Orienteering in Latvia: 2016 to 2019

The writing is on the wall - world masters O' of 2016 is in Estonia,  world championship in rogaining for 2017 is in Latvia, 2017 world orienteering championship is in Estonia, 2018 in Latvia and finally the world masters O' championship of 2019 is in Latvia as well. Even without these Latvia has like 10 O' events every week - with 2 WOCs in sight it is an amazing reason to go there!

Just in case it is not enough, you can get to the O' polygons - or static O' courses. There are quite a few of them: LOF.

Choir music

The biggest choir-singing event is Song and Dance festival, which is hosted every 5 years in Riga for well over a century. Next one will take place in summer of 2013.

There are several professional choirs (national choir "Latvija", choir of national radio) in Latvia and lots of amateur ones (with various performance levels). Although "Kamēr" is not a professional choir, you should definitely check them out if your interested in choir music.

End of august there is international spiritual music festival (garīgās mūzikas festivāls), organized by national choir "Latvija" (one of few professional choirs in Latvia). Can't get any info on 2011 event now.

Events hosted in rural regions could be much more of an experience, even though the performance level of the choirs will be lower than those of professional ones:

• May 21, 2011., Aloja - choir music festival dedicated to conductors. Various events during whole day, contact for details.
• May 28, 2011., Bauska - choir music festival of senior choirs (elderly people singing)
• June 4, 2011., Dundaga - Kurzeme regional choir festival
• June 11, 2011, Riga - concert dedicated to 810th anniversary of Riga
• June 18, 2011, Mazsalaca - music festival for choirs from rural areas and small towns
• July 2, 2011, Alūksne - choir music festival for choirs from Vidzeme and Latgale regions
• September 17, 2011, Meņģeļi, Ērgļi municipality - 11th meeting of Latvian choir

More info here, Latvian only, try translate.google.com or contact us.

Wild camping in Latvia

In Latvia, like in Scandinavian countries, you are allowed to camp
wild as long as you respect the nature and follow some simple regulations.
Whether you are cycling, hiking, boating, or traveling by car, you can put
up your tent and enjoy the outdoors, just don't forget to clean up after
yourself.

Everyone's rights:

• In Latvia, everyone has the right to stay and move freely across national, local or private forests unless there are movement restriction signs;
• It is allowed to put up your tent outside protected areas anywhere at any time;

The rules are few and simple:

• don't camp on agricultural land (woodland or bushes are ok and there are plenty of them),
  

• don't camp close to dwelling houses (or ask a permission from landowner; closeness is not defined, use common sense and you should be ok)
  

• don't camp in restricted/nature conservacy areas (don't jump over fences and check the map if youre not in a reserve)
  

In protected nature conservancy areas, nature parks and reserves, dunes
and water protection zones it is allowed to camp only in special campsites (or by
agreement with landowner). Some of them could be free of charge, if not,
be prepared to pay by cash. More information could be found out in
information/visitor centers:
http://www.latvia.travel/en/tourist-information-centres ;

Campfires are allowed in designated campgrounds only, but stoves are ok to use.
State forest company has established a network of campgrounds, take a look. They are quite primitive - picnic table, fireplace, pit toilet. Don't count on running water though, stock up in advance or use water from next river/lake.

Cycling

Latvia is a very flat country with low population density, making it attractive cycling destination. On the other hand, mediocre road quality and bad driving habits should be taken into account during trip planning.

When cycling, you should avoid Riga and major roads leading to it (E67, E77, E22). Riga has no cycling infrastructure whatsoever, and major roads are with heavy traffic. Buy a decent map and plan your route via smaller roads. If you have to travel on main roads, don't do it in rush hours (described in post on transportation), best to schedule it in early mornings or late evenings (Latvia is far in the north, so in summertime days are VERY long). A large part of roads in Latvia have no hard surface (only gravel). Travelling on gravel roads is a lottery, they can be almost as good and hard as tarmac (all loose sand and gravel swept away by cars), and they can be impassable (loose gravel, heavy sand or mud in spring/autumn). You should buy a map that shows type of surface the road has (jāņasēta is a good option, their online shop ships the maps everywhere). A well known cyclist trap is P124 from Ventspils to Kolka, for some 50 km it is gravel road with quite some car traffic, and cars passing at full speed means that you can get hit by pebbles thrown sideway from car tires.

Roads are quite dirty and are not cleaned well after traffic accidents, use tires with decent puncture protection.

communications

Internet

Apart from internet caffes, some regular caffes and gas stations offer wifi. Internet can be accessed in public libraries, a most of them have wifi as well. Every decent hotel should have some connection as well. Internet can be accessed over cellphone networks as well (GPRS, 3G) but beware of costs.

Phone

Cellphones are really popular (over 100% penetration rate, 99% of network coverage), so finding a public payphone can be a challange. Best chances in bigger cities, I would try post offices first.
GSM standard is the most popular one (operated by LMT, Tele2 (homepage in latvian and russian only) and Bite and Amigo), but there is also a CDMA network (www.triatel.lv). See websites for information on prepaid SIM cards (all networks should have them) as well as rates for making overseas calls and using the cards abroad (at leas LMT has the option to use the prepaid card abroad).

Dangers in Latvia

Latvia is an almost not dangerous country, we don't have rattlesnakes, scorpions, earthquakes, mountains. However, there are some dangers one should be aware of while traveling there.

