Pēdējās Dienas

So I am back home in the US of A, and not completely happy about it.  Of course it is nice to be back with Nick and my family, and to sleep in my comfortable bed again, but I really miss Latvia.  It's been really hard to get myself to sit down and write this last blog post from the last few days of my trip, but now I am finally here, so here it is.

Tuesday was the day that I started preparing to leave Latvia.  I went to meet Egija in Old Riga for the last time.  We had fun shopping for last minute gifts and, of course, had some coffee at Kuuka cafe.  She also had me try the best muffin in the world from the coffee shop she used to work in.  It seriously was the best muffin in the world.  At the end of the day, we said our "see ya later"s and parted ways.

On Wednesday morning, Ruta, Lauris, Emily, and Liene took me to see Estonia.  It only takes about 4 hours to get there by car so we drove.  Oh man, Estonia was a little bit of a disappointment.  We drove first to Pärnu, a small town on the sea.  Pärnu was not very exciting, so we didn't stay there long.  We walked to the beach, but the beach wasn't any better than Jūrmala, so we left pretty quick.  After Pärnu, we stopped in Keila to see a waterfall.  This was definitely the best part of the day.  The waterfall was really beautiful and we stayed there awhile to take pictures by it.  That was a lot of fun.  Later, we left for the capital.  If you ask most people what the capital of Estonia is, they would probably say, "What is Estonia?"  There is a reason for this.  Tallinn, and the rest of Estonia, are incredibly dull.  We walked around Tallinn's old town, which looked similar to Riga's old town, but was definitely not as cool.  Riga is so warm and inviting.  Tallinn felt like just the bare bones of Old Riga without the character.  After a bit of walking around, we started to get hungry.  Our plan was that I would pay for their dinner as a thank you for everything they did for me all month.  So we looked at menus as we passed by restaurants, but couldn't find anything where a meal was less than €20, which is almost $30!  Most of the time, when you are in a capital city you can find a pretty wide variety of restaurants and prices, but there actually wasn't anything!  It was crazy!  So, after awhile, we decided to leave Tallinn's center and find something in the outskirts.  So we drove, and drove, and after awhile Ruta said, "Has anyone seen anything that isn't McDonalds?"  So, in the center there was only super expensive things and in the rest of Estonia there were only burger places.  After we came to the conclusion that Estonians don't eat, we decided to find some food in Salacgrīva, which is the town that Positivus took place in and is in the very north of Latvia.  Once we finally arrived in Salacgrīva, we found a reasonable restaurant and sat down, when we found out that the kitchen was closed.  What a disaster - it was my last day and I literally couldn't take them out.  At this point, any restaurant would be closed so we went to a gas station and I paid for their gas station dinner.  We laughed about it though, and it makes for a good story.  

Thursday was the day that I was leaving.  It was so sad.  I went to Brigita's house for a bit so she could give me some gifts to give to some family members and to say goodbye.  When I got back home, I started packing, and started freaking out.  There was no way all my stuff was going to fit in my suitcase, and even if it did, there was no way it would be under the weight limit.  After I tried to fit it all and failed, Liene stepped in and started moving everything around and rearranging everything.  Somehow, she got everything to fit.  We weighed my suitcase and, of course, it was too heavy.  So we moved some things to my carry-on and actually got my suitcase to be just about to the weight limit.  Ruta took me to the airport and my suitcase ended up weighing 22.6 kilos, when the limit was 23 kilos.  I was so lucky.  Later that day I arrived in Amsterdam and easily found my way to the Amsterdam's center without any problems.

