On November 18, Latvia will celebrate its Independence Day. It is not unlike July 4 for the USA in some respects but obviously Latvia was not able to stay independent during those 90 years. That fact hasn't diminished how important November 18, 1918 is to them. The entire country will be celebrating this 90th anniversary of freedom for the next two weeks.
We knew that the Latvian president, Valdis Zatlers, was going to be in Cesis today. He was scheduled to speak in St. John's Church at a service to begin the country-wide festivities. Even though it was going to be a big deal, we had decided not to go mainly because we would have to get into the church very early to get a seat. Around 11:00 we bundled up to go out for a while and went to town center.
There we came upon a huge parade with lots of Latvian military bands, soldiers marching, dignitaries, etc. It was a very impressive display but we had evidently missed the remarks made by the president. Security was tight with Secret Service on the top of the buildings, guys talking into their wrist radios, etc.
Everything had started to break up and people were leaving. Laura and I were just milling around, acting kind of lost like we usually do, when we looked up and here comes Mr. President! I'm snapping pictures and then we realize he is shaking hands and we are in the line!
I'm trying to think of whether I should address him in the three words of Latvian that I know or just come out with some type of Texan phrase like "Hey, how ya'll doing?" or "How's your momma and them?" or even "Me and the missus here are shore glad to meet ya".
In the end, Laura just said "Hello" and shook his hand. I said "Labi Dien" (good day) while shaking his hand and then I managed to say that we were Americans. He replied saying Latvia was a great country to visit. I wanted to engage him in a little chit-chat about the world's economic problems, Latvia and Russia relations or even Obama but he was gone to the next hand-shake before I could mutter anything.
Wow, that was pretty neat! Now I know a bunch of you might be thinking "yeaahhh, right, sure you did", so here are the pictures:
Here he comes...Latvian President Zatlers, agents behind and to his right...
A little closer....
Almost to us....
Getting close...don't panic!
Our time is over, on to the next handshake...
Here are a few other pictures regarding the event:
Secret service....
Parade in front of the Boys' Monument...
Secret service sharpshooters...
Security .... very unusual in Latvia to see a handgun...
Helicopter fly-over...
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