Last night in Riga

My final night in Riga, so Julya and I headed to a huge restaurant, the Lido. A great sprawling place, full of little nooks and underground stone sections, plus a great Christmas display in the front space. I filled up, once again, on those Latvian favourites: potatoes, cabbage and beetroot. Plus I have been fed cheese (all kinds) until it comes out of my ears - which comes right on the heels of my visit to the very special Tilamook cheese factory in Oregon. All cheesed out, you might say. The photos are of Julya and I horsing around in Santa's cave.

Riga's Old Town

For those interested in seeing some more of Riga's Old Town centre, above are a few photos from our wanderings today. The first picture shows engraved locks put on a bridge by newly married couples (the keys are thrown in the river).

Christmas in Daugavpils

No snow, no Christmas ... so Julya and I took a bus to Daugavpils, a few hundred kms to the South-East of Riga, to visit a friend of hers (also Julya). Pretty dark by the time we arrived, so we just met up with her friend and had a quiet night with pizza at another friends place. Not so much to tell, but a few pics included from the bus and the town square.

Global warming ...

Snow in Australia on Christmas day but not Latvia? How could this be?

Riga!

So, it seems I'm not going to get a white Christmas after all ... I think next year I'll head to Greenland instead! The weather here in Riga has been unusually mild. Last year the winter temperature was as low as -30 oC, but lately, it's been hovering around 2-4 oC, with no prediction of snow for a few weeks yet.





Nonetheless, it has been great catching up with my friend, Julya, and meeting her family. I'm staying with her Mum and Dad in their appartment and went to Granny's place this afternoon for her special pancakes.

The old part of town (in the centre) is great, with huge Russian Orthodox cathedrals and old buildings. For Christmas, there are special markets selling Latvian souvenirs, such as mittens and amber, as well as an outdoor ice-skating rink. It makes for a wonderfully festive atmosphere, even though much of Riga's population won't celebrate Christmas until mid-January. We even went shopping for a (real) Christmas tree this evening, which was quite thrilling for me.

Oregon

From Rockaway bay, we continued our drive down the coast and into the university town of Corvallis. It was pretty sleepy at this time of year - all the students go home for vacation, but I had a nice tour around the campus (home to the Beavers, or 'Beavs' as they're known), plus Kevin's self-described ghetto home.

Pictured is the 'Beer Pong room', a place specially designated to play a drinking game that requires you to throw ping pong balls into each others cups. As the photo shows, the room is pretty trashed, with holes and graffiti all over the walls. This is pretty representative of the whole place (12 students sharing a single floor and kitchen of an old fraternity house). But it's close to the uni and well priced.

We also managed a night in Kevin's home town, Eugene, staying with his Dad and Dad's flatmate in their wonderful log house. They were great company and had me in stitches all night, plus they had an outside hot-tub, which was the perfect place to do some mid-winter star gazing.


After a quick lunch with Kevin's Mum the next day, we headed up to the south of Washington state (near Stevenson?) to stay at a holiday cabin belonging to Kevin's aunt. The cabin was right in the middle of the woods, in an area full of amazing gorges and great scenery.




There had been a little snow already, but we received much more during the night, which meant we had to scrape the car before we could get started - a novel experience for me! Another outside hot-tub meant we could watch the falling snow on my final night in North America. The following day we made the final long drive up through Seattle and Vancouver for my flight to Riga via London.

Rockaway Bay

After the wild weather in Seattle, Kevin and I drove down the spectacular Oregon coast to stay at his Great-Grandmother's beach cabin. Electricity was still down for our first night, which made our stay a little chilly! A wooden cabin by the Oregon coast in the middle of winter is not the warmest place around. But with a few extra jackets and blankets, plus a dinner of sandwiches by candlelight, we survived the night.

The cabin is right on the beach with a great view out to the wild ocean and Twin Rocks (pictured). Unfortunately, my digital camera failed on me while we were there so all my own pictures are on film. The cabin has been in Kevin's family for nearly 100 yrs and there are relics and memories of the whole family throughout this time. Shells, photos and other bits and pieces collected over time give the cabin a wonderful atmosphere.

It was a great time to relax and do those classic holiday things like walking along the beach and watching sunsets.

Vancouver to Seattle

Successfully navigating security in Heathrow (which saw an old lady's crutches taken from her while they were scanned, and my toothpaste declared) and another 10 hour flight, I arrived safely in Vancouver. I was lucky enough to have another great seatmate, Karen, who works as an ecologist in South Africa.

I was met in Vancouver by another friend from Denmark, Kevin, who is showing me around the US for the next 10 days. We just had a brief stop in Vancouver - checking into a hotel which unfortunately seemed to be located in the dead centre of slum town. Millions of homeless guys congregating on the streets in their mini-communities. The city seemed great otherwise, but we were on a mission and headed off the next day on our road trip through Seattle and down the Oregon coast.

With perfect timing, an enormous storm hit the region, with winds over 50 mph, knocking over giant trees and cutting the power to many parts of Seattle for 3 days. There was even a little snow on the way down!

Seattle was a great place to visit. Full of young energetic people looking sporty, if not a little hopped up on caffeine (Seattle is home to the original Starbucks). The famous Pike Markets didn't disappoint, I was just in time to see an enormous fish hurled right past my head! And the Experience Music Project was amazing - a crazy building intended to vaguely resemble Hendrix's smashed guitar, full of rock music memorabilia.

Merry London in 12 hours

Another quick overnighter in London - this time joined by my friend KT, who was kind enough to bus in from Bristol the night before her big Masters presentation.



So great to catch up with long lost friends from Denmark and an awesome chance to check out a new city. Arriving at around 7pm, KT and I checked into a hostel and jetted off for a whirlwind tour around the inner city: Buckingham palace, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, The London Eye and many more. We walked through the night, checking out sights (only from the outside of course!) and catching up on old memories and new gossip. The whole river was ours - it seems that no other tourists care to visit at 2am on a mid-week winters night!

mini-stop in Seoul

Just one night stop in Seoul ... free with my Korean Airlines ticket. I sat next to a great Brissie girl, Kieren, on the plane who shared my swanky Hyatt room with me.

Also stomach churning Korean delicacies such as yaksik - a kind of stodgy rice and red bean paste with peanuts - and funny little cakes.



The people were so friendly, which made it a great stopover - I've definitely seen enough to entice me back to Korea!

Here I go! Off on my whirlwind mini world tour. Stops include Seoul, London, Vancouver, Seattle, Oregon, Riga, Copenhagen and Frankfurt.