Laundry Day -- Again!

Svieki!

It was laundry day again here in Riga, so off we trudged.  We put our dirty clothes in two of our rolling suitcases and headed for the tram.  The tram that we catch is about six blocks away, so we didn't have too much of a walk.  We got on the tram and rode it to Gertrudes Iela (Gertrude Street).  Unfortunately, our "laundromat" is about five blocks away from the tram stop, so we continued to trudge along.  We got there and all of the washing machines were busy.  I had decided before we got there that, since the price we paid when we stayed there and did it ourselves was the same as when we dropped it off and picked it up later, we would just drop it off and come back later.  We were told to come back in three hours.

In the area of Central Riga where we were, it's rather difficult to waste three hours.  What we probably should have done is get on the tram and go back to the apartment.  We walked around and ventured into a couple of stores and then went to our favorite place to eat -- El Carlito's Mexican restaurant.  It is a small place and is just a couple of blocks down from the  laundromat. We always enjoy going there when we do our laundry.  They have good food, and their waitress (the only one we've ever seen) is a real sweetheart.

The food was great again today, and after we finished eating, we asked the waitress to come over and talk to us.  We were the only customers there at the time, so I knew it wouldn't be a problem.  She came over and told us her name was Elena.  I asked her if she was from Riga, and she said that she was.  She had been a student at the Latvian Art Academy and was a year from finishing but decided to take this last year off.  She will resume in the fall and will finish her degree.  She then asked about us, and we told her where we were from and why we had come to Latvia.  It was an enjoyable conversation. When we left the restaurant, we had only been gone 2 1/2 hours, but we hoped that our laundry would be done.  Luckily it was, so we repacked our suitcases with the clean laundry and walked to the tram stop.

This evening we are going to the rehearsal of a gospel choir.  I'm not sure how I heard about them, but I emailed them and asked if I could come to their rehearsal.  They are preparing for the World Choir Games, so it will be great hearing them at their best.  I'm not sure that Latvia's idea of a gospel choir and our idea of a gospel choir is the same, but it will be fun to see.

While this country has some phenomenal choirs, I can't say that I have truly enjoyed their concerts from an entertainment standpoint.  They sing extremely difficult music, and they sing it very well.  I can certainly appreciate them for that.  However, the concerts are not what I would call "fun."  As a choir director, I am all about giving my audiences a fun experience when they come to a concert.  Granted, I also want to give them a great musical performance as well, but I always tell my singers that the most important thing for them to do is to enjoy themselves while giving the concert.  If the singers enjoy singing the music, then the audience is going to enjoy hearing the music and enjoy watching them sing.

Here in Latvia, as in the other Baltic countries, participating in a choir is something that a lot of people do.  It is a part of their history and their heritage, so they make time to do it.  Most of the choirs, especially the good ones, get financial support from the cities in which they are located.  The better the choir, the more support they get.  In America, as I'm sure it is in a lot of other places, singing in choirs is not something that is promoted or very popular.  People lead such busy lives, and making the choice to commit one evening a week to sing in a choir is a big commitment.  It is also something that a lot of people who don't do music don't understand.

I love my choirs, and I love the fact that they are willing to commit one evening a week to come and spend time with me as we make beautiful music together.  Could they be doing something else?  Certainly.  That's why I work so hard at making sure we have a good time.  Singing together in a choir is unlike any other activity -- even that of playing in a band or orchestra.  We take our voices -- the most perfect instrument of all -- and combine them together to create this glorious sound, one that is full of richness and beauty.  And in the midst of all of that richness and beauty lie words that give a message to all who hear.  It is those words, that message, that make us different.

Well, off my soapbox.  I can't believe it's the end of June already.  Three weeks from tomorrow we leave this beautiful city and come back to reality.  I'm sure it will hit us hard.  However, there are many things that we look forward to, not the least of which is our washer and dryer!

Later!

Gaudeamus 2014

"Gaudeamus" is the title of the 2014 Baltic Students' Folk Song Festival that is being held this year in Daugavpils.  I had heard of Daugavpils before -- a family we met from Texas are here on a 6-month mission trip of some type and live there.  It is the second largest city in Latvia, located on the very southern edge of the country -- close to Belarus and Lithuania (see map below).  If we'd had more time (and money) we would have stayed a few days and traveled to both of those countries.

