Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Latvia's Top 10 Moments!

The time has come my friends. It has been good. I have learned some things, I have seen a few things, and I have experienced a lot of new things.

Out of all the things learned, seen, and done while in Latvia however,....(drum roll please...), HERE IS THE TOP 10 "WHO GOES TO LATVIA?" MOMENTS! (I know you're all excited beyond measure).

Number 10 - Attempting to hitchhike my way to Estonia only to get stranded in the rain for 4 hours some 50 kilometers outside of Riga!
Number 9 - Swimming in the Baltic Sea! Who does that anyways?
Number 8 - Seeing the sun out until 11:30 PM! No joke, it's bizarre.
Number 7 - Seeing the sun rise at 3:00 AM. Ever more bizarre.
Number 6 - Watching old guys play chess in the park.

Seriously, this was hilarious. The funniest part happens right after 0:12 and it was so funny!
Number 5 - Wandering around Riga aimlessly for hours on end due to lack of anything better to do! I could not tell you how many hours there were, but there were A LOT.
Number 4 - Wandering around Riga for hours on end because I was lost! Yep, more than I can count.
Number 3 - Wearing a crown made with 4 pounds of oak leaves on my head!
Number 2 - Getting punched in the face!
And the number 1 moment from my Latvian adventure is...
Walking away with the ability to say, "I'VE GONE TO LATVIA!"

So there you have it, the highlights of my 3 month duration in Latvia. It's been fun. It's been great. But frankly, I came, did what I came to do, and now it's time to go home. But before I make it back to Utah, 3 weeks tooling around Europe will be a nice treat, like the juice and cookies they give you after donating blood.

So, for the curious, here is my tentative juice and cookie itinerary:

July 9-11: Berlin
12-13: Budapest
14: somewhere in the Hungarian countryside
15- 16: Slovenia
17 - 18: Venice
19 - 21: somewhere in Northern Italy
22: Zermatt, Switzerland (yes, I will behold the Matterhorn, the mecca of mountain peaks. I may even touch it)
23 - 25: Gimmelvald, a tiny Swiss village high in the Bernese Alps
26: Bern
27: Zürich
28: fly home out of Zürich

I've got the feeling this is going to be the best juice and cookies ever.

But you know, I do kind of feel like this whole experience has been a lot like giving blood. Does anybody really like to have a piece of stainless steel stuck into their arm and watch their own blood trickle down a tube into that bag? NO. But the reasons for giving blood every once in a while overcome the reasons not to, and we are compelled to give. And although we most likely will never see or meet the recipient of our blood, we know that those 15 minutