Sometimes I wonder why I travel so much ... I'm almost at the end of my tour of Latvia and a cool Friday morning, I go to Rundale near the Lithuanian border, to discover the "Latvian Versailles". The resemblance is uncanny, although the size is ridiculous compared to that of the famous palace of the Louis XIV. But the spell is the same, the architecture restored shines in the morning sun. The remains of aristocracy and Courlandian style of Pils Rundale Courlandian welcome me.

In front of my hotel in Riga, the Occupation Musuem rises majestically. A black, austere, rectangular building remains of this troubled period which runs from 1940-1991. Every day, I pass by to reach the Old City, I can not avoid it more and by a cloudy afternoon, I am confronted with the Latvian historical reality of the twentieth century.

Latgale is famous for its numerous lakes and today I'm going to admire Ludza's two lakes, the big and the small, as they are commonly called. Ludza is also the oldest city in Latvia, founded in the first millenary BC by Baltic tribes. It's by chance that I head to this town and surprise and amazement accompanied me throughout my day.

Latvia is a diversified country. Centuries of occupation by Swedish, German, Polish or Russian make the country a real melting pot. Of the 2.25 million people, only 58.8% are real Latvians. With the Russification during the Soviet period - 1.5 million people displaced - it is not uncommon in some cities, that the majority of the population is Russian. In Riga, for example, there are 43% of Russians and 41% of Latvians.

On the road to Moscow, located about twenty kilometers from Riga, there is the concentration camp of Salaspils. Approximately 100,000 people were murdered during the Second World War.

When I stayed at Ediite's place in Plienciems, I had the opportunity to have a sauna in its most tradition way. 

Still travelling on the Baltic coast and particularly in the north, I get interested in the Livs, a nation considered as one of the oldest in Europe.