I had looked at a schedule of events for the festival, and at 1:00, the schedule said that there would be concerts in the park, on the streets, and in churches.  We arrived in Daugavpils at 11:30, so nothing had officially started at that point.  Don asked me where we were supposed to go, and I really didn't know.  (I think he was a bit frustrated with me, but he didn't say anything.)  We found the street where everything was supposed to take place, and we started walking.  I figured we would eventually find something.  We found a pizza place along the way and bought a pizza for lunch.  With Daugavpils not being a real tourist haven, no one needed to know how to speak English.  Consequently, it was hard for them to understand what we wanted.  We were finally able to show them, and we had our lunch.

As we were walking along, Don decided that he needed to go to the restroom, so I knew that we needed to find one for him if at all possible.  Even though we were walking up and down the main street through town, there were no WCs (water closets) available.  We saw a huge building straight ahead of us and decided it was the train station.  We figured that there would be a restroom there.  Don went to find the men's restroom, and I headed for the women's.  When I first went in, this is what I saw:

 Nice wooden doors, relatively clean.  I admit I was relieved, because I didn't know what I would find.  When I opened the door, this is what I saw:

It was a hole in the floor!  I couldn't believe it.  I don't think the brown stuff is poo, I think it is rust, but, whatever it is, I left immediately!  Oh, it was sooooo gross!  I went outside and immediately saw Don. We looked at each other and started laughing.  Neither one of us had ever seen anything like that, except in an outhouse.  It was the grossest restroom we had ever seen.  Needless to say, Don (or I) didn't use the restroom there, either. In fact, he said that he no longer had to go.  I think the sight and smell of the one at the train station was enough to scare it away!  We laughed about it off and on the entire day.

We walked a ways to the other end of the street and saw a lot of buses.  We eventually heard some singing.  We had found the choirs.  They weren't performing in the street or park.  They were gathered together at the University of Daugavpils and were rehearsing.  We figured out that the first group we heard rehearsing was from Lithuania.  The group was fairly large, because it was several choirs combined into one group.  There were a lot of singers, and there were also several instrumentalists. While some of the instruments being played were the normal ones that you would expect to hear, there were several that weren't.  I went up to some of the players and asked them what their instruments were called.  Fortunately, they spoke enough English that they were able to understand, and I was able to understand what they said.  I assumed that, since this was a festival related to folk music, these were folk instruments from Lithuania.  I looked up Lithuanian folk instruments, and these were listed.  Here are pictures of them:

This wooden instrument is called a Birbyné (pronounced beer-bee-nee).  It is the national 

folk instrument of Lithuania.  As you can see, it is made of wood.  The bottom part is made 

of a bone.  It is played with a single reed, like the clarinet.  Don thought it sounded like a 

combination of a soprano sax, a clarinet, and an oboe.  We would love to get one, 

but they're almost $400, so we won't be getting one any time soon.

Here is a picture off of the internet of a group of guys playing birbynés.  

Notice they are different sizes.

This next instrument looks like a hammered dulcimer or zither, but it is called

a kanklès (pronounced conk-less).  It is the oldest string instrument

in Lithuania.  It is put on a stand and played with fingers.

This next picture is another one off of the internet.  It is an ensemble of 

Lithuanians playing a kanklès and the birbynè.

This is a picture of a skrabalai (I didn't find out how that one is pronounced).

When I saw them being played, I thought they were sets of temple blocks

that had been put on a stand.  Anyway, they look like temple blocks.  They

are pitched differently according to their size, and they are played 

with mallets.

I wish I could show you a picture of the instruments accompanying the choir from the Folk Festival in Daugavpils, because there weren't just one or two of the above instruments, there were a lot of them. They probably had 30-40 kanklèses  and 15-20 birbynès.  It was really neat to watch and listen to them. Don and I decided that the group we were watching was the group from Lithuania (duh).  We didn't get to see the Latvian or the Estonian group rehearse.  It started raining hard, plus it was getting late, so we decided to go and find something to eat.

Since so few people spoke English and the menus were all in Latvian, and since we didn't pass any restaurants that were appealing to us, we ended up going back to the bus station and buying some things to eat at the market there.  We bought cheese and crackers, chips, grapes, and bananas.  Then we sat on the cement and ate our dinner.  Certainly not romantic by any means, but it sure did taste good.

That was our day in Daugavpils.  I was looking online for some things to do while there, and one writer said that there were only three things there worth seeing.  I don't remember what the first two were, but the third one was the "bus station, which would take you away from Daugavpils."  He wasn't really impressed, and neither were we.  However, we accomplished what we wanted, which was to hear some folk songs being sung.  I guess I can't complain.

