Alright, so you know the deal, before we jump into this I gotta add or fix stuff from the episode. For one, the word

for school is not "Skolos" in Lithuanian. It's this word, I think it's pronounced "Mokykla". However, I like

what Latvian geograpeep Marc wrote on Facebook. "It does sound close to the word "mocïkla" in Latvian

which means "place of torture". School, torture, debt; that pretty much goes hand in hand". Marc you totally win. Also, I accidentally said

that Latvia joined the E.U. In

2003; it actually joined in 2004. I forgot to mention that the shape of the country kind of looks like a vulture head.

There's also kind of, like, an ongoing joke

That Latvia is, like, obsessed with potatoes. And also, I forgot to mention that Latvia has the tallest

average height of women in the world. I'm guessing that Uljana Semjonova kinda just brought that average up, like,

by 5 centimeters all by herself. So, I think those are kind of like the biggest things that I wanted to address, but otherwise

uh yeah, let's just kind of go into it. So without further ado:

[Title theme]

Oh, poor Latvia and Lithuania. You guys are the last surviving baltic peoples on the planet. Y'all gotta make

some babies. Completely unrelated, the flag: The flag of Latvia is a horizontal triband of three stripes; two red, or

carmine, colored bands on the top and bottom with a thinner, white band in the middle.

Okay, now here's where things get a little suspicious. We all know

that this flag looks almost completely identical to the flag of Austria. But, what's even crazier are the backstory similarities.

By the way, guys, I'm holding my mic like this now because whenever I clip it over here it just kind of distorts the sound

and muffles it. So I just figured it's better if I hold it. Now, in the Austria episode I explained the flag,

you know before this spin-off was created,

[Contemplative Pause]

And we talked about how the flag represented the legend of Duke Leopold V

during the siege of acre, in the 12th century, and how he took off his belt after battle from his

white sir coat; revealing a white line around

his waist that was not drenched in blood from battle. Similarly, the Latvian legend kind of goes like this:

According to the Rhymed Chronicle of Livonia, there was a wounded chief of a Latvian tribe from Cēsis.

During some battle in the 13th century, he lied down on a white sheet, which was stained on the edges with his blood.

But, the middle was left white.

Then the people were like, "Sweet! Let's use this flag in our next battle!" And, supposedly, they won.

By the way, "I" animated that. Yeah, Austria be like; "hmm... Didn't you just plagiari-"

"Nope! Just coincidence."

So yeah, that's kinda the story of how the flag came to be.

Oh! And it also stands for..

[Intense Music]

[Sarcastically Intense Voice Singing] "Blood of those who fight for the freedom!"

"The blood of those who fight for the freedom"

[Paul] Once again, you guys know him: Thank you, Ken, for making that animation.

Ken, you handed in your work on time, you've survived another week of not getting fired.

In appreciation, I will give you five minutes of free time outside of your cage...

On Tuesdays,

at 4:00 am.

Yeah, these ken jokes are probably just gonna get a little darker every week. Anyway, keep in mind this flag

was kind of like an on-again-off-again flag of Latvia. It was adopted in the 13th century and then all those

invasions came in from other nations. Then finally, back in 1991 they went back to the Latvian flag.

Alright, enough on that. Coat of arms time.

The coat of arms contains a shield with three stars above it, representing the three historical provinces of Latvia;

Vidzeme, Latgale, Kurzeme and Zemgale which would become the duchy of Kurland and Zemigallia.

The gold sun on the blue field represents freedom with 17 ray's

symbolizing the 17 Latvian inhabited districts.

Holding the shield, and also portrayed in smaller versions at the bottom of the shield, are a red lion on the left,

representing Kurzeme and Zemgale while the silver griffon on the right represents Vidzeme and Latgale.

The base of the image contains branches of european oak; tied by a ribbon,

fashioned with the colors and configuration of a Latvian flag.

Of course, prior to this they had the soviet republic coat of arms,

the Kurland coat of arms, the duke Ernst Johan von Biron coat of arms,

and so on. So yeah, basically when it comes to the baltics, it comes down to a bunch of tribal territory backstory.

But in the end, it all comes together to display this story of a unique people group.

Alright, so that's about it. Uh, you know what time it is?

Geogra-Fanmail Time!

Alright, I'm pretty excited because, for the first time, we got some stuff from some very obscure places.

Alright guys, know the deal, usually I start off with postcards; but this week, literally, we only got one postcard.

Lacy sends this from Slovakia, Bratislava.

"Love your channel, keep up the great work, cheers for Ken and "curly guy" too"-

I'm pretty sure you're referring to Keith (RIP). You called Keith "curly guy". Oh Keith, I'm gonna call you Curly now.

Yeah, I'm not even joking, she wrote "curly guy".

Alright, next up; we got a letter from T. A who, is Jamaican.

But, he also has roots in Beleize, Great Britain, and Australia. He sends this 100 Jamaican dollar banknote, that's pretty cool.

By the way, speaking of the Caribbean, I still, to this day, think the guy on the Barbadian dollar banknote looks

like the most, he looks the most gangsta. Alright, next up we got.

Dude, I'm so sorry I can't read your handwriting. But, you're from Ireland.

Oh Brendan! That's your name, Brendan.

"Sorry it's late, it was sent back to me, as I left out the zip code the first time." He sent a merry Christmas card.

Yeah, it's February. But thank you, Brendan. Alright, next up. Chad, from North Dakota.

