Sunrise, Sunset

Welcome to Riga, Latvia, and my third Fulbright experience (Rwanda, Nepal, and now Latvia).  Let me start with the required qualifier:

“This blog is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.  The views expressed on this site are entirely mine and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.”

OK, now all the legalese is out of the way, and I can fill you in on my first days in Riga and my first impressions.

Riga is dark, very, very dark.  The most popular color for a jacket here is black.  The most popular color for a car here is black.  The sun rises at 8:00am and sets around 5:00pm.  When the sun is not up, it is dark.  I wake up around 6:00am and it is dark.  To go running safely requires waiting until just before 8:00am so that it's not too dark and I can see the icy spots.  Oh, and every day thus far, we've barely seen the sun, it's been cloudy and dark.  I know by June I'll be complaining that the sun never sets, but February is a dark, dark month in Riga and I'm a sun lover.

Welcome to Riga!  We arrived on Monday afternoon after many hours in the air, and 3 flights.  The plane to Riga was filled with young athletes.  There was a group from Italy going to some type of hockey tournament in Lithuania and a number of junior biathletes from the UK and Austria headed to Estonia for a biathlon competition in Haanja.  Our piles of luggage paled in comparison to their hockey bags, waxing tables, and heavily locked biathlon rifle boxes.  Still, with 3 duffles and 2 carry-ons I felt lucky that the embassy sent a driver and that he waited for our late flight to arrive. 

Our luggage waiting for the start of the trip on our front porch.  Looks like we brought plenty with us.

I can't imagine how we would have figured out transportation or directed a driver to our temporary apartment.  Even on arrival we couldn't figure out where to put in our codes to get into the AirBnB apartment door, and I had to run around the corner and borrow a hotel phone just to get in.  After a quick settling in, we had our first adventure buying some food and even managing to get SIM cards for our phones.  Yes, we are connected and we have +371 phone numbers with a solid data plan for all the WhatsApp, Signal and Messenger notes you might want to send us.

After the excitement (and shock) of day one, we've filled our week by wandering around Riga, finding Patricia a violin rental, looking for an apartment rental, visiting the Central Market, trying some new foods including smoked mackerel and home-made Latvian cheeses, walking walking walking, attending a cello recital at Latvijas Mūzikas Akadēmija, and finally, a "quick" commuter train ride to the Baltic Sea and the resort area of Jūrmala (still in the Riga district and surely a destination for future adventures).  

Tomorrow morning we'll try out the Riga public transportation system to find the U.S. Embassy and get our orientation and security briefing.  I've been neglectful of getting photos of everything we've done, but here is a first view of our adventure in Latvia and our layers of clothing to keep us warm along the way.  

Latvian beer, Uzbek bread, and home cheese with cinnamon and apples
Cello recital, the students were amazing

Holy mackerel

Beautiful but falling apart old hotel on the beach in Jūrmula Centre (Majori). 

Patricia layered up to walk on the cold and windy beach with the Baltic Sea behind her.

Offerings for physical therapy at the Baltic Resort in Jūrmala, looks like we could pick up some nice money with a side gig in our profession.

We may never get to St Petersburg on this trip, but the Russian Orthodox Church in Jūrmula certainly had the right look.



  



Location: Riga, Latvia

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