Latvia Christmas 2017! Part 2

Check out Part 1 here!

Day 6 – Christmas Party

Since I’ve spent so much time in Latvia, I’ve made friends! My first trip was in April 2017 and I definitely started to get lonely. I didn’t realize until then how much I like my friends. Does that sound strange? Well, I knew I loved them, obviously, but I didn’t realize exactly how many texts, calls, and messages I got each day…until I was 8 hours ahead of my friends. I would wake up to like a hundred messages each morning, which my friends sent before they went to bed. And then it was silent during my day, because they were asleep! I would start getting messages again around 4pm Latvia time. But the mornings were definitely lonely because Margots is a teenager and enjoys sleeping in. 🙂

Anyway. The point is, since I’ve been there 4 times now, I’ve made some friends! Because this trip was busier than most for me, I decided to throw a party on Sunday so I could see everyone. A lot of host kids, orphanage workers, and some American friends were able to come and see us. I got to meet some new people and hug some people I already knew.

No pictures of this part due to Orphan Court regulations, sorry!

We provided a baked potato bar with taco style toppings (because why not do something American?) and a lot of my friends brought food, too. I got to try Latvian grey peas and bacon, which sounds weird but is actually delicious.

A lot of American host parents had sent gifts for their children. One host boy came by with his mentor. This boy was so nervous! God love him, he forgot how to speak English because he was so nervous. He just wanted to pick up his package and leave. After I talked to him for a few minutes and tried to make him feel comfortable, he decided to stay as long as he could. He wanted to talk and started sharing personal things with me. They ended up not being able to stay for too long, but I will never forget him and pray for him often.

There were many great moments and great people there. Shalonda did an amazing job coming up with games to play, and everyone joined in and had a great time. It was so loud in our apartment! She quickly learned how to relate to even the tiny kiddos who didn’t speak any English. Physical comedy is universal, apparently.

Latvian friends, you are a blessing. Love to all!

Day 7 – Apartment Hunting

Today I woke Margots up “early” (like 10am) and said, get dressed, we are going to a coffee shop. Bring your laptop. Everyone else has to stay here or go somewhere else. He said, okay.

Today’s job: get Margots into some type of stable living situation. We took a taxi to Miit coffee. I think it was a new experience for him, or at least not something he does commonly. We got some coffee and settled in to call various apartments to see if they were available. This was Margots’ first time apartment hunting, also, and he did a great job keeping calm on the phone and asked really great questions.

Eventually, we found a place. The landlord said we could come there at 5 and check it out. So we had a few hours! We took Margots to get a haircut (yep… every time).

Funny thing – Margots’ English is so good and his accent is minimal enough that he sounds native if you aren’t a native English speaker yourself. So we were just sitting in the barber shop waiting room, looking at some tattoo coffee table books, and everyone in the shop spoke English to him, even the lady who cut his hair. Eventually she asked him where he’s from, and he laughed and said, “I’m Latvian!” 🙂

After the barber, we went home and got a whole bunch of packages together to mail for American host families. We said hey to our family, ate some cake, and went back out to Origo. We did a little shopping, mailed some packages, and then got on (a very full) train to Jurmala to go see the apartment. This was a first for me… Latvian train. Pretty much like an American train. 🙂

We got to Jurmala and found the apartment building. The landlord came to let us in. He heard Margots and me speaking English and said, “Oh, you speak English? Me too!” I said, “Yeah, I speak English, I’m from America.” He said, “North or South America?” Margots laughed and I said, “The America. USA.” The landlord found this very impressive, but also felt I might be easy to take advantage of. It didn’t turn out that way, unfortunately for this enterprising gentleman.

We looked around the apartment, which is basic but also pretty clean (aside from a ridiculously nasty bathroom rug) and partially furnished. So we decided to take it. We paid the landlord a little bit, and he said to bring 90 euros tomorrow to finish paying the first month’s rent. We agreed upon a time to come back and said we would bring the money then.

So, the rest of our family just hung out at our Riga apartment all day. Margots’ girlfriend Linda had stayed the night after the party, and so she was there along with Arturs, Shalonda, and Verity. Verity was evidently a little stinker but it all worked out. Linda is amazing with her!

