A Typical Day in the Neighborhood

Another gloomy day in the thriving metropolis of Riga, Latvia.  It has rained and misted off and on all day.  While it is a beautiful city, Riga looks pretty gloomy on rainy days because of all the gray buildings.  It's been this way for three days now, and I will be so glad when the sun comes out and shines again.

Don and I met with Inta and her husband today for lunch.  Inta is the teacher whose classes I went and observed.  Her husband is one of the pastors at the Riga Dome Church, where we visited this last Sunday.  It was great talking to them and finding out all kinds of things about Latvia.  My intent was to talk a lot with Inta about music education since she has been a music teacher for 20 years.  However, while we spoke about it some, we touched on all kinds of subjects.

Since her husband is a pastor, I asked him quite a bit of questions about the church.  Here in Riga, there are four predominant denominations:  Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Roman Orthodox, and -- believe it or not -- Baptist.  The four denominations work very well together.  There has been no conflict between them over the past several years.  (I wish we could say the same about the US.)  There are three large Lutheran churches in the Old Town -- Riga Dome Church, St. John's Church, and St. Peter's Church. Two of them are literally right beside each other -- St. Peter's and St. John's.  I wanted to see a concert at St. John's Church that started at 7:00, but I also wanted to see a concert at St. Peter's the same night that started at 8:00.  I was able to see both because of their close proximity to each other.  I walked out of one and walked around to the front of the other and went inside.

As we were walking around town today, I took a few photos of the things you will see if you ever have a chance to come here.

Street musicians are everywhere (at least on sunny days).  They just put their open case down on the ground in front of themselves and start playing.  From what I have seen, I don't think any of them get rich doing it, but at least it's a way to make some money doing what you love.  

This young saxophone player is only 9 years old.  He was doing a great job, too.  We didn't take this picture today.  It was taken on one of those warm, sunny days.  You can tell because of his shorts and short-sleeved shirt.

The accordian is a popular instrument here in Latvia.  We have heard several people 

playing it on the streets.

Here is the local McDonald's restaurant.  It's really quite good and is cheap when compared with the other restaurants in the area.  Below is their menu board.  It seems a bit weird seeing the Latvian words on it.

It's next to impossible to drive in Riga, so McDonald's doesn't have a drive-thru.  It has a "McExpress" lane that you can walk up to and order.

There is nothing particularly spectacular about this store, but it's everywhere.  It's like the 

Village Pantry or 7-11 of Riga.  

These bicycle taxis are everywhere in Old Town.  I haven't seen them in Central Riga, but here they are quite numerous.  They are all "driven" by handsome young men who are in great shape.  We haven't taken a ride in any of them yet.  Like taxis, they just kind of sit around until someone decides they want to take a ride.  

This is not a very good picture since he decided to wave right when I was taking it, but this little guy is all dressed in gold and sits on his gold stool and does absolutely nothing.  I'm not sure why he thinks he should be paid, but he does.  He is a dwarf, and I guess he decided that this was one way to make a living.  Notice the gold cup sitting in front of him for tips.  People love to have their picture taken with him, especially children.  I find him to be a bit frightening, myself.

The next two pictures are of flower stands.  They are everywhere in Riga.  Latvians love their flowers, and you see people walking around with them everywhere.  These two stands are across the street from each other.  We went to a concert the other night, and when it was over, people took flowers up to the conductor as a show of gratitude and admiration.

We'll continue taking pictures and putting them on the blog.  We want all of you to be able to enjoy Latvia as much as we are!

Brrrrr.....

It was a gray and chilly day today in Riga -- one of those days that make you just want to stay in bed and snuggle with a good book.  The temperature never got out of the 50s, and our jackets felt very good as we walked around the city.  No concerts or other events took place that I could find, so we didn't have a whole lot on our daily agenda.  Our big accomplishment for the day was finding a toilet brush.  Yea!  I know that sounds silly, but there aren't very many places here that sell toilet brushes, and I hadn't been able to find one up to this point.  I finally found one, and it was even on sale for half price. My bargain-hunting skills came in handy!  This is what it looks like. (I know, you were just dying to see it!)

I found out that there is a Methodist Church in Riga, so I contacted the pastor to see when would be a good Sunday to come to church there and if I could get together with her sometime.  The church is in Central Riga, and not in a very good section of town, so it will be interesting to visit it.  The pastor is also the District Superintendent for Latvia, so I'm sure she will be able to share some interesting facts about the success of the church in this country.  The church also has a choir director, so I am anxious to speak with her, too.  Here are two pictures of the church:

We got to hear a wonderful choir last night.  Kamer... is a youth choir here in Latvia that has won all types of awards.  In the US, we consider a youth choir to be of high-school age.  Here in Latvia, a youth choir is comprised of students who are college aged and a bit older.  Consequently, the age range of the singers in Kamer... is from 16 (only one singer) to 30.  They have a wonderful, mature sound and were probably one of the best choirs that I have ever heard.  Their music was fantastic. They performed in St. Peter's church, so the acoustics were also phenomenal.  

