Here are two engaging, very different city profiles:
Riga, from More Intelligent Life
- "Did you know ... the Duchy of Courland, now part of Latvia, once held Tobago as a colony?"
- "Wander through (the old town) on a winter night and you're lost in a fairy tale ... Wander through it on a Friday evening in summer, on the other hand, and you may find yourself lost in a British stag party. Ryanair has much to answer for."
and Nizhny Novgorod, from The Daily Beast
- "One of Russia's best-known democrats, the first governor of Nizhny, Boris Nemtsov, tried to shake up the city ... He reopened the Nizhny Novgorod Fair.... The city did not become a merchant center. It soured in melancholy and inactivity."
- "Today Nizhny is paused, as if quietly waiting for what will happen next. But I have noticed that the number of very good poets has increased lately."
Haven't made it to Nizhny Novgorod yet, but there are photos from Riga in the Latvia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.
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