The Third German Invasion

One of my Political Science Professors made an off hand comment that has really stuck with me since. We were going around the class and saying where we were from and what we study. In a class of 15 of us, 11 were German and she said it is the Third German Invasion. The Germans invaded and subsequently ruled the Baltic States for over 700 years, and then the Nazis came back in World War II (with ironically many of the Baltic Germans who left or were called back during the interwar period and were hoping to reclaim their land).
The thing is that professor was completely correct. It seems wherever I go in old town there is a German tourist group and in my classes most of the students are German. I guess in Germany it must be cool to study the Baltic States. Also when you look at the sky line of Riga it looks like it could be a city in Germany and Riga has one of the largest concentrations of Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) Architecture in the world. Additionally my host mom told me that during Soviet times people were encouraged to learn German instead of English (which is why she speaks German instead of English). So Latvia really is a perfect place for Germans to vacation. It looks just like Germany, they are not seen as occupiers (the Latvians have the Russians for that) and lots of people speak German. So if any of you want to visit Germany but don't want to pay the high prices or the horrible exchange rates (Latvia does not have the Euro yet) consider coming to Latvia where it feels like Germany but with 50 years of Soviet Occupation!