Spring Break Part II: Cooking Up a Storm in Riga...

For the second half of my spring break week, I was off to Riga, Latvia-a short 4.5 hour bus ride from Vilnius and one of the largest cities in the Baltic States. Much like Vilnius, Riga also has an old town and a tumultuous past, experiencing Nazi and Soviet invasions, but has managed to become a thriving capitol-home to more than 1/3 of Latvia's population. After searching around for tours of the city and things to do before my arrival there, my goal was simple: get there and get cooking. As I had been dying to take a few cooking classes while abroad (to get a better idea of what local cuisine was like in the various places I have visited), I jumped at the chance to learn about Latvia through its menus. During my 3 days there, I wandered the Old Town, ate gloriously delicious meals, toured through the Riga Central Market (which is now one of my favorite places), and was guided in making Latvian Cold Soup, Latvian Stew, and some delicious (yet disastrous-looking) dessert. It was the perfect ending to an amazing week.

Taking in some Old Town sights....

(The Freedom Monument, dedicated to the soldiers killed during the fight for Latvian Independence)

And the Riga Central Market....

 Fire Up the Stove, We're Cooking Now....

The Group...

The Soup...

The Meal...

The Desserts that just didn't want to seal...

 My time in Latvia was short, but sweet and delicious for certain. After a night exploring the city and making new friends, I greeted the sunrise and was off to catch my bus back to Saint Pete's. After a looooooong haul on a LuxExpress Bus, a stop through customs, and a few moments of utter bewilderment when I forgot to calculate time change & thought the SPb metro suddenly decided to run at 5:00 am, I was back to reality and ready to hit the decline of the semester. 

dream.love.discover (that 1 girl + 1 backpack + 10 days of travel=GREAT SUCCESS!),

Dachelle

We now interrupt the updating of these blog posts for a very important announcement

It's official, there are only 20 days left until I return home!! I know I'm really leaving people on edge with my failure at finishing up my posts from Spring Break and updating my blog, but I proooooooomise to get that done ASAP (hopefully wrapping up my backpacking adventures, which concludes with Riga, Latvia this week!) As a special treat, I have vowed to try my best to post at least one photo every day for the rest of my stay here. They will just be short posts with a photo and maybe a caption. I think it'll be a good way for me to get some of my smaller excursions and random photos up on the blog without it requiring a huge post. So, in celebration of having my last History of the Russian Orthodox Church class today, here are a few pictures I took at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (which we learned in class is a word used to describe a large, important monastery). It also happens to be the resting place Tchaikovsky, a well-known Russian composer. Enjoy!!!

dream.love.discover (your time in the beautiful city of Saint Petersburg is slowly running out),

Dachelle

Spring Break Part I: Vilnius-The Land of Frank Zappa's Bust.....

When I set off to Vilnius on a Spring Break 2012 backpacking adventure, I never expected that I would be greeted by this....A MONUMENT TO FRANK ZAPPA right in the middle of a parking lot (I KID YOU NOT!) Along with Frank, I met plenty of great people throughout my journey to Lithuania and Latvia that made my stories of Backpacking in the Baltics complete. I also got to see many amazing sights and learn a lot about the histories of both countries, tying together my experience in Russia and how it has effected the formation of its neighbors. Lithuania and Latvia, both of which experienced tough times until the 1990's after the invasion of Nazis and the Soviet forces, have overcome a lot in their past in order to claim their independence and establish a thriving, vibrant, welcoming culture. 

On the first leg of my trip, I flew from Moscow to Vilnius, Lithuania-known for its beautiful Old City, where I spent 3 nights and 2 days visiting castles, museums, and hanging out with the locals. 

Ok, so it didn't exactly greet me, more like I had to go out in search of it on one of the funniest and most random monument hunts I have ever been on, but when in Vilnius, seeing Frank Zappa's Monument is a must. Take a look at Frank's Lithuanian digs...

Moscow----->Vilnius: Monday, March 19, 2012.

Good-bye Moscow, hello snow-storm arrival...

After a train through the Moscow country-side and a plane to Riga continuing to Vilnius, I had finally landed. I hopped on a bus, got out at the train station located down the street from my hostel (yes, I did stay at a hostel...), to a wonderful mix of snow and lightening (shown in the photographs below). After wandering around for a bit, I decided to finally find my hostel (and by "finally find" I mean the directions I found online were faulty and I wandered around, mostly [I'd like to have you believe....] to take photos for a few hours but partially because I was a tad bit lost. I eventually found the usual location of my hostel, but discovered it had been moved due to renovations and set off further up the street where I finally found a bed with my name on it! It was certainly one way to start off my trip!).

   

    Making Friends.......

Cue in the fun times with an Aussie!!!!!       

On all proper backpacking trips, the secondary goal to seeing amazing sights on a limited budget is to make friends. I have to admit I was a tad bit timid in the beginning, but if you're up for the challenge, there are always interesting people passing through the hostel. In Vilnius I quickly found a sight-seeing buddy and hit the Old Town to track down some of the city's interesting sights, eat delicious pizza, and embark on a mission to find Frank Zappa.

Even in the over-cast, sometimes dreary weather, we still got to see some pretty cool things and even climbed to the top of a castle to get a bird's eye view of the city. On my last day, I took some time to wander the city myself to soak up the last views of the city before my bus to Riga, Latvia. Enjoy!

dream.love.discover,

Dachelle