) maintains better control

With my cousins Gaida and Jānis and Jānis' stepdaughter Ginta

(back, l-r) Peters, Arno holding Māra, Māris, Velga (front, l-r) cousin Gaida, my mom Irma, Gaida's and Vīja's mom Erna, Dzintars, cousin Vīja

Peters, Arno, Māra, Māris, Velga, Gaida, Irma, Erna, Dzintars, and Vīja

Sisters Laura and Irma before the war

My first leg on the way home awaits on the tarmac

A week all too short, one last look at the tarmac as we taxi to take off on my trip home

A last look back

Home cooking
Irma, Peters' mom, in her parents' kitchen in the mill house in Mordanga.

Home Cooking
Irma, in her parents' kitchen in the Mordanga mill house.

Peters' maternal grandparents
And here they are, Peters' grandparents. Peters rephotographed these pictures which his aunt Laura had saved when the family was taken to Siberia. (Thankfully, Peters' parents weren't home at the time!) Someday, Peters hopes one of his albums will include finding and visiting his grandparents' unmarked grave, under a stand of trees, about 30 kilometers outside of Krasnoyarsk.

Peters' Grandparents (Mom's Side)
These photographs survived the trip to Siberia and back home

Cousins Gaida (left) and Vija (right) flanking Peters' mom Irma, and our souvenir journal featuring the Pope on the cover

Gaida, mom, and Vija with souvenir

Gaida's garden,a tiny snail rides in on a raspberry picked in the garden

Gaida's garden, a bee harvests pollen

Gaida's garden, butterflies

Rīga, two flats on the car and a flat in the trunk after fixing a flat the previous night, on the way to Lena's and Arturs'

Liene plays bashful in Mordanga's mill house

My Cousin Vija
My cousin Jānis had passed away in the spring, and Vija, only a week before our arrival. The flowers were still fresh on her grave. My mom bids our sad farewell, still, happy that Vija had survived her difficult bout with cancer long enough for us to have been reunited at all.

Vieglas smiltis
My mom bids our sad farewell. My cousin Vija passed away only a week before our arrival.

Pice
Like some stately, inscrutable Egyptian goddess of old, Pice (PIT-seh) awaits us into her domain, my cousin Gaida's house. Indeed, at that moment, Pice was the sole inhabitant.

Pice
Pice awaits us into her domain, my cousin Gaida's house

Kuldīga reunion Purely by chance Peter met the Groskopfmaņi, relatives on his father's side, on a flight returning back to the US—discovering the connection in casual conversation (!).

Kuldīga reunion A prior chance encounter leads to a reunion

On a wing and a prayer
Vieglas smilitis, Jāni un Vija
Latvian meaning "May the sands lie light upon your grave." I reflect on connections made and connections lost, and say a quiet prayer for both on the flight home across the Atlantic.

Vantaa Airport
In summer, the sun never sets on the flight across the Atlantic, and bright daylight greets morning arrivals. Traveling in winter, stopping over at Helsinki, it feels like we've taken a wrong turn and arrived at Space Moon Dock, like some Disneyland ride gone terribly awry.

Helsinki Vantaa Airport
Morning stopover. There are only a few hours of real daylight in winter.

Our Christmas Tree
Technically, if you go by the old calendar (which lasted in Latvia until 1916!), it's not Christmas yet. But, for the rest of the world, it has already passed, and the tree awaits being lit one more time for its guest from afar. My cousin Gaida gets the matches out to light the candles as her grandson Bruss looks on. Did you know the first Christmas tree appeared in Riga in 1510?

Our Christmas Tree
Gaida gets the matches out to light the candles

Family Traditions
My mom has been here since the waning of summer. After coming to Latvia for seven years now, it's good for us to finally be able to all join each other for the holidays. As at any such get-together, it's important to record all for posterity. Here my mom gets her camera out to catch Maris and Velga, their daughter Mara and son Dzintars.

Family Traditions
Peters' mom gets her camera out to catch Maris and Velga, daughter Mara and son Dzintars.

Virginia finches still in the camera

(l-r) Peters' mom Irma, Silvija's dad Henry, Anda's mom Zin

(l-r) Zina, Kristīne, Anda, and Peters' mom Irma

"Look up at the camera!"

Anda, Kristīne, Henry

A chilly Tuesday morning, it's still dark as we taxi away from the gate

Sunlight is reflecting off the clouds as we approach Latvia.

It's an overcast day below.

We make our final descent.

Anda and Aivars join mom after picking me up at the airport.

Heavy camera! Mom had trouble holding it up and straight.

Another day, and today, a day trip out to visit Uldis and Zaiga in Ieriķi

Already feeling bit stressed, I was taken aback having to go through customs at our stopover in Berlin en route to Rīga—not a route I had ever flown before. Here, the air control tower as I'm walking outside. Right past the taxi stand, as I recall. If I had more time between flights I could have simply taken a cab into town to sight-see or visit old family friends, the Battigs—two sisters our family got to know well during my childhood.

Passing through Berlin on the way to Latvia, surprised I had to go through passport control