Tomorrow is another day.  We'll see what adventures it brings...

Sunday in Latvia

This is our first Sunday in Latvia, and we not only went to church once -- we went twice!  We didn't intend to, but I wanted to go to the Riga Cathedral (also known as the Dome church), and we thought the service started at 10:00.  Well, it did -- the German service, anyway.  It was held in a small part of the church.  We sat through that, and as we were leaving, I heard this wonderful choir singing in the main sanctuary.  It turns out that it was the choir from Milliken University in Illinois.  We had heard them last night at a concert in St. Peter's Church, but we had no idea they were going to be at the Riga Dome Church this morning.  Anyway, the service in the main sanctuary started at noon, so we stayed for it and got to enjoy the Milliken University Choir a second time.  The church is Lutheran, and I have directed music at two Lutheran Churches, so I was able to follow along a little bit, anyway.

The churches here are phenomenal.  They are old -- usually dating back to the 16th century or earlier. The insides of them are nothing but wood, brick and stone, so the acoustics are great.  The stained glass windows and other ornaments (froufrou, as I call it) are beautiful.  Below are some pictures so that you can get an idea of what the Dome Church is like.

Here are two of the stained glass windows.  I don't know if you can see them or not, but they are not pictures of Christ as in most churches.  We don't know what they are for sure, but they might be pictures of the Crusades or of Martin Luther and the Reformation.

Here is the altar.  It's quite ornate -- nothing like we are used to.

Here is the podium.  If you were scared of heights, it would never work to stand up there.

Last, but certainly not least, here is the organ.  It is under reconstruction and will not be finished until next year.  The organ, however, is playable.  It is a mechanical organ and takes more than one person to play it.  I couldn't get up close on Sunday, but I emailed the music director at the church a few months back, and I'm hoping that when I get in touch with him again, he will take me upstairs and see it.  The organ has a tremendous history to it, as does the church.  

While they had a visiting choir there Sunday, I think the choir normally stands up by the organ -- at least that's where the Milliken choir was on Sunday.  It would be great to be able to stand up there and sing.  The choir is mostly hidden, though, by the high balcony wall.  All I could see were a few heads.

As we visit other churches, I will add pictures of them.  There are many, many churches here in Old Town, and I want to try and visit as many as possible.  There is even a Methodist Church in Central Riga.  We will definitely try and go there.  I found out on the internet that there is a church in Tennessee that takes a mission trip to the Methodist Church here in Riga every other year, so I am hoping that they are coming this year.  If they are, and we are here, we will definitely go then.

Uz redzēšanos!

Our Apartment

I told you a little bit about our apartment in an earlier post, but I have some pictures now, so you can see what it is like.

Here is the street outside the apartment -- Meistaru Iela.  It is one of those narrow streets that I have talked about.  It doesn't look like much, but this small stretch gets lots of pedestrian and car traffic.

As you can see, it's not a pretty area at all.  In fact, the outside of the building is downright ugly.  We have a double door we go through, and to unlock it, we have to push the numbers 3, 5, and 8 at the same time.

Once you get the door open, this is what the entryway to the building looks like.

It sort of looks pretty in the picture, but it's not.  See the door at the right?  This is what you see when you go through it.

Again, the picture makes it look nice, but the only thing nice about it is the shape of the ceiling.  I have no idea what it was used for when it was built.  Now it's the entry to the parking area behind the building.  Parking is at a premium in Riga.  You just can't pull up to the curb and park.  If your building doesn't have a special parking area, you're out of luck.  Here's the parking area behind the apartment.

Our apartment has a reception desk in the first room you enter.  Our tour guide thinks that maybe the apartment used to be used as a spa.  That makes sense, since our landlord now has a spa in a nice hotel.  Anyway, here is the first room you enter when you open the door.

There is a small table over to the right, and Don is playing on his laptop computer.  Believe it or not, he finally has gotten used to it and seems to actually enjoy playing around on the laptop.  I didn't think he'd ever be willing to work on a laptop, but when we came over here it was either that or nothing, because he hates my Mac.

Off of this first entry room to the left is a set of double doors which lead to a big bedroom.  The TV is in there.  We have found quite a few stations that are in English, so we can keep up with world events. The problem is that the only place to sit and watch TV is on the bed, unless we would bring in the kitchen chairs.  (My clothes are laying on the bed, because we don't have enough hangers to hang them up on.  We haven't found anywhere to buy hangers yet.  I wonder if I could google that?)

