HIKING TRIP & CO :)

Hello everybody! 🙂

Hope you enjoyed my last post about the things i will for sure miss from beautiful Latvia! I had a lot of fun while i was writing it and even got a bit emotional, because now the end is so near…

Today I want to write about another topic: Free time activities of my last free days, weekends. So, as you know, the summer finally arrived in Latvia and that gives huge possibilities to do amazing things outside in the nature. Soooooo….

Last week we went with the children from Social Centre in the forest near Tukums to collect blueberries and wild strawberries. I really enjoyed it a lot, because all of them were so motivated to pick up as much as possible. I was amazed by the diversity of the fruits in the woods. Blueberries everywhere!

 

 

And then last weekend I went together with my mentor to Roja, to the North-Eastern part of Latvia on a „Fisherman-Celebration“. I always wanted to visit Roja, but people told me that it’s a city for visiting in summer and now I really understand why. You can find a huge harbour and a beautiful beach with nice, clear sand. So, we went there on Saturday and stayed until Sunday evening. I enjoyed this trip so much, because it actually included everything: An awesome festival at the beach with nice people and good music, swimming in the Baltic Sea, sleeping in a tent together with my lovely mentor, visiting Roja’s museum and finding wild horses and cows in Engure’s National Park. I also bought fresh fish and enjoyed it a lot! 😉

 

 

So, things changed a lot during the months. Zsofi left last Monday and it’s crazy how fast time is flying. We were all very emotional talking about this topic, because we enjoyed our time a lot here and noticed that we got really good friends. So Zsofi, if you are reading this: THE LATVIAN FLAT IS MISSING YOU A LOT HERE IN TUKUMS! TAKE CARE AND ENJOY YOUR TIME WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!  🙂 🙂 🙂

Even if I am really really sad about going back to Germany, for sure I am excited to get back in my life, where everybody speaks my language and where I will finish my studies. How will people react about me, when they hear my stories?

 

Aaaaaaaand now about our amazing hiking trip,which was from Wednesday to Friday.

So, Zsofi and me went with the Social Centre and its kids on a hiking trip in the western part of Latvia, from Užava to Akmeņraga bāka. We were walking about 60 km next to the amazing Baltic Sea, enjoying the beautiful view and the latvian nature surrounding us. No phones, just communication with your mouth! I enjoyed it a lot, even if it was hard sometimes with the children. I am sure that everybody of us enjoyed the trip a lot! 🙂

What I will really miss from Latvia !

Soooooooo… Hello again! 🙂

Hope you are all doing fine!

The fact that my EVS is nearly over now, makes me really really sad. I learned a lot and spend maybe the best time of my life here! I am very thankful for everything and thought about the next topic for my blog. So, I decided to make a list of 20 things I will totally miss from Latvia when I arrived home in Germany.

 

TWENTY THINGS I WILL MISS FROM LATVIA

1. Nature – I will for sure miss these huge forests, the magical atmosphere and the lakes, where you can go swimming in the summer. For me it’s very special and I appreciate the connection of people and the nature a lot! Aswell, here the people respect the nature and are very environmentally friendly! This is awesome!

2. Culture and Traditions – Jāņi, Name Days, traditional dances! Whatever, I am enjoying these celebrations so much and I will for sure miss it in Germany!

3. Speaking latvian – I learned so fast and my biggest fear is to forget everything when I will be back, so I give my best to go on with this language. Even if I cannot speak in my daily life with other people.

4. Garlic bread – So yah, garlic bread is everywhere! But it is amazing and super tasty!

5. The beautiful sky – I am so impressed by the amazing sky and its stars at night. Sometimes I just sit outside and stare at them. Latvia’s population is very small, so there is not that much light at night and you can see impressing things at night when you watch the sky! I will miss it so much!

6. All of the people I met here – My mentor, my flatmates, my bosses, local people, other volunteers! Just everybody who crossed my way during my time here! There is nothing more important than meeting new people and connect with them!

7. My work with the children – I have worked with the children from the Centre for half a year now and built up a very good connection. I will miss them for sure, because they are part of my daily life here and make me happy everyday!

8. Riga – For me Riga is a very special capital city. I love the atmosphere and how it’s built up with the Old and New Town. You can discover every day something new and right now it’s some kind of meeting point for everybody, because it’s totally in the centre of the country. I love Riga!

9. Easy possibilities to travel – Even if you just have a small budget, you can travel very cheap and fast around Latvia and the neighbour countries. It opened my mind about travels a lot and I am very happy about it! I will miss it a lot, but I got a huge motivation for my future and that’s why I am very very thankful for coming here!

10. Empty streets – Sounds crazy, but yah! In Germany I normally don’t like driving the car because it takes too much time. There is soooo much traffic and just simply too many cars. But here, even if I didn’t drive that often on my own, it’s fantastic!

