1. September: Tanja's arrival

Hello everybody!   (Post from Tanja)

I arrived in Latvia by plane on the First of September and fell  in love with the country straight away.

The first surprising thing  I noticed, was how green Riga is, which made me happy because it is very important for  a big city like Riga to take care of its nature and its gas emmissions so the inhabitants and the ecosystem won't suffer any harm. Honestly, I had actually thought that there were no cities, which are as modern and as large as Riga but that are still aware of nature.

The next thing I noticed was how small the airport is. Obviously, not many Latvians travel to distant countries and not many foreign tourists come here. I haven't found out exactly why this is the case but probably because Latvia only opened to Europe and the world a few years ago,  so consequently not many people know about this beautiful country yet. Furthermore the tourist infrastructure isn't widespread yet. However, the number of tourists is increasing and the airport is going to be expanded. Most tourists visiting Latvia are German (ca 15%), which isn't very suprising because Germans are the most frequent travellers in the world.

The first person I met in Latvia was Aija, my stunning, tall, blonde mentor who picked me up from the airport and brought me to my flat where I met Leonardo. He was the previous volunteer from Italy that also worked in Ligzda and had to stay for a few more days to attend his last event,  an exhibition of his own pictures.

Leonardo showed me around Tukums and introduced me to my new workplace before Ieva, the coordinator came by and took us to the beach which is only 16 km away and absolutely stunning! There are 50 metres of pure, soft sand with no stones at all. I was told that it is forbidden to build hotels, houses and bars at this beach.  Consequently there's a forest separating the beach from the street, which is smart in many ways. On the one hand, the ecosystem is perfectly intact, the water is clean and there are many (happy) wild animals and ducks!? I've never seen ducks at the sea before. On the other hand, the forest functions as a natural shelter. The dirt from the street and towns can't harm the beach and can't get into the water and of course, the sand doesn't blow into the countryside, so there won't be any desertification. Furthermore, the forest acts as a buffer to the sounds from the street and towns, so you can't hear any noise at the beach except for the soothing sound of waves and birds singing. (Germany, take Latvia as a good example!)

Ieva took us to the one and only very small beach cafe where we had some very tasty traditional garlic bread. The only thing I disliked about the whole place was that they served all the dishes and drinks in plastic cups and plastic plates. In my opinion, especially at the beach you should try to avoid plastic, because many sea animals swallow it and die.

Ieva took this picture of Leonardo and me