A touch of home, a sad farewell and a ferry ticket.

We beat pretty much everyone in the hostel up this morning I think and made our way to a near by Café where we knew there was WIFI and a good view of the cities ‘freedom monument’ We did this as we’d arranged to have a ‘Skype date’ with Chris’ dad and grandfather. They both grew up in Latvia and left approx. 60 years ago and have not yet returned. It was for this reason we Skype home and showed them from the window the city of Riga. It was lovely to chat to them and have them see what we were seeing!

After this we went to meet Janis and Maija who today offered to show us some of the more ‘rougher’ area of Riga. We did not get out of the car on this journey, instead did a drive by viewing of the area. They mentioned that there were ‘bad people’ who lived here and it was rough, so we stayed in the car and just had a look. To me it looked much like another slightly dodgy suburb, you know the one. Broken fence, wood planks loose on the outside of the house, weed garden, curtains a little torn.. You know the look I mean.

We didn’t spend too long with these guys today, they had another visitor coming but before leaving us they took us too the ferry terminal to pick up our tickets for tomorrows journey. It was wonderful to have someone help us with the translating and who could ask our questions for us, they were a big help!
It was sad to say goodbye to them, they said they would wait for our next visit, bless them, it could be a while away yet, but they look forward to it already. Motivates us even more to get back here to Latvia!

After this we went back to the hostel where Chris had a nap and I did a load of washing, read and relaxed. It’s so nice to be able to do that. Sometimes you just really need to be able to take a day out and do nothing for a bit. After our afternoon of nothingness we went for a stroll around the city (it doesn’t take too long) where we saw and heard many buskers, they were all rather good but the stand out busking attraction were 2 cello players who sat in a little cobble stone street under an old old arch playing their instruments beautifully! It was gorgeous! We stayed and listened for quite awhile and left chucking a few bob into their hat. It was a lovely way to end the evening before climbing the stairs and into bed once more.

written by  Chris and Emily on July 4, 2009 from Riga, Latvia
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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