On the beach in Latvia

It is different.

Actually it is very different to be on a Latvian beach from what I experienced in Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, Croatia, Tunisia, Slovenia, Denmark and France.

First of all I was put off by the people or better said by their lack. I was staying on the lovely sandy beach in Jurmala, probably one of the best seaside spots in all Latvia, during an incredibly (for the place) sunny and warm week at the end of July: I practically never saw more than 30 persons on a 50m wide beachspan. From my southern european perspective, it is quite inconceivable and almost impossible except at 5AM.

Space is not an issue and you have really the possibility to have a lot of active sport on the beach, playing ball without disturbing anybody. To further facilitate activities, they often press the sand till about 10m from the shoreline: it is much easier to walk (and the ball bounces much more regularly).

The beach starts populating pretty late (11ishAM) but is alive till quite late (9PMish) taking advantage of the long hours of light at such latitudes during summer. Don’t get me wrong: people absolutely do not stay on the beach the full day. A couple of hours is the normality. Some of them just walk along the shoreline fully dressed or just partially undressed, some others arrive, change their clothes putting on finally their swimming suits, tinker a bit on the sand, head to the sea, swim a bit, come back, dry out, change back and go home. Yep, for somebody like me who was used to live on the beach at least 10 hours per day, the Latvian way was simply shocking.

Infrastructures on the beach are pretty poor: bars and cafes are available just in a quite limited zone and toilets, chemical ones, are pretty rare. All this adds to the “natural” feeling of the beach.