A Tale of Latvia: Part 2

Vacations are always a little tricky to me. You never want to sleep because you are so excited to be there, but you also never want to wake up because you are exhausted from the last day's adventures. That is how I was feeling when I woke  up in Riga. After hurriedly getting ready, we were ready to go out on the town.

The nice thing about the town when we woke up was that we were just about the only ones in it.  We walked all around seeing the rest of the things we had missed the day before. One of the coolest things that we did was go up in the tower of the tallest building in Latvia.

Here are some pictures of my view. 

It was so beautiful. 

My main goal for the day was to get to this one particular cathedral. The whole time we were there, I kept seeing the most magnificent teal steeple. I knew that is the one I wanted to see most. When we finally tracked it down, it didn't disappoint. I loved it. While we were standing there in awe, we saw a few people go inside. We decided to follow them. Inside, they were holding a Catholic mass. One of the girls in my group is Catholic, and she has been dying to go. So, we stayed.  It was very interesting. It involved a whole lot of kneeling, standing and sitting. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if these giant pillars weren't blocking my view of the priest. I did however love the stain glass windows and beautiful pictures of Jesus that surrounded me. It was a great first mass experience in my adorable teal steeple cathedral. 

After mass, we all got a little bit hungry. Hannah had researched a medieval restaurant, and we decided to give it a go.  to get inside, you literally had to walk through underground tunnels. The whole place was dark and lit by candles. It was so cool. Mom, you would have loved it! Rachel and I decided to split the chicken curry. It was alright. I think more than anything you pay for the to die for atmosphere. I am glad we went. It was a ton of fun. 

The last stop of the day was to the Riga Central Market. This market isn't just any old market. It is actually inside these massive buildings that were used as military hangars during WWI. Later, they  converted it to this giant market and it is visited by about 80,000 people a day. I wasn't really feeling the shopping scene, so I pooped out and went and sat at the bus station. I pulled out divergent, ( I know I am way behind the times), and started reading. When the girls we got on the bus and said goodbye to our wonderful weekend in Riga. 

XO Mikele