Ah, the mystery state of America that nobody pays attention to. Huh, bunch of North Dakota stuff.

Look at that 2018 North Dakota travel guide. look at that, that's like a Norwegian-style stuff kirk(?). The wooden churches the traditional style.

If you guys don't know, North Dakota has, like, the highest population of Scandinavian and Nordic Americans.

I was actually born in Minnesota and half the people around me were either Norwegian, Swedish,

or Finnish. One of my best friends was actually Finnish. I haven't talked to Jason since I was nine years old.

I wonder where he is now. A deck of playing cards with North Dakota bison.

Yeah, you can find these there. Such an American animal. And of course, Fargo and the Wood Chipper.

Have any of you guys seen the movie Fargo, and you know how it has, like, that very thick, north, midwestern accent?

Well gee golly gosh Janus, let's go eat our tacos and that's just how we do it here.

Very exaggerated, but I actually kind of grew up with that accent when I was a kid, and then my family moved to Chicago,

and then all the kids laughed at me and I had to forcibly change it. But you know what?

I should have been proud of my old accent. So ya know what?

For the rest of this video, I'm gonna talk in a thick Minnesota accent.

No I'm not.

Alright, next up we got Mark,

who is originally from Illinois, but visited Thailand and he got to meet a lot of people from the Karen tribe.

And he sends this; which is a traditional shirt of the people from the Karen tribe. Alright, I hope it fits me.

It cuts off over here it's a little short. But that's that's pretty cool. Alright, next up we got Chi, who is...

Cantonese-Chinese-American

By the way guys, for the record, most Chinese-Americans have roots to south China, and a lot of them speak cantonese.

Oh, and he sends like, all the flags of China and the special administrative regions; Hong-Kong, People's Republic of China,

Macau, of course the U.S. Because that's his home country. And Taiwa-

Disputed republic of China.

And, he also sends these Chinese ramen noodles.

And what's really cool is that he also wrote like, the differences between cantonese and mandarin.

I am very terrible at reading Transliterated cantonese words. (hey see whole hot day leyla??) No, I butchered that so bad.

Oh, just in time for next week we got a package from Hussein from Lebanon.

Yeah of course, the flag of Lebanon, a cedar tree.

For those of you who don't know, Lebanon is totally famous for these.

Oh, this is an actual piece of the cedar tree.

This is really cool too. It says "Lebanon" and it's in the shape of Lebanon, on what I would assume is Lebanese cedar wood.

Cedar, cedar, cedar. Lebanon, you are so proud of your trees.

"Hey Paul, my name is Hussein, and I'm one of your few Lebanese geograpeeps."

I don't know exactly how many I have, but I've gotten quite a few e-mails from Lebanese people, so you're not too alone.

"I hope you received the package intact." Totally did. Oh this shirt folds down, okay so it actually is longer.

Okay I have saved these packages for last because I'm really excited.

We have never gotten anything from these places and I really want to put them on display.

Okay first, these two. these are from Santosh, from Mauritius.

We have never gotten anything from Mauritius before. Mauritius flag, and of course...

Mauritius hat. Moris Dan Bis,

a little Mauritius banknote, amazing beautiful sights of Mauritius.

And there's more, second package.

Mauritius and 2 more postcards. by the way for those of you who don't know, the national bird of Mauritius is the dodo bird.

Before they went extinct, the dodos were known to inhabit this island. By the way, fun side note,

that guy, Nick, who was in the Comoros episode, he was from Mauritius. And I gotta call up Nick,

I wanna show him, some of this stuff, I haven't seen him in awhile. He got married.

Are there are any letters? Weird, no there's no letters.

Well, Santosha, I appreciate this. This is really cool, I've never gotten anything from Mauritius.

But, I also kinda want to know who you personally are. Not every day you get to talk to a Mauritian.

Yeah, I kind of wish you wrote a letter so you can at least explain who you are, and how awesome your country is.

Yeah, for what it's worth, what you sent really shows a lot of Mauritius, so thank you so much.

And finally, Josh sends this from Niue. That is pretty cool, I've never gotten anything from Niue.

Probably hard to find these, Niue stamps. Hahaha, "Straight outta Niue"

New-way, or Niu-way? I think it's pronounced New-way. I'll put this over my shoulder, cuz I can't put this over this, cuz

yeah... just yeah. But yeah, there's no letter inside wait a second

Oh, my i literally just discovered this i don't know. If you can, see it he wrote on the inside of the box

Hey, barb it's, my name is josh and i love learning geography the right way?

Unbiased and that's what i think you

Do the best i'm from australia but i'm in you a at the moment and i thought you might not get too much mail from

Here so here's a shirt a magnet and it's actually quite hard to get souvenirs from a place that gets very few

Visitors every, year i was one of four in the visitor line at immigration just i love obscure places with very few

Visitors that's, why i loved greenland so much when i went there thank

You, josh this, was really cool all right, well that's just, about it but, before we go you know

What time it is i turn a dress contest

I put your return addresses in here and i take one out and whoever wins i send a little gift too, okay?

So i'm just gonna take one right, now i'm not gonna

look, i'm not gonna look i take a small one last time i took a, big one

Let's see, Albin from London you just won! So yeah guys, this, was really cool

Really, appreciate it when you guys put your home countries or travel destinations on display subscribe to this channel if you'd like

And i've forgotten to say this for the past couple weeks but. You've just been flagged alright stay cool, stay tuned!