A heated discussion erupted on social media after a post by a user with the nickname peetersonek. The girl, who permanently resides in the UK and only visits Latvia occasionally, compared the two countries - and her conclusions surprised many Latvians.
“I live in the UK, and I come to Latvia a couple of times a year. And every time I am shocked. You live in paradise. There is space here. Wide roads, normal apartments, rooms where you don’t have to squeeze in. Not like in the UK, where everyone lives like sardines in a barrel,” the author writes.
According to the blogger, Latvia wins due to its cleanliness, lack of hustle, and proximity to “real” nature, which can be reached from Riga in half an hour. But the main trigger for the commentators was hidden in the financial part of the post. The girl stated that prices in Latvian stores are comparable to those in Britain, rent and bills are significantly lower, and salaries for office workers with education are “almost at the same level.”
Local residents, after reading about the “Latvian paradise,” reacted instantly and mostly skeptically:
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"Girl, if this is Paradise, why are you still in the UK? Move here! But seriously, how tired we are of these eternal sighers who think that somewhere there are paradise birds. Someone praises Russia, saying it’s paradise, but for some reason, they don’t go there, while others prefer to live in developed countries of Europe, calling Latvia paradise. If there is paradise somewhere, what are you afraid of? Don’t you want to live with angels, is there a lot of fear and demons in your soul?"
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"No, what kind of pink ponies are in this girl’s head, right? She writes that salaries here in Latvia are almost at the same level as in the UK??? Seriously??? Where? I want a salary at the same level! And why aren’t you coming here, to paradise? Why live in this awful, filthy British barrel, only visiting Latvia as a rare tourist?"
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"Salaries at the same level? I live in the Northwest (of Britain), there is so much work here that I can leave my job and go work somewhere else tomorrow morning. Women earn MUCH better in the UK than in Latvia. In Latvia, outside of Riga, women don’t have many job options. Some social work or sales. The opportunities and guarantees that you won’t have to count every penny are higher in the UK."
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"There is a popular Russian joke about Paradise and Hell. It ends with the words: 'one thing is tourism, another is emigration.' This is relevant here too. After all, wherever a person goes, they bring themselves with their own cockroaches and problems. And many people living in virtual reality and herding mythical unicorns in their heads later write similar texts - but with criticism of the places they moved to, expecting to see a fairy tale there, not the reality they faced as a result. It’s funny. Girl, get well or move to Latvia from your cramped English barrel quickly!"