We had decided to meet up at “Big Lido” (the one on Krasta iela, for those of you who care) after our apartment hunting was complete. So Shalonda, being the epic lady she is, loaded up everyone into a taxi and made it there. Verity fell asleep in Linda’s arms, which was very sweet. ❤

Everyone was starving. Lido is a great restaurant serving Latvian food, buffet-style. You just take your tray around and get whatever looks good. I got Verity a big plate of fries (knowing she would eat that) and shared some chicken with her from my plate. Shalonda tried this super amazing fish with sauce and a tomato on top. We tried keifer drinks, which some of us liked and some of us didn’t.

After that, we took everyone ice skating! One of my rules is, I don’t skate. 🙂 I sat inside with all the shoes and bags and stuff. Shalonda skated for a few minutes and then joined me, leaving Verity with the three teens. Maybe that sounds crazy, but Verity has never been safer in her life than she is with those guys. She held two hands at all times. The teens took turns between helping her and skating. Linda even took a bunch of pics for me! Thanks Linda!

Leaving Lido was a little interesting. All of our phones were dying. Arturs’ phone was dead, my phone was at 5%, and Margots didn’t even have his phone with him. Linda took a bus back to her dorms, which was literally the only smooth part of this operation. There are so many of us that we have to take two cabs everywhere. I called one through Taxify, and we couldn’t find it anywhere. I mean, anywhere.

Taxify is awesome. It gives you a picture of your driver, the make and model of the car, and the license plate number. So it’s not that hard to find your taxi, usually. But this time, we couldn’t find it anywhere! Margots went up and down the row of cabs trying to find it, and eventually he did. Shew. We had Shalonda, Arturs, and Verity take that one, reason being that if anyone was going to get stuck somewhere with no phone or knowledge of how to get home, I didn’t want it to be them.

Just a little word here. Shalonda had never been out of the country before. Arturs is Latvian, but he doesn’t live in Riga and doesn’t really know how to get around (imagine if you grew up in the country, and someone dropped you in NYC – same deal). Verity is three. 🙂

So, if anyone was going to get stuck, it was going to be me and Margots. If worse came to worst, we would just walk like a million miles home. No biggie. We could do it if we had to.

Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. We had just enough battery to request another Taxify taxi and find it. Shew! We made it home! Everyone crashed immediately. Netflix. Always back to Netflix. We sure get our $10/month worth out of that service.

Day 8 – Moving Day

Today is our LAST DAY in Latvia, something Margots didn’t realize until the end of the day, somehow. 😦

In the morning, I woke everyone up at the buttcrack of dawn, as they say, to get out the door at 8:30am to catch a 9:20 train from Origo to Jurmala. Well, unsurprisingly, we missed our train. Also, I handed Margots my phone before hopping in a taxi with Arturs and Verity, and they pretended it was lost. They take every possible opportunity to tease me and I honestly can’t fault them for it.

So we got to Jurmala and the landlord tried to get extra money from me and sell us a TV. He was not happy when I stuck to our initial agreement, but so far so good, it all worked out.

We finished with the landlord and then went to a nearby store to buy some cleaning supplies, dishes, sheets, laundry detergent, toilet paper, stuff like that. Then we went back to the apartment and Shalonda did an amazing live video that just makes me so happy. You can see it here: Watch the live video here! It’s a bit of a slow start but I think it really gets everyone’s personalities.

After getting as much as possible done in the apartment, we went back to the train station, but we are slow so we missed the train and had to wait another 30 minutes.

But guys, the boys and Shalonda went ahead of me and Verity on the walk to the train station and she said, “Oh, I need run up there, there goes my family!”

Guys. None of those people are related to her by blood. Only by love.

That is exactly why we come on these trips… for love.

When we got to Riga, we stopped for dinner in a different Lido, the one in Origo, and then got to see another friend, Mareks. We did a little shopping and then he decided he would like to come to the Christmas Market with us, which was a blast! It was so fun getting to know him better. I can tell he has a heart of gold.

We also ran into my friend Donna at the Christmas Market, thereby affirming my ability to run into people I know in multiple countries. 🙂

The Christmas Market itself was amazing! It was super cold, but really fun to look in all the booths and see the handmade items for sale – elaborate candles, carvings, ornaments, and toys, along with honey and other food items. Everyone was friendly. A nice lady at a store even heard Verity say “Mommy, I want an apple!” and just gave her one for free.

And when we got back to our Riga apartment, everyone helped pack (except Verity, lol) and an American friend came over to give the boys some groceries – they were leaving from an adoption trip in the morning. I took a nap that night but really just spent time cleaning and packing before we left for the airport at 4-something-am.

