Riga, Latvia the largest Baltic city

I have been to Riga, the capital city of Latvia, twice in the past several months. The first time was at the end of March into the beginning of April and the second time was at the first week of May. It is a very beautiful city that is located on the Baltic Sea.  In fact Riga is so close to the water that I could see Ferries from the street of where I was staying. I was always shocked to walk onto the street, look up and see a large ship several blocks away.

The city of Riga itself is not very large, but there are many sites to see and you can easily walk to them or take the tram. Some of the main sites are the Riga radio and TV tower, the Base of Freedom monument, old town Riga and the Riga Castle. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the Riga Castle, but I have seen many pictures of the Castle and it is beautiful.

The Base of Freedom Monument.

The beautiful sunset in Riga.

There are also four Universities in Riga. I had the privilege of seeing Riga Stradins University and sitting in on one of the classes there at the University. Luckily for me the classes there are taught in English so I was able to understand what was going on.

Also, the first time I was in Riga the temperatures were very low. It was freezing, to say the least, but I took a day trip with a friend to a city nearby called Jurmala. It is directly on the sea and I was able to walk directly on the see because it was completely frozen! It was an amazing experience. There were entire families walking around on the ice and some of the people were even ice skating. I’m really glad that I walked out onto the ice even though I was afraid.

All in all I had a very wonderful time in Riga, Latvia. I met a lot of great people and made a lot of wonderful memories there. I will be hard for me to ever forget the people there and the good times I had.

As a side note I recommend that you go to this city, but do so in the spring (May) or summer if you do not like the cold. The weather always seems to be sunny, but the cold can still sink in.

How could I forget! The sushi there is amazing. I actually had the opportunity to make homemade sushi. It was really fun! Riga is famous for it's smoked fish and there is a huge market where you can buy meats, vegetables, fruits, grains, herbs, spices and all of the fresh fish that your heart desires. 

España

Our next stop on our semester break was in Spain. We flew to Madrid and then travelled by bus to a small town in Extremadura called Navalmoral de la mata. In Navalmoral we stayed with a fellow Eagle, Jaimie. She graduated last spring from EWU and is now Teaching English in Navalmoral.

We spent 3 days with her and while we were there we went to her classes and helped teach English. It was a lot of fun and I think the students enjoyed it as well. We enjoyed “jueves social” which means social Thursday and then it was off too Andalucía to the city of Granada.

We took the bus and made to Granada in about 5 hours. Then we met up with a friend of Jaimie’s and went to find our hostel.

As you walked through the city you could see the Arabic influence everywhere. It was absolutely beautiful and so was the Alhambra.

Our accommodations were located in the center of town which made it easy to walk and see many of the tourist attractions such as; the Alhambra (above), the Generalífe, the téterías (Tea restaurants where you could drink traditional Moroccan tea) and Tapa bars.

While in Spain we tried many dishes that included;pulpo (octopus), squid, jamón (salted/cured ham), bacalao (cod), fresh olives, tortilla (similar to an egg omelet with potatoes), hummus, falafel, churros, hot chocolate and couscous. It was a very tasty trip to say the least. However, the weather was a different story. It rained more in Spain than it has while we were in London, but it was much warmer.

I would love to go back to Spain in the near future and help teach English while improving my Spanish skills.

Hasta luego, until next time.