Latvia Discovery, Culture, Nature and Social Memory: A 5-Day

1. DAY  ·  Arrival in Riga, the Civilizing City and Consumption Sociology

In the afternoon we arrive in Riga from Istanbul and transfer to our hotel in the Old Town center, then take a group walk through Bastejkalns (Bastion Hill) and the City Canal; this green space, created after the old city walls were demolished, offers an ideal starting point for reading 19th-century European urbanization and civilizing policies through urban space. Alternatively, we can visit Riga Central Market (Centrāltirgus), where enormous German Zeppelin hangars left over from World War I were converted into a public market, to observe local residents' daily consumption habits and the social base.

2. DAY  ·  Gauja Valley: Sigulda, Turaida and Feudal Hierarchy

After breakfast, the whole group departs for Gauja National Park, about an hour from Riga. In Sigulda we visit the ruins of the 13th-century medieval castle and the New Sigulda Castle, followed by the red-brick Turaida Castle overlooking the Gauja Valley and its surrounding museum reserve, tracing the marks of aristocratic order and feudal hierarchy in medieval castles. On the way back we make a short stop at Gutmanis Cave and return to Riga in the late afternoon. Free evening.

3. DAY  ·  Jurmala and Kemeri: The Seaside Resort of the Soviet Elite

After breakfast, the whole group travels to Jurmala, about 40 minutes from Riga. After discovering Latvia's natural landscape on the wooden boardwalk of the Great Kemeri Bog in Kemeri National Park, we walk along Jomas Street in Majori and the long sandy beach on the Baltic Sea. From the wooden summer villas of the Tsarist era to the favorite sanatoriums of the Soviet bureaucracy and elite, we observe on site the urban and sociological transformation of this resort town. Return to Riga in the late afternoon. Free evening.

4. DAY  ·  Riga: Art Nouveau, Soviet Memory and Farewell

In the morning we explore Alberta and Elizabetes Streets, home to the world's richest Art Nouveau architecture, and the House of the Blackheads, reading the power display of the early 20th century's new-money merchant and industrialist elite through aesthetics. In the afternoon, at the KGB Building (Stūra Māja) and the War Museum, we experience on site the social control mechanisms of authoritarian regimes and the country's independence struggle; guests who wish may also visit the Spīķeri Creative Quarter, where former warehouses have been converted into galleries. In the evening at 19:00, the whole group gathers in the Old Town for our closing farewell dinner (guests who wish may add an optional Brewery visit and Riga Black Balsam Tasting).

5. DAY  ·  Farewell and Return

After breakfast at the hotel, we spend one last stretch of free time in the Old Town depending on our flight time, then transfer to the airport for our return flight to Istanbul.