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Latvia has a beach: Latvians play volleyball Soviet dictators visit the Baltic Sea city of Jurmala on vacation | The world

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Photo courtesy of Jurmala Beach, Latvia, 2005 – Photo: Jurmalastic – Own work, CC BY -SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48064914

The beaches of Jurmala have extensive sand. So in the summer, People have a place to practice sports like beach volleyball. This is where the Latvian teams train, and where the major sports championships in the country take place – the city has hosted European tournaments with international elite teams.

Dupla Martins Plavins and Edgar Tox from Latvia beat Brazilians Alison and Alvaro Filho in beach volleyball at the Tokyo Olympics this Wednesday (4) – Photo: Pilar Olivers / Reuters

Because Latvia is so far north, winter is marked by very long nights and the sun is barely visible. On the other hand, the opposite happens in the summer – the days get longer and darker, which drives thousands of Latvians and people from other Baltic countries to search for Jurmala, 30 kilometers from the Latvian capital. , Riga

MAP – Jurmala, Latvia Spa – Photo: G1 Mundo

Although beach volleyball has a similar taste, Brazilian beaches have many differences: first, there are fewer waves, and the nature of the Baltic-like closed seas. Another difference is behavior: you don’t see those bunches. People like to take a towel and food, that’s all.

Beach of Soviet leaders

Photo stretches the beach sand of Jurmala, Latvia in 2017 – Photo: Public Domain / erdbeernaut / Flickr

Latvia was part of the Soviet Union between 1944 and 1991, the year of the collapse of the communist state. During this time, not only Latvians, but also other peoples of the former Soviet Union explored Jurmala as one of the summer resorts – the other was Sochi, hot and southern Russia.

Soviet-built Jurmala Resort, Latvia-Photo: Ricardo Liberto via Flickr / Baltic Sea Hotel-Creative Commons 2.0-https: //www.flickr.com/photos/liberato/3147143170/in/photolist-57U3yH-2g5c – 5 5N1583-5N6W29

President Nikita Khrushchev, who ruled the Soviet Union between 1953 and 1964, and his successor, Leonid Brezhnev, who ruled the country until 1982, were on vacation.

Traditional wooden house in Jurmala, photo in 2018 – Photo: Ymblanter’s own work, CC BY -SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84525983

The visibility provided by the dictators’ visits overshadowed one of the most striking features of Jurmala: the original architecture of the small houses by the sea, often of Scandinavian and Finnish-influenced wood, and of small buildings of German descent. Instead, in the second half of the twentieth century large resorts were left to accommodate the Soviets.

Videos: Brazil at the Tokyo Olympics

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