Then a comment on the geography and weather. The Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway) are pretty high up north, but due to the Gulf stream (warm water moving north in the Atlantic on the west side of Norway) we get a slightly milder climate than you would imagine for countries located at the same height as Alaska. It also pumps slightly warmer water into the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland. That body of water is actually filled with brackish water, so the salt content is much lower than that of the Atlantic, about 1% (close to Saline) compared to 3.5% in the Atlantic. Our dogs like to drink that seawater. Latvia is located about 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Finland, and it's part of the Baltic countries. I'm not that familiar with the weather of Latvia, but I would imagine due to it's more southern location and longer days in winter, that it's a bit warmer than what we have. I live by the coast though, so it never gets as cold as in the more northern parts of our country. Like I said, -20C is about as cold as it usually gets, occasionally it can dip down to -25 and sometimes even -30 if winds from Siberia are prevailing. Up north, it can sometimes dip down to -50C in the night, -51.5C being the record cold (-60F). The record low for Helsinki (our capital city, 20 km east from where I live) is -34.3C (-30F). Interestingly, in Sodankylä, the record high is over +31.7C (89F) and record low -49.5C (-57F). They also have a night that lasts over a month in mid winter, and don't see a sunset in over a month in summer. I think you need a pretty varied assortment of clothing there. Alcohol sales go up a lot in winter there too.