The bus ride back was uneventful.  Oh, there is one thing -- about halfway through the 3 1/2 hour ride, we stopped for a potty break.  I went looking for a restroom, and the only one available was one similar to what you would find in a park.  When I went in, guess what I saw?  Two girls squatting over two holes in the floor, and there weren't even stall doors to hide them!  Needless to say, I left immediately, went back to the bus, and told Don.  We laughed off and on all the way home.

Until next time...

We're Rolling Downhill!

I know that we still have 3 1/2 weeks left here, but it seems like we are going downhill fast.  Other than the Estonian Song Festival and the World Choir Games (WCG), there isn't a lot going on at this point. None of the choirs are giving concerts, because they are all preparing for the WCG.  I still need to talk to a couple of composers, and they have asked me to put it off until July due to their busy schedules. We get out and about every day, but we don't really have anything to do right now that is related to music.  It seems like I am forgetting to do something all the time.

I went and purchased the rest of the tickets for the World Choir Games, which takes place July 9-19. I was able to purchase tickets for four events online.  They have a limit of purchasing eight tickets at a time.  When I went online to purchase more tickets, I could never get the system to work.  The ticket place is located here in Riga, so we decided to walk over and purchase them there.  They don't speak very good English, but I wrote things down and they were able to follow me okay.  We have eight events/concerts that we are going to attend. There are more things to do, but I chose the ones that interested me the most.  I would love to go to some of the workshops that are available, but the ticket for 12 workshops is 90 Euros, which is a lot of money to spend for something that I'm not sure will be worth it.  They sound like great workshops, but I'm not sure how they are going to handle the whole language thing (there will be people from all over the world here), and I also don't know how effective a workshop would be with hundreds of people attending it.  Needless to say, I have decided at this point not to purchase a ticket for the workshops.

Don and I went and did some more laundry yesterday.  We went to the same place that we had used earlier, but this time we had four loads of laundry.  (With Deb and Dan leaving, we needed to wash their bed clothes and the towels that they used.)  We stuck around the place this time and did everything ourselves, and it still cost us 38 Euro for the four loads (9,50 a load).  Boy, will I ever be glad to see my washer and dryer!  We went and did laundry while we were in Tallinn, and it only cost us 6 Euros a load.  They had a lot more washers and dryers available, too.  Unfortunately, since I don't want to hand wash everything, I guess we'll keep paying whatever we have to to get it done.

I haven't taken any interesting pictures the last couple of days, but there are a lot that I have taken that you haven't seen.  I thought I would just share some that I think are interesting in today's blog.

They have lots of statues of Riga, but this one is unique.  This "statue" is on a street that runs beside St. Peter's Lutheran Church.  It's a statue of the Bremen Town Musicians.  Don has never heard the story, but I always loved it.  I'm not sure why a statue is here in Riga, though.  If you haven't read the story, you really ought to.

This "tree" (or whatever you want to call it) is in the park that runs along the canal.  Riga is a very "artsy-fartsy" community, and things like this pop up all the time.  The tree is made out of wood, 

and I think the ornaments are made out of styrofoam.

The accordian is a very popular instrument in Latvia.  We have seen several street musicians playing them, and music groups that play in restaurants often have them, too.  This lady was sitting on the bridge beside the Freedom Monument.

This is just a picture of some electric tram and bus lines.  What amazes me about them is 

how far they extend.  They run for miles and miles.  

Here's a statue of a naked lady.  I am showing it to you because Riga has more naked lady statues 

than any place I have ever been before.  The park by the canal is full of them.  I often wonder 

what the little kids think of all of them.

This modern looking building is the new library.  It is on the other side of the River Daugava.  It was just completed this winter, and when they moved books from the old one to the new one, they used a fire bucket brigade line.  People stretched from the old library to the new and passed books along.  It would have been great to be a part of it.  (It was in January, though, so I imagine it was really cold!)

Here are a couple of pictures of some Latvian women wearing folk costumes.  The history of folk costumes is that each region or village had a different costume, and you could tell where people were from by looking at their costume.  That isn't the case any longer.  These women all have on different ones.  Aren't they colorful?  Notice that some of the women in the top picture are wearing scarves on their heads, while those in the other picture are all wearing floral wreaths.  At one time, unmarried women were the ones who wore floral wreaths, and married women wore scarves.  Again, that is no longer true.  Now everyone wears floral wreaths.