11. The weather – To be honest: I sometimes turned crazy with this weather here in Latvia! When I arrvied there were tons of snow everywhere, then it was hot, then it was raining all the time, then summer arrived and it was even hotter than in Germany. (32 degrees here, 16 degrees in Germany). I never knew what to wear, but in the end I will miss it because it’s just so special and unique! 😀

12. From tourist to local – This is one of the most important things for me! I turned within those 5 months to a person that is involved in the society, speaks (more or less) the language and can take care of myself in a foreign country. This feeling is amazing!

13.  Travelling – As I already told before, travelling is easy here. I love to travel alone, but also with friends and I did it a lot! I saw so many places, where I would never go in my life, if I wasn’t here. I discovered amazing cities and I will miss this feeling to be alive and free a lot!

14. Living in an international flat – Germany, France, Italy and Hungary together in one flat. Amazingggg! Even if I needed to challenge myself a couple of times and try to stay by myself, it is a unique feeling and I will miss it for sure, because for me it’s very very special.

15. Hitch hiking – When we talk about easy ways to travel, this is one of the biggest options you can have. This kind of transport is nearly impossible in Germany! If you are standing on the street, putting your thumb up and waiting for a person picking you up, you can wait for days. Here I tried it many times and everytime was so fast and easy. ONE OF MY BEST EXPERIENCES!

16. Everything is cheap – As I was talking before about cheap transport, I can connect this topic with nearly everything here. For me, it’s a huge difference from what I know from Germany. You can get good and fresh food for a cheap price!

17. Latvian hospitality – The ones who read my post about stereotypes will know that I was amazed by this from my first day here in Latvia. I already noticed when I went back for a visit to my home country, that this is completely different here and I appreciate it a lot! Latvians are an amazing folk and I will miss this kind of cultural heritage a loooot!

18. Flowers everywhere – I never received so many flowers in all my life, as I did here in just 5 months so far. Even if it’s just a small gesture, it makes a person happy and shows that someone thinks of you! I really love this kind of small things!

19. Rimi – Rimi is everywhere! And it makes you happy everytime you go out of it! 😀 When you have a Rimi in your city, you can call your city a big city! 😀 I will miss it!

20. Balzams – Even if there is pretty good beer here in Latvia, German beer is better! 😉 But I discovered this black currant drink and it’s pretty cool too! Something very new and special! To fulfill my list now, I will put it here! 😀

 

So, I really love Latvia much much more than expected! We have a really deep connection, how you can see on the following picture! 😀

Summer time in Latvia!

Sveiki cilvēki! 🙂

Last days were quite stressed, but really awesome! I guess it’s a good moment to evaluate the last weeks! 🙂

So, Wednesday was a very special day. Together with Saime and the Social Centre I went to an Open-Air-Stadium, where we celebrated a ceremony for Jāņi, which was last week and surrounds us wherever we went. For me, this celebration was something very unique because I got the feeling of the real latvian tradition and this is exactly what I wanted to reach in my last weeks here. So, together with the children from the Social Centre we danced and even with the people from the Disability Centre.

Jāņi ([jɑːɲi]) is a Latvian anniversary festival, which celebrates the summer solstice, the day when it has the shortest night and the longest day. Although the shortest night is usually on 21st or 22 June, the public holiday – Līgo Day and Jāņi Day is on 23rd and 24 June. The day before Jāņi was formerly known as Zāļu diena, which is now known as Līgo Day.

On Jāņi Eve people went to gather flowers, from which women made wreaths and put on their heads. Men’s wreaths are usually made of oak leaves. Līgo songs are associated with fertility and disaster prevention

• Wikipedia

 

From Thursday to Friday we had a communication and team building day in the Social Centre, including a sleepover party in the Centre.

We prepared some activities that helped the kids to solve problems in a non-violent way with a good language, without any bad words or agressive moves. These activities included orientation games around Tukums with different stations, where the children needed to fulfill different tasks, together, as a team. Afterwards we cooked together, danced, watched movies and finally slept (at least a bit) in the Centre.

Here you can see some photos of the day:

I loved the day with the kids, even if it was hard for a few moments, because these little monsters didn’t want to sleep! 😉 I got a better connection with the children, which is really helpful for my work and I guess for me it was even more special than for them! 😀 Great activity!

Aaaaand then Jāņi finally arrived! 🙂 I spend my night together with friends next to Melnezers and I was very happy about it, because for me it was so special to celebrate with local people. They can show you all the traditions and rituals, in which I was very interested. So we made fire, jumped over it, made our flower and oak crowns, made barbecue and even went swimming in the lake in the middle of the night. Then we finally watched the beautiful sunrise and went to sleep after a long but amazing night full of latvian magic! 🙂

 

So, summer is finally there and makes me very happy. Saime is closed in July, so my main working place is the Social Centre, which is very good, because we will have some nice activities for July and August. The next big one will be in three weeks. We will go on a hiking trip with the children, camping in the woods, next to the sea. I am so excited and happy to be part of it! 🙂

 

And last but not least I want to say THANK YOU again to our great latvian teacher, Ieva! We had our last lesson on the 21rst of June and she invited us to her home for cake and coffee!

Here you can see a photo and our happy and thankful faces for a very special person, that helped us a lot during our time here!

Liels paldies Ieva!