This is the account of 120 hours in Latgale, October 2026. A journey by diesel train, rented bicycle, and foot. A journey into the blue-grey. Rīga’s central station at 6:47 AM. The train to Rēzekne – the region’s unofficial capital – is an electric marvel by EU standards, but inside, the spirit is Soviet: worn velvet seats, windows that fog with collective breath, a samovār (tea boiler) that gurgles like a dying accordion. I choose a compartment with a Latgalian grandmother crocheting doilies. She doesn’t speak Latvian – only Latgalian and Russian. I understand one word: “ezeri” (lakes).
Aglona is to Latgalian Catholics what Mecca is to Muslims. The basilica, built in 1760, is baroque but humble – white, twin towers, a statue of the Virgin on the roof. Inside, the famous icon of Aglona Mother of God (painted 1698) is covered in votive offerings: silver hearts, crutches, wedding rings. Mass is in Latgalian – a language that sounds like Latvian spoken underwater, soft and guttural at once. I am not religious, but when the choir sings “Esi sveicināta, Marija” , I feel what the anthropologists call hierophany – a rupture of the ordinary. latgale trip v3
I skip the city center’s chain cafes. Instead, I take tram #3 to , a working-class district on the old Polish border. Here, wooden houses lean into each other. A bar called “Pie Alekseja” serves piva (beer) and šprotes (sprats) on black bread. The clientele: factory workers, a retired KGB officer (he tells me; I don’t ask), and a young Latgalian poet named Zane. She recites a line from memory: “Mūsu valoda ir migla / Mēs elpojam cauri vēsturei” (Our language is fog / We breathe through history). She gives me a photocopied chapbook. Price: a promise to read it on the train home. Day 4: The Sacred Triangle – Aglona, Andrupene, and The Old Believers’ Island No bicycle today. A hired car (€35, driver Jānis, who chain-smokes and listens to Latgalian folk metal). Destination: the holy triangle of Latgale. This is the account of 120 hours in Latgale, October 2026
Lunch at – grey pea soup with smoked pork knuckle, washed down with kvass. No tourists. Only a railway worker, a priest, and a woman reading a newspaper printed in Latgalian script. I try to read a headline: “Sātai vaļā” – roughly, “The heart is open.” Yes, I think. That’s the key. Day 2: The Lake Circuit – By Bicycle Through Liquid Silence Rented a battered “Ardis” bicycle from a garage near Rēzekne’s bus station. Destination: the Rāzna National Park , specifically the 30-kilometer loop around Lake Rāzna – the second largest lake in Latvia, but the clearest. The route is called “Zilais loks” (The Blue Loop). V3’s true test. Rīga’s central station at 6:47 AM