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!
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