Day 9 – Departure

I’m not going to say a whole lot about this part, because it’s hard! Maybe I’ll do a post on “leaving” at a later date, but for now, suffice it to say that not everyone cried, but almost. 😦 We got to the airport on time and basically just survived the trip home.

Verity got candy almost immediately 😉 and juice. She looked so cute! But goodness was she ever in a filthy mood. Well, none of us were happy.

We had a long layover in France again and bought some sandwiches and fruit to get us through it. They did extra security checks and Shalonda got stopped and searched thoroughly. They finally let us on the plane, and when we landed in Cincinnati, Verity was out cold and did not appreciate being woken up. Therefore, she sobbed through customs and 2 security points. We eventually got to our next gate and Shalonda did an amazing thing and brought us all dinner. ❤ Verity had been hoping for Chick-fil-a, and she got it.

Meanwhile, I had catnapped on the plane, but really I’d been awake for upwards of 48 hours by this point. Just one more flight to go. We boarded and Verity sat next to Shalonda, with me on Verity’s other side, separated by the aisle. We did this so Shalonda could have the window seat. She got some really nasty looks from some people who didn’t realize we were together.

Part of my unorthodox family. ❤ Love you guys!

Can I just say a brief word on racism?

Shalonda got stopped roughly 5 times by security. She got ugly looks from people when she was helping Verity with stuff. I never got that. I got special treatment because clearly I am a white mom with traveling experience and a young child. When people realized we were together, they would lay off her…but she shouldn’t need that to happen. She shouldn’t need the implicit “protection” of traveling with a white friend. She shouldn’t be viewed as a danger simply due to her appearance, which btw is completely nonthreatening. She’s one of the most cheerful, outgoing, sacrificial people I’ve ever met.

Back to the story… Justin was waiting for us when we landed in St. Louis! It was so nice to see him! He hasn’t featured much in this story, but really, if you’re looking for the ultimate supportive husband, that’s Justin. He got us from the airport, loaded us all into the van, and drove us home. ❤ Good guy. He’s a good one for sure.

And that’s a wrap for this trip!

The Baltic Sea

When I visited Latvia in March/April of this year, I got to fulfill a life-long dream. I got to visit the Baltic Sea!

Can you tell that all of the sideways pictures were taken by M? #teenagers

One morning, M and I decided to go to Liepaja and Karosta.

This is what I originally posted on Facebook about this portion of the trip:

Latvia day 6 – Liepāja and Karosta

Today was a big day – I touched the Baltic Sea! And it wasn’t that cold 🙂 We walked quite a ways on the beach. Does anybody know what these structures in the water are? There are no shells on this beach, but many beautiful smooth rocks.

I’m left with so many questions since we didn’t visit the touristy part of the Baltic Sea 🙂

We walked about 10 miles today, including through Karosta, which is a mostly deserted military town. It was so quiet and peaceful with huge deserted buildings.

We also saw the outside of St. Nichols’s Orthodox Cathedral, but didn’t go inside this time. 🙂

Then, dinner at Cili Pica and a little shopping in a big Rimi, where I found Mom her souvenir.

Truthfully, that didn’t really remind me what actually happened that day! But looking at the pictures did jog my memory – so here is the real story.

 When we got up in the morning, M woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The thing is, even when he’s not feeling his best, he’s very sweet and can have a good time. So the weather forecast and I decided this should be beach day. Everyone loves the beach, right? Plus, after having spent a not insubstantial amount of time together, I knew he really likes exercise and thrives when he is active. After a few days of little walking, this seemed perfect.

We drove 2 hours to Karosta, which used to be Soviet barracks but is now mostly abandoned. It truly felt like a ghost town. M and I walked around 12 miles that day, most of it in Karosta. It’s an eerie place. I would stop every now and then to marvel at how quiet everything was even with these huge apartment buildings. There were a few little corner shops but basically no foot traffic and not many cars, either.

St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral

We passed St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral twice, but didn’t go in. It was very beautiful, an enormous church. I learned later that it reopened soon after Soviet occupation was over. Surrounding the cathedral were raised gardens that were probably gorgeous in summer, but at the time were just dirt and sticks.

M has an excellent natural sense of direction and is great with maps. At one point, he looked at Google maps, decided on a beach he had never been to before, and got us there without ever looking at the map again. I ask you. How is that possible?