This is another example of Riga's "artsy-fartsy" side.  These cows showed up a couple of weeks ago.  They have been made by taking pieces of boards and putting them together.  Green pieces of wood have been put around their necks or on top of their heads for decoration.  This whole herd of 

cows is standing on the grass behind the National Opera House.

The thing I want to point out in this picture is the round red sign with the white line across it.  This must be the international symbol for "do not enter."  Old Town Riga streets do not have "One-Way" signs; they just have these.  There are also no stop signs at intersections.

Here are some more strange looking statues, but these are for sale at one of the shops.  They are made out of huge rocks and metal and are super expensive.  I can't imagine how much it would cost to have them shipped somewhere.  They're huge!  I saw a couple of them packaged and ready for shipping yesterday, though, so people must buy them.  Here we have a frog, a pig, and a duck.

This picture and the next one were actually taken in Tallinn.  I saw these lamb footstools in the window of a shop.  I went in and checked them out, but they were 150 Euros -- a bit too much for my blood.  Besides, how could I fit them in my suitcase?

This little guy was walking around on the ledge at a viewpoint in Tallinn.  People were standing 

all around him (or her), but he stayed right where he was.  He kept walking back and forth trying 

to get people to feed him.  One lady set her purse down on the ledge to get something out of it, 

and he stuck his beak in the purse.  He turned his head right as I snapped the picture, 

so you can see his ornery expression.  He's kind of cute, huh?

Anyway, I just thought I'd show you some random pictures of things that I thought were interesting. As I said, not much is going on right now.  However, I did find out that there is a Baltic Student Folk Festival this weekend in Daugavpils, a town a little over three hours away.  I think Don and I are going to take the bus and go check it out.  Sounds like fun.

Later!

The Estonian Song Festival

I am so excited!  When we visited Tallinn, I found out that the Estonian Song Festival is going to be held there this year on July 5th and 6th, and I get to go!  I don't know about the Estonian festival, but the Latvian Song Festival happens every five years. Their most recent one was last year, so it won't happen again until 2018.  I was really bummed when I heard that.

Now, a song festival may not sound too exciting, but a song festival here is unlike anything you have probably ever experienced.  For one thing, they have been going on for decades, so it holds a lot of tradition.  It's also a very unifying event, which helped a lot when Latvia was under the rule of other countries. The most amazing thing about it, though, is the number of singers that participate.  In Riga, it is typical to have over 20,000 people participate in the choir.  That doesn't include the number of people who are there to watch and listen, which can number around 100,000.  Here is a picture of a recent song festival in Riga.

I don't know about Estonia's song festival, but I imagine that it is similar to Latvia's.  While we were in Tallinn, we visited the song festival grounds.  Here is what we found.

This is what you see as you walk up to it.

This is the area where the singers sit.  I wouldn't be surprised if they add chairs along the front of it.

Here is a picture of the grounds.  It's really big, and I imagine that my ticket will put me about as far away as possible.  That's okay, though.  I just want to be able to experience 20,000 people in a choir all singing together.  I imagine there will be songs where the audience sings along.  When that happens, I know I will get goose bumps!

Here we are sitting on the stage area.  I didn't count how many rows or seats there were, but I know that there were a lot of them!

We will take the bus to Tallinn on Saturday, July 5th, in the morning.  We will get there around 1:30. There is a concert that night at 8:00 and one the next day at 2:00.  Then we will head back home again. It will be a quick trip, but I'm sure it will be worth every penny we spent on it.

I just wanted to share with you this amazing opportunity.  I am so excited!

Happy Jāni!

Jāni is a national holiday in Latvia celebrating the summer solstice.  It is held on two days -- the day before the shortest night and the day after.  Although the actual summer solstice happens on June 21st and 22nd, Latvia has shifted the celebration to June 23rd and 24th to coincide with John the Baptist's feast day, which falls on June 24th.  Jāni is an ancient fertility festival originally celebrated in honor of the Latvian pagan deity Jānis, who is mentioned in ancient Latvian folk songs. It is celebrated everywhere, but people usually spend the days in the countryside.

