Our second international stop for the weekend was Riga, Latvia! Riga is the capital city of Latvia, which is the country just north of Lithuania. We arrived Saturday evening around 6:30, just as it was getting dark. We checked into our hostel and broke off into small groups for dinner. We ended up at a buffet style dumpling restaurant. Each pot was labeled with a picture of an animal, such as a chicken/cow/pig, or a something else like cheese or potato. It was pay by weight and super cheap as well as delicious. We explored around old town for about an hour and found a folk club with live music. It was really crowded and we couldn't get service, so we went on our way. We eventually found a calmer location to relax and listen to music, sipping a local brew. As my group proceeded to bed, I went back out on the town with a friend and found two other study abroads wandering through old town looking for people. We ended up going back to the folk club, which had calmed down finally. After that we went to the grand bridge and enjoyed the ambiance of the full moon.
After a good night's sleep, we had breakfast in the hostel and loaded the bus up. We still had 3 hours to kill before heading out. We didn't waste a single minute. With the weather being so splendid we opted to stay outside and see the sights rather than be inside a museum or something like that. We walked along the water, went inside a few fancy churches, found the Riga castle, saw lots of monuments, wandered through beautiful parks, and even stumbled upon a carrot festival.
We were informed that it was a charity event raising money for a local hospital. They had lots of vendors and activities, as well as huge statues made of, you guessed it, CARROTS. We continued on and found a cute doughnut shop with flavors I have never dreamed of. I went safe and tried the cappuccino one, and I was not disappointed. We finished our walk with Freedom monument and the grand Orthodox Cathedral. All in all a great day to relax and be off campus. We are all really looking forward to our week long journey through RUSSIA!!! We started learning the alphabet in class :)
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