“I can smell the sea,” he said. Okay then.

The Baltic Sea — a blurry picture taken with my terrible Latvian phone 🙂

I read somewhere that the Baltic Sea has about 1/5 the salinity of an ocean. And it really didn’t have that briney, fishy smell that is so characteristic of the American beaches I’ve been to.

Anyway, M got us there. Then I got stuck in a Latvian porta potty which was obviously a great experience as well.

The beach at Liepaja has a bunch of smooth sea stones and sea glaas, but I didn’t see a single shell! I brought home a pocket full of rocks, including a large white stone that M gave me on the walk back to the car.

We walked along the beach, very slowly, climbed a few sand dunes, touched the water, collected stones and feathers. As we crested a sand dune, we saw big, dilapidated concrete structures in the water and right on the shoreline.

Photo taken by M. Yep, there’s an airport nearby too.

The section of beach M had chosen had zero signage, something also characteristic of Latvia. In this case, neither of us knew what these concrete buildings were. It turns out they are the Liepaja Northern Forts. Some had stairs, hallways, and multiple rooms, but they were also more or less uniform, except where the sea had worn them away. Some were literally falling into the sea.

Naturally, M viewed these enormous, slippery, crumbling pieces of architecture as a challenge, so he climbed them. He got some pretty great pictures, many of which are featured in this post. 🙂 Meanwhile, I realized that I had no idea how to call an ambulance in Latvia should the situation arise.

After a while, we took a different path back to Karosta, cutting through some woods in Liepaja (there was a dirt road) and saw some of the most beautifully rustic houses and yards. Wooden houses, wooden fences, beautiful gardens, cats. Absolutely lovely.

We also passed some huge, blank foundations; some trees had grown in the cracks and were pretty big, so who knows how long that property had been abandoned. That’s another thing about Latvia – a lot of things “pardod,” for sale. Or just left to rot.

When we finally made it back to our car, all the way back in front of Karosta prison (where I’d love to go next time!), M finally said it felt good to sit down. 🙂 And we were hungry. So we found a Cili Pica, which is a chain that sells pizza and wraps. We ordered 2 medium pizzas and M inhaled basically 75% of everything – he is, after all, a teen boy.

The Cili Pica was in a huge Rimi (kind of like Latvian Wal-Mart, except I called this one huge and it was smaller than your average Wal-Mart that doesn’t even sell groceries). It was a lot of fun to look around at what was available and to try to guess what was in various packages. Actually, the grocery store was a highlight of each day for me because I had such a great time looking at the different foods.

After dinner, we drove 2 hours back to Saldus and got there around 9pm, right when the “good films” come on TV. Remember how I said M woke up on the wrong side of the bed a little? Well, I asked him at one point if he had a good say, if he enjoyed the beach, and he lit up and said YES! This is something I still sometimes have to adjust to – he can be having a really great time and I’d never be able to tell by his expressions. 🙂

Next time – Kuldiga and Europe’s Widest Waterfall!

Coffee and Latvia

So, before I went to Latvia, someone sent me to a blog that I no longer remember the name of. In this blog, the writer described the gross coffee they were offered in Latvia – black, grainy, barely drinkable.

Fair enough, I said to myself. I will buy good quality instant latte coffee mix (aka, sugary caffeine powder) and therefore have a backup plan. You never know.

My awesome, sweet, kind, long suffering friend Lori came to help me pack right before I left. She, also a mom of young children, applauded my paranoid foresight. Because, priorities!

I brought 110 pounds of gifts for orphaned kids and donations for an orphanage. I brought 3 outfits and 1 pair of shoes…and my backup coffee. Again, priorities.

By way of background, you should know that although I am a 6 cup a day coffee drinker, I am by no means a coffee snob. I’m happy with good ol’ Great Value medium roast in my slow drip coffee pot. Or gas station coffee. Or, honestly, fancy coffee, but only for free, because goooood night.

I seriously cannot function without my caffeine. Hence, necessary back up plan!

So it turns out that the coffee in Latvia is fancy and amazing. I found your basic black American coffee at Lido (a chain of “traditional Latvian food,” more on that later) and added milk and it tasted just like home.

But otherwise, it was fancy and yummy. M always ordered everything for me, because like I said, he took amazing care of all the details. I guess a lot of it was espresso because I had a bunch of energy on this trip, although that might have been due to sleeping in every day for the first time in 5 years.

