Day 2

Sunday, the day God created to rest. We denied His advice and went downtown to do some touristy thingies. We didn't completely ignore it though... I woke up around 10.45 :) We first went to the tourist office to get some more information on what is going on in this crazy town, but the poor guys ran out of information booklets. They said we could go to a bar or hotel to get such a booklet. So, don't blame us if we come home as drunks :) It was a good opportunity to revisit Double Coffee for a coke and something nice to eat. We then wanted to take the hop on, hop off bus to do some lazy sightseeing, but of course it turned into an active sightseeing. We were always running after the bloody bus because it didn't stick to its time schedule. I also partly take the blame because we were standing at the wrong place thanks to my wonderful map reading abilities. After 2 hours of running around, we finally managed to get on one of those 'wannabe a London double-decker bus' busses. We saw a great heap of the city: the old town, the parliament, the bowling, 4% of the entire 19% of parks, the Daugava river, the national theatre and opera, the circus... A lot of things I've seen already previously, but I did discover some newbies. I will discover all the city's secrets in no time!

We had dinner in the Bon Vivant, of course! It is a Belgian restaurant, which serves a lot of Belgian beers. This will definetely be the first place where I'll take my beloved boyfriend to when he comes to visit me here :) We even managed to get a 10% discount on our meal, because we were so kind to swap tables :) Apparently they needed our table for the big boss who was coming for a meal. Finally, we quickly visited one of the many shopping centres and bought a good book to read (i guess it would be appropriate for you to think 'duh' here) The weather was pretty okay, we only had rain when we sat in the tourist bus. Unfortunately I have my first cold :(

What have we learnt today:

• We can take Russian lessons in Riga. Sponsoring wanted... any volunteers?
• 19% of Riga's surface is covered with parks and only 17% with industry.
• Pardaugava, the region where our university is situated, means 'over the Daugava' or something like that at least :D
• 'Actipiens' is way cheaper over here! If you are wondering what my beautiful word means: piens = milk, so... actipiens = actimel. If you don't know what actimel is, please go visit your nearest supermarket as soon as possible!
• We can take the boat to Sweden from the port in Riga!
• We will weekly visit Double Coffee and a bar where they sell Belgian beer :D
• Saskia and I think alike... which is very good!
• Biting fingernails is a good thing: long nails aren't useful when using zippers! So, start biting!
• 'Au ciel il n'y a pas de bière, buvons la sur la terre' and 'wilt gij oud begraven zijn, drinkt bier in plaats van medicijn'

Yesterday we bought a bowl, a spoon and a glass at Stockmann, because we didn't have anything to eat and drink from. We then also decided to ritually demolish the bowl and glass with our lovely spoon when we leave Riga in December. Of course we will clean up our mess afterwards :D

Tomorrow we will check out at least 2 apartments. Hopefully one of them is okay! If not, we'll have to stay here longer. Luckily our neighboors seem very nice!

Ciao!