Avo and Kendra invited us over for breakfast before we all went to the embassy "back to school picnic" for the kids. The breakfast was amazing with delicious fruits, meats, pancakes, etc. Much appreciated of course and the kids enjoyed getting to know their new friends. Thomas is going into 7th grade, Savannah and Zara are both in 6th grade and Rhea is in 4th while Meliq is in 3rd grade and Misho is in Kindergarten. So their ages are fairly close.
I've never seen an apple like this before but Avo picked it off one of the local neighborhood trees. More mushy than I like, but so colorful inside!
After breakfast, we took a taxi over to the embassy for the picnic (we didn't need much to eat after our wonderful breakfast!).
The picnic was awesome timing with our arrival. It got us out of the house and mingling with our new post colleagues and friends. The kids blended right in running around and contributing to the chaos. :) We started learning right away about the unpredictable weather of Latvia as it started out sunny, changed to rain for 5 minutes, and ended up sunny again.
After the activity, the kids went back to Kendra's house while Avo took Briant and me into Riga to get a feel for the city. It was beautiful, and we love the river Daugava that runs along the city. It comes from Russia through Belarus and Latvia, into the Gulf of Riga. The skyline of the city with its old church towers and spires give the city a unique character.
At first when I saw the gas prices, I got excited. Then I learned that the cost is per liter! :( Not as cheap as the states right now.
Avo then took us to the Central Market. There's an outdoor market that surrounds an indoor market inside old World War II Zeppelin airplane hangers. We love the history here and that they use these buildings for every day grocery shopping. There are four of them--one for meats, one for fish, another for cheeses/dairy, and another for everything else like produce, nuts, flours, sweets, etc. They're full of individual vendors, selling basically the same thing but with variation still.
It was helpful to have Avo take us because he explained that the outdoor fruits and produce was cheaper than inside and even from different countries, and that depending on the country, the size, flavor/sweetness and price could vary.
I was shocked at the price because it was per kilo which is about 2 pounds, so we could get huge things of blueberries for $2.25 a pound. Much cheaper than even Costco!
We got back in the car and drove down some of the little streets in the city. They're usually closed to cars except for deliveries, etc. Briant and I were thrilled with the charming little city. So clean and charming in the architecture, colors, vintage-ness, etc. Quite a bit different from Angola!
We finished up our little tour with Avo and ran to an actual grocery store to pick up meats and prepackaged things like pasta, breads, etc. The Zeppelin hangers were a little overwhelming with the selection, but we did buy a bunch of awesome produce! We ran back to the house, visited a little more, and then Avo offered to drive us home instead of sending us home in a taxi. He turned around and laughed when he saw my girls asleep on me, not five minutes after we got in the car! The jetlag/lack of sleep while traveling was setting in. ;) A great first day in Latvia with new friends and surroundings.
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