Nevertheless, I ended up doing the instant a lot because teenagers, no matter how mature and amazing, do not typically enjoy getting out of bed on a mom’s schedule. I used up all my American deliciousness (seriously, it wasn’t half bad) and then went to Rimi, which is kind of like Latvian Wal-Mart but small. Rimi had a big selection of instant coffee with dried milk and sugar in each packet and it was not good, but we drank it every morning anyway, which says a lot about us, honestly.

I can honestly recommend planning a coffee and pastry stop into every single day during a trip to Latvia. You won’t be disappointed!

Let’s talk Latvia.

Photo credit: M 🙂

I seriously wish I had thought to start a blog BEFORE I went to Latvia in March. I got to visit the super cool, amazingly awesome M there for 10 days. I spent a lot of time googling Latvia before my trip, hoping to find some info that could help me, especially since I planned to travel alone. I really didn’t know how much time M would be able to spend with me and didn’t want to expect too much of him, mainly because he was still in a very challenging trade school at the time.

Long story still long, M spent almost every minute with me and even wanted to crash on my couch every night. I learned so much just hanging out with a real, live Latvian on his turf.

Here’s what I learned from my pre-Latvia research:

• Latvians are not nice (false)
• There’s a huge bar scene in Latvia (true)
• Public transportation is really good (true)
• Latvian women are beautiful (really really really true)
  

  Kuldiga, Latvia – Europe’s widest waterfall. Wide but short.

Here are some things I learned from actually being there:

• The most important thing is that M totally headed off potential trouble without me even realizing it. People say teens are trouble; clearly, they haven’t met M. I was around a lot of teen boys who are considered “at risk” and I felt just as safe there as I do in my own living room. There were a few different kids who really looked out for me as much as I looked out for them, and without their knowledge of Latvian culture, I would have been totally, completely lost multiple times. So if you are traveling to Latvia alone, it’s easier if you know a Latvian.
• Latvians wear their coats in the store, completely zipped up.
• Even when the weather is “nice,” like in the 50s, they wear coats completely zipped up, usually along with other gear like scarves, goves, and boots. M and I stuck out a little since #1, he forgot his coat on the day it snowed, and #2 I am cold always anyway so who cares.
• Cashiers don’t generally acknowledge your existence, but when they do, they are really friendly.
• Checking out of rented apartments is ridiculously easy. It’s mostly a matter of locking your door after you and leaving the key.
• There is a reason Latvians have a reputation for being unfriendly, and it’s that they don’t look at each other as they walk down the street. Even their happy faces are different. It seems like we Americans smile constantly. I could spot kiddos who have come to America just by their American-Latvian smiles.
• The food is totally delicious. I mean, I craved American food big time at some points, and everything is different. But completely delicious. I only tried 1 thing I didn’t like (Klavss) but everything else…o.m.g.
• There is very little signage in Latvia. In America, you get instructions about everything, whether verbal or written, usually both. Maybe it’s just that I don’t speak much Latvian or any Russian, but I pretty much didn’t understand the protocols for doing stuff (parking garages. nightmare!!) at any point. M totally saved me there multiple times.
• Latvian burgers…way messier than American, and also not as tasty.
• Latvian sour cream is also messier than American, but it’s way better!
• All of the buildings are old and super cool. I didn’t get to visit a castle on this trip, but will on the next one.
• As my dear friend Lindsay says… there is a bakery on every corner! And everything is delicious!
• As M says… there is a casino on every corner! Also true. Sometimes you can literally stand next to a casino and see another down the street.
• Latvians have a sense of beauty that is almost unreal. Even M, who by his own admission is crazy cool, says, “We like things what are pretty and nice.”
• Latvians also have an amazing culture of gift giving. I got to hang out a couple times with another “at risk” gal, “I,” and her foster mom sent me a beautiful, thoughtful gift without ever having met me. This has really inspired me to step it up a notch with the thought and attention I put into details when giving gifts.
• Latvian parents are gentle. There isn’t a lot of loud parenting. I could hear American parents a mile away.
• Actually, Latvia is crazy quiet in general. I think I raised the noise level in the whole country significantly, and I’m not necessarily even loud by American standards.

I’m sure there was a lot more, but off the top of my head, this is what stands out to me a few months after the fact!

Blurry photo of M and me after a long day of touristy stuff. You can see my guidebook on the table!