Off of the entry room the other way and to the left is the kitchen.  It is quite big.  Our tour guide told us that hers is half that size.  There is no stove -- just a hot plate.  We went out and purchased a small skillet, because the only pan here is a huge pot, and Don needed something to cook his breakfast in.  We also bought a toaster so that we could have some toast with our breakfast.

The refrigerator is at the end, and it is made to look like a wooden cabinet.  Kind of neat.

Here are some pictures of the other rooms.  The one that you pass through to get to the other bedrooms (with a flower on the wall) has a nice work table in the corner, but there's no light in the room.  It has been taken down.  I'm not sure what it was originally used for.  It also has our closet in it.

Then we come to the other two bedrooms.  One of them has a loveseat and dresser in it, and the other bedroom, where we sleep, has only a bed in it.

There are two bathrooms in the apartment.  One small one is off of the main entry room:

The other larger one is off of our bedroom.

The shower is a freestanding one with lots of bells and whistles, but we haven't figured out how to make all of them work.  We had a bit of a catastrophe on Wednesday, the first day we used the shower.  When I got out after taking my shower, there was a 1/2" or so of water all over the floor around the shower.  My clothes that I had chosen to wear that day were laying on the floor, so they were now completely soaked.  We tried turning the water on again, but it no longer came out the spouts.  We could hear it running, but we didn't know where.  Our landlord sent a plumber in, and behind the shower a hose had come loose, which was causing the water to go all over the floor.  It was an easy fix, thank goodness.  We had now experienced a fire and a flood.  I wonder what's next?

Over on the wall to the right of the shower is a towel rack.  It's heated!  It's nice to jump out of the shower and wrap this warm towel around you.  This is a standard thing in European bathrooms.  I wonder why it hasn't become standard in American homes?

Well, that is our apartment.  With the exception of not having any place to sit, it is a big, roomy apartment, and we really like it.  One thing about it that is both good and bad is that it is very cool.  While that is wonderful when you come in after walking around in the heat, it is not so good when you hang around a while.  It can get really chilly.  We went out and bought a couple of sweatshirts just to wear around the apartment.  There is a big heater, and we actually let it run for a little while in our bedroom one evening. With it being in the 70s-80s this early, we'll probably really appreciate it as we stay through June and most of July.

We have plenty of room for you to stay, so please consider joining us.  The plane tickets are around $1400 round trip, and once you get here, all you have to pay for is your food.  We'd love to have you and would welcome you with open arms!

As the Latvians say, "Uz redzēšanos!" 

(Don't ask me to pronounce that one!)

The City of Riga, Latvia

I want to show you some pictures that I have taken since we have gotten here.  I hope they give you an idea of what the city is like.

Riga is split into two parts -- Old Town and New Town.  "New" Town really isn't an appropriate word, because the buildings in that part of the city are still very old -- they are just not as old as the ones in Old Town.  Some of the buildings in Old Town have been there since the 15th century.

Here is the view of the street from the window of the hotel where we stayed the first night.  We were on the 5th floor, so we got a really good view.

Here is a view of one of the narrow streets.  Cars actually drive down these streets, and you'd better get out of their way!

Here is a view of another street.  Notice the cobblestones.  They make walking difficult, though a lot of Latvian women do it in spike heels.

Riga is known as the "City of 1,000 Faces" because of all of their Art Nouveau architecture.  Here are some examples of the faces that you see.  Some of them are okay, but some of them are downright scary.

Here is what is called the "Cat House."  The story is that the man who originally built the house was angry about not getting into some type of organization, so he put the cats on the top of the house and turned their tails toward the organization's building.  However, city authorities eventually made him turn the cats the other direction so they'd be less offensive.

You see these type of openings everywhere.  They are called "gates."  At one time, there was a wall around the city to protect it from invaders.  The wall is still there, but buildings have been built onto the front and the back of the wall.  This opening was one way that people could cross through the wall.  Now they add a picturesque effect to the city.

This is the Riga Dome Church.  It is one of the largest churches in the city.  Its structure is once again very old.  It is a Lutheran Church, and I want to attend it this Sunday.  It is right in the center of the town.  There are organ concerts held here all the time.  I hope to get to one of them.

Notice how there are lots of people in the picture above?  Most of the restaurants have outdoor seating areas, and people definitely take advantage of them.  Here are two more pictures that illustrate the popularity of the restaurants and their outdoor seating.

The Freedom Monument is a special monument in the city.  It was opened in 1935 and honors the soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence. It is considered an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty.  It is truly a sight to see.  You can't tell it from the picture, but it is a very tall structure that really reaches into the sky.

Although it's not the same as being here, I hope these pictures give you a feel for what the city is like.  It's a beautiful place.

I'll add more pictures later!