On March 24th, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning after of course having stayed up until 1am packing last minute :) I took the train from Verviers all the way to the airport, getting there at about 7:30am. This was the first time in my life that I have ever done the airport thing all by myself from start to finish so I was very nervous, but I made my flight in plenty of time! The departure time was at 9:10am, me and the other 25 maybe 30 passengers borded the smallest plane I have ever been on in my life and took off to LATVIA!
After a two hour twenty minute flight, I arrived in Latvia around 12:30 local time- greeted by the one and only EMILY! For those of you who do not know, we hosted Emily Veselova as a foreign exchange student in Kirkwood 5 years ago, we were her first host family and have kept a very close connection with her. She hasn't changed a bit! I was holding back the tears when I hugged her because it was just so great to be with her again.
We took a 40 minute bus back to her apartment in central Riga that she shares with her sister, Tatiana who is about 3 years older than Emily, who is 20. There we made a beet and chicken soup, very Russian and traditional, and incredibly delicious! Then we all took a little nap, being exhausted from the travel, and Emily worked on some homework. Around 5, Em and I went on a historical walking tour of Riga. Let me just say now that Latvia has not yet welcomed spring... we were all bundled up and the temperatures were negative with lots and lots of snow and ice... but the walk was lovely! Emily is a genius and was so informative, you could pay her as a tour guide I am sure! We went to a little shop around 8 for a Latvian pastry and and tea before going home and calling it an early night, wrapping it up with 27 Dresses :)
The next morning Emily had classes, so Tatiana and I got up and took an hour bus ride to this open air museum. The point of the museum was to see old houses the way they looked like back years ago in old Latvia, but because of the massive amount of snow, we couldn't go into the houses, but we took a snowy hike together and had fun taking pictures of the landscape! She of course speaks wonderful English, so there was no problems communicating! At one point we went past a huge frozen over lake and I was just amazed at the amount of ice fishermen out there! Can we say dangerous?? We came back to Riga and walked around to some places I hadn't seen the night before, and then met Emily back at home after her classes. That evening, Emily and her boyfriend, Lauris took me out to a rustic Latvian buffet with all the specialties! It was such a cute place and we had so much fun, plus it was really good- Emily always raved about their Latvian potatoes... I now know why :) After that we went home and dressed up to go to a Kareoke bar for her friend's 21st birthday party! It was really fun because everyone spoke English so I just mingled with all her friends and then we walked home while it was snowing at about 2am.
The next morning, we woke up at 5 am! No one was feeling tip top... but we went to the train station to catch a 6am train to Valka! The train took 3 hours, but we just slept the whole way, and when we arrived I was greeted with a bouquet of chocolates ("because it is too cold for flowers") from Emily's parents! I cannot express in words the joy I felt meeting her family for the first time. I have known her for 5 years and heard all these stories of her family, but to hug them, and see her little home, and be welcomed with such love into their lives, it was a very emotional experience. We went back to her flat, and her dad left for work, but we had a lovely Latvian breakfast, freshly cooked by her lovely mother Natasha. Then Emily and I took a very cold but fun 2 hour walk around her town and it was once again almost surreal to see where she has grown up, and then we walked right on into Valga which is Estonia!! Yay for one more country! Can't say I would know which country I was in if I didn't see the sign... but I still thought it was really cool! That afternoon Tatiana, Emily, Natasha and I walked over to Babushka's house (Emily's famous top chef grandmother)! I was SO excited!
We walked in to a little house, so rustic, and Babushka is there flipping two skillets of crêpes! She already has a massive stack of them going and she isn't halfway done! I hardly had time to take pictures before she sat us down and served the soup, while she's still flippin, we're slurping this soup down, and before I have time to wipe my mouth, she is plating us up crêpes with either sour cream, salted butter, or jam, she is still flippin them crêpes! She finally serves us some kind of delicious strawberry dessert and sits down herself for a crêpe which of course she says "these aren't even good, why didn't you tell me!" We are all stunned because we managed to easily stuff them down our throats!! :) She was a wonderful woman! I needed Emily to translate everything, but I could have talked to her forever! But alas, after a tour of the giant snow covered gardens, we made our way back to the flat where we packed up to head back to Riga. Tatiana stayed there in Valka, so I had to say goodbye to them all on the platform for the train, I cried! It was the most wonderful feeling to be there with them; their warmth and kindness is overwhelmingly touching and I feel so blessed to have had that experience.
Emily and I got back to Riga around 8:30pm where we met up with Lauris. They really wanted my last night in Latvia to be special, so even though we were really tired, we three went out walking around and found a nice little place for a tea at midnight! It was the perfect night really- low key but lovely.
The next day we went out to some open air markets, which I love to death, and then we went up in the bell tower of this gorgeous church in the center of Riga. At the top we had a wonderful view of the whole city and I realized that I might never have the opportunity to come back here, and how lucky I was to have come. It was really one of the most touching moments. We went home so I could pack up my bags, and Emily took me to the airport to catch a plane at 5pm. It was very hard to say goodbye, but I really want to think of it as just a see you later. Emily and I would have never met if it wasn't for the Rotary, and I feel so lucky to be a part of this organization that makes relationships like ours possible. I will always have a big sister in Latvia, and I feel truely blessed to say that :)
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