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!