My hotel in Amsterdam was awesome, because so many aspects of it were so funny.  When I arrived at Hotel Nadia, I opened the door to an unbelievably steep staircase.  With my sprained ankle, I was so afraid I was going to fall down these stairs, but I surprisingly never did!  Once I got up the crazy stairs, I reached the reception desk.  The guy told me about the hotel and where my room was and everything and I asked him if there was Wi-Fi at the hotel.  He said, "yes, I need to charge your card."  I said, "oh, well how much is it?" and he replied "100 euro." 
Aghast, I replied, "What?? You have to be lying to me."
"No, it is 100 euro."
"For Wi-Fi???"
"No! For your room!"
He laughed so hard at the idea that I thought he was charging €100 for Wi-Fi and he instantly became my Amsterdam buddy.  We chatted for a bit and he told me where I could find good food and such and then I headed to bring my stuff to my room.  When I got to my door, it only opened about a foot, because there was a desk in the way of the door!  I squeezed through the door to find an incredibly cramped room.  I don't think I have ever been so glad that I don't have claustrophobia, because this room was so tiny.  The bathroom was the same, but it was only me and it was only for one night so it was just fine.  I also had a balcony overlooking a canal, which was pretty cool.  After leaving my things at the hotel, I left to explore Amsterdam.  I walked around for a few hours, checking out shops and taking pictures.  At one point, I was taking a picture and a guy came up to me and complimented my camera.  I thanked him and then he kept talking.  He told me about the Royal Palace that we were right next to and all the things I could see in Amsterdam in one night.  He asked me a few questions about my trip and where I was from.  I figured that as long as I was in a busy street and he was only talking to me it was okay to talk to him.  Then, however, he said, "Come on, let me show you around."  I laughed and said, "No way dude, I'm going this way now."  He tried to get me to go with him again but soon gave up.  Then, I went in search of some food.  Most places were closed, but I found a cafe with tables outside on a canal that looked good.  I had some decent food there and the waiters all seemed really sympathetic for me because I was alone.  I assured them that it was fine and I only had a one-night layover there.  They were nice though.  After dinner I kept walking around for awhile.  After walking for awhile, things started to get weird and I quickly realized that I had stumbled upon the Red Light District.  I saw what it was about and then soon left because it was getting dark and I didn't want to be there alone.  After a few hours of exploring, I headed back to my hotel and had a good night's sleep.

The next day was more of the same.  I woke up at 7 AM and headed down the hall to have some of the hotel's free breakfast.  It turned out that "free breakfast" meant bread and cheese, no toaster.  They didn't even have coffee, but luckily I had a coffee machine in my room.  After eating some bread, I went back to my room to sip coffee on my balcony, but sadly, it was raining.  By 8:30 AM I was ready to seize the day and luckily it had stopped raining.  After leaving the hotel, I went straight to the Anne Frank house, hoping to see where Anne Frank had lived and hidden when she was alive.  Unfortunately, the line was insanely long and I figured I didn't want to waste my one day in Amsterdam in line, so I moved on.  However, pretty much the whole city was closed until 10 AM, so I went to a coffee shop and got another coffee and sat in dome square for an hour and a half.  Friday in Amsterdam was not as exciting as Thursday.  I didn't really want to pay for the tram and wander too far from where I needed to be at 2, so I stayed around the same place I was in on Thursday night.  After spending awhile walking around, my ankle started to hurt, so I found another cafe where I could sit next to a canal and had some wine.  That was really nice.  At 2 PM, I took the airport shuttle back to the airport and got on the plane headed for Minneapolis.  The plane ride went smoothly, but I couldn't sleep at all again.  Customs was surprisingly easy and before I knew it, I was back home. 

My month in Europe seems like a dream now.  It feels like I never even left, and that makes me kind of sad.  I miss it a lot and am already thinking about when I will go back.  Just like last time, I definitely learned a few things. 

One of the biggest things I learned was who my true friends are and who is not a real friend.  I learned a lot about friendship and how to be a real friend.  I learned that I do have some really amazing friends and that I also have some really bad friends.  I think this was a really valuable thing to learn for me and I think it will help me with friendships in the future, both on my end and on theirs.  

I also learned that I have grown so much in the last two years since the last time I traveled abroad.  This time was so much easier - I knew how to solve problems and how to avoid problems.  I also feel like I have changed a lot since the last time I was in Europe.  I guess I am more responsible than I thought I was.  I also feel like I know myself so much better when I am away and out of my comfort zone.  I've learned so much about myself while being away. 

As well as learning things about myself, I have, of course, learned quite a bit of the Latvian language and culture.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty bad at speaking Latvian, but I'm a lot better than I was before, and that is improvement and I will take any improvement I can get.  I feel like I see Latvia in a new light now.  Some things are worse than I had previously thought, and some things are better.  

It was such an amazing trip.  I did so many things and I feel like it has made me a better person.