Our Ship left Stockholm with around 2000 students from across Scandinavia and the northern parts of Eastern Europe. I guess there were a few people who were on the ship as just a ferry, but I never actually saw anyone that did not look like one of the students. I stayed in a small cabin with three other people on the very bottom floor of the ship. We could barely fit in there along with our suitcases. The first night they had a buffet dinner for us and a bunch of events and parties planned throughout the evening.
The next morning we arrived at Riga at 10 AM. I signed up for a guided tour around the city so about two thirds of the six hours I had in Riga were on the tour through old Riga. It was a really beautiful area and the buildings were incredibly well preserved for being so old. After the tour I went to the St. Peter’s Cathedral. The cathedral is one of the tallest buildings in the area so you can get a great view of the city. I also stopped by a pancake restaurant that was recommended to me by a friend of Katie’s who is from Latvia. One great part about visiting Riga is it was so cheap compared to Trondheim. Getting pancakes was about about .60 Euro cents ($.85) per pancake and were really good! I also bought some great chocolate at a candy store.
The last night on the ship was another night of hanging out with all my friends on the ship. One fun thing we did was sumo wrestling. They had a sumo wrestling arena with these big cushioned costumes in the middle of one of the dining areas.
Although taking the train to Stockholm was nice, I am glad I got a flight back to Trondheim. The trains took a long time, especially through all of the mountains in Norway. I had a big project due right after I got back so I had to jump right back into school as soon as I got to Tronndheim.
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- The Daugava river and some fancy new office buildings across from Old Riga
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- St. Peter’s Cathedral. Later I came back here on my own to go up into the tower.
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- Monument to Latvia’s independence. Apparently the only reason this statue is still standing is because a Soviet architect like this statue and came up with a new meaning for it to protect it so the Soviets wouldn’t tear it down.
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- The park in between the old and new parts of Riga was really nice
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- Old regulations said a wagon must be able to fit through the alleys. To maximize space builders would build the base of houses at this width and then build out as they went up levels creating these narrow streets with houses overhanging the street.
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- View from St. Peter’s Cathedral
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- View from St. Peter’s Cathedral
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- View from St. Peter’s Cathedral
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- They were so good
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- Great restaurant!
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- The ship we were on
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- We joked that these buildings looked like a miniature Empire State Building and Eiffel Tower. I have no idea what they actually are.
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- Not too far from the main city they had huge docks for coal, wood, and cargo.
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- Sumo wrestling!!!