Thieves

In Riga pickpocketing is a general issue: a full trolleybus or a bus, a busy street, you have to take care. Keep your wallet in front pocket of your pants, watch your bags.

Urban trash

A specific subset of humans can be classified as urban trash - they have strong understanding of their home neighborhood and tend to dislike everyone from outside. Avoid them, don't be aggressive, just move away. Police in Riga is close to worthless.

Drunkards

Drinking raises ones self esteem and what was once not possible, now is. One of the highest rates of deaths on roads in Europe are in Latvia. Friday and Saturday nights are probably worse than others. If you are on a bicycle - ride defensively.

Dogs

Dogs are weakly trained compared to civilized ones from Western countries. Most of them on leash, but still way too uncontrolled: "My doggy never bites." Not so many wild dogs, although on the country side some may running on their own. If on bicycle, lifting your feet high is an option. If off bicycle, keep it between you and the barking party. Don't panic, don't run away.

Snakes

One poisonous (European adder) and 2 (or one?) not poisonous (natrix natrix, the other one is probably a lizard without legs).

Ticks

Ticks have been around for a while, but sometimes around 1950's soviets decided to introduce some animals from Siberia for furs. Turned out some of them had ticks that were carrying tick-borne encephalitis. Some others carry Lyme disease. You can get vaccinated against encephalitis, or you can use extensive dosages of insect repellents. No vaccine against Lyme disease.

More ticks are available in deciduous tree forests, in the bushes, less or almost none in pine forests.

If bitten by tick, don't panic: find an emergency room, remove the tiny thing and send it for analysis. Every year some 180 persons get the encephalitis in Latvia, way more get bitten.

Trash

I have lived in Seattle now for 3 years and one thing is extremely pleasant here - dog owners collect after their dogs. Usually not the case in Latvia. Besides that - usual tourist destinations which are not taken care of regularly as well as road sides - are full of junk. Just be careful and don't add some of yours. We are getting better (think US of 50ies with burning rivers, Latvia is WAY cleaner), but it will take some time.

Bears

There are some (20 or so) brown bears in northern and north-eastern regions. There haven't been any reported attacks on humans. If you encounter one, retreat slowly, especially if you see cubs (big angry mama is never far away). There are no other bear regulations like in USA.

Local transportation

This post deals with public transportation across country. 

Roads

All major roads are one lane each direction, authobahn/highway style roads are an exception. Traffic density is generally low except in rush hours around Riga. Weekends/public holidays increase the traffic flow to/from Riga (friday/sunday evening respectively). General speed limit is 90 km/h (55 mph) outside towns, 50 km/h (30 mph) in towns. Max blood alcohol level is 0.05% (more severe restrictions for young drivers).

Small population density means that outside Riga you mostly travel across fields and through forests. Roads don't have fences along the sides, so take some caution against wildlife, especially at twilight/night. The same caution during twilight/darkness should be taken at cyclists and pedestrians without proper lightning/reflector equipment. You shouldn't expect high standards of road maintenance too - most of the roads are somewhat bumpy, with occasional pitholes. This does NOT mean that you need a SUV to drive in Latvia, just keep your eyes on the road and take some precaution.

Many smaller roads have gravel surface (buy a Jāņasēta map, it shows road surface - available at gas stations, kiosks and Jāņasēta map shop in Riga). This again does NOT mean that you need a SUV for driving on them (some small roads get very muddy in spring, then AWD comes in handy). Driving culture is gradually improving, but still it is not up to standards of Germany,  Sweden or USA. Roads are not particularly well marked, so have a map-literate codriver or GPS navigation device is recommended, especially in Riga.

Hitch hiking is allowed everywhere. Usually you don't do that in cities, although gas stations can be a sweet spot for finding your driver. Of course, there is a set of crazy people around there you do not want to meet. 

Trains 

Train schedule can be found in homepage of Latvian railway. Main passenger hub is Riga, with frequent services to Tukums, Jelgava, Daugavpils, Rezekne, Valga. Around weekends there are trains to Gulbene, Ventspils and Liepaja as well. Trains are quite cheap but don't offer any luxury as well (e.g. bathrooms only on long distance trains, not on the electric trains going to Aizkraukle, Jelgava and Tukums). Tickets can be obtained in railway stations and on the train as well (on stops without functioning station, board the train and wait for the salesperson to appear; on other stops you have to pay extra for buying the ticket on train). Cash only; personnel speaks Latvian and Russian, have no idea what percentage speaks English (your experience welcome!). Trains are crowded during rush hours and weekend (Friday/Sunday) traffic, as well as public holidays.

Buses 

Bus is the most widespread means of public transportation in Latvia. Buses connectiong Riga to major towns run quite often, rural areas are less well serviced. Bus station homepage offers schedule as well as online ticket sales. Tickets can be obtained in bus stations as well as on board. Again, cash only, English language skills of sales personnel under question. Quality of coaches vary. Similarly as with trains, buses can be crowded and don't expect a toilet or other on-board services. On longer routes they will stop for such reasons. Buses don't move fast.

General info

1188.lv offers public transportation schedules. Google maps give a somewhat decent map of Latvia.

TODO

Public transportation in Riga/other towns will be touched in another post. We should link to that post once it becomes available.