During Jāni, you will see tree branches and flowers everywhere.  Originally, tree branches were put on homes and fences to ward off evil spirits.  That tradition continues, and tree branches are put on everything.  Wreaths are made of flowers and leaves and are worn on the head.  A well-known part of this celebration is the search for the mythical fern flower, though some suggest that at one time the fern flower was a symbol of secret knowledge; today is it almost always synonymous with having sexual relations.  Young couples traditionally wander away from the main bonfire in search of the flower, and there is a subsequent increase in births nine months later.  (Some of that info came from Wikipedia, in case you are wondering.)

While a lot of people go to the countryside, we had nowhere in the country to go, so we stayed in town. One of the major roads that runs by the river was closed to traffic, and everyone gathered there for the celebration.  There had to be thousands of people there.  Two big stages were set up, and large screens were set up in various spots.  Lots of folk dancing and folk singing took place on the stage.  It was fun to see the people in the crowd sing along on the folk songs.  I guess they are taught these songs all the way from early childhood, so everyone knows them.  While we have a lot of celebrations in the US, I don't think we have anything that compares to this.

Because the celebration goes all night long, everything is shut down on the 24th so that people can catch up on their sleep.  Don and I stayed at the festival until around 10:00, but then we decided to head for our apartment.  It was strange, but last night was the first night that I felt as though I didn't belong.  I hadn't felt that way at all before, but seeing all of these people having fun celebrating this holiday together with all of these old traditions made me feel out of place.

Here are some pictures of the event.  They really don't do a good job of showing how big the crowd is, but you can get an idea, anyway.

    Here is the sign advertising the festival.  We've seen them all over town.  The word on the sign can                                                   be pronounced as Lee-go or as Lee-gwah.

Here are some examples of the flowers at the event.  They were all over the place.  Latvians love their flowers.  You can see people carrying bunches of them all the time.

Whenever you see a Latvian woman or girl in an authentic folk costume, you will more than likely see a flower wreath on her head.  There was a booth at the festival that was selling the floral wreaths, and, of course, I had to get one.  You know, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.  Anyway, here is a picture of my flower wreath.

Here are some pictures of people performing on stage.  Notice that there are tree branches 

covering everything.

Here are some pictures of the crowd.  They really can't begin to show how crowded it was.

There were several of these on the boulevard.  Bonfires are a big part of the Jāni festival.  They light them at sundown and have to keep them lit until sunrise.

Here's a picture of Don holding one of the favorite snacks of the area.  It's a potato that has been sliced on a spiral slicer, put on a skewer, stretched out, and then deep fried.  It is very popular around town.  We had to stand in line for quite some time to get one.  I may try and fix them and see how popular they are in our area.

These pictures can't begin to tell you what a big event this is around Latvia.  There isn't a holiday in the US that can even compare.  As I mentioned, everything shuts down for those two days, and the people party hearty!  It was so much fun to watch the people enjoy themselves while singing, and it was great to see some of the awesome folk dancing groups perform.  While I am looking forward to coming home, there are many things about Latvia that I will miss, and the people's love of folk music and dance is one of them.

Until next time...

Turaida Castle

I never did get to finish sharing with you about our trip to Sigulda to visit the castles.  I showed you pictures of the first castle, known as Sigulda Castle, but was unable to show you some of the second castle due to having to go somewhere. Here are some pictures of the second castle, also known as Turaida Castle.

Here is a view of Turaida Castle from Sigulda Castle.

We had to take a cable car to get to Turaida Castle.  Here is a picture of the cable car.  It's not very pretty, is it?  Believe it or not, that little car can hold 15 people standing up.  I figured that the ride would be bumpy, but it was very smooth.

Here are a couple of views from the cable car.

Turaida Castle was on some beautiful, park-like grounds.  We had to walk down a lane to get to it.  Here are Deb, Don, and I walking down the lane.

Below are various pictures of the castle, in no particular order.

It was a beautiful day.  Here is a picture of the blue sky and poofy clouds.

This is a park that we passed on one of our walks in Sigulda.  It is known as "Walking Stick Park," and I guess Sigulda is known for making walking sticks.  You could buy them in any size at all of the souvenir shops.

Thanks to Dan's guidance, we had a great day.  He knew exactly what time we needed to be at the different locations and knew how much time we would have to explore before moving on.  Our only hitch was that, somewhere in our travel that day, a bus that Dan was told we should pick up didn't run at that time, so we had a one-hour delay while we waited for the next bus.  Believe me, there were plenty of souvenir booths set up across the street to keep us occupied while we waited.

Thanks, Dan, for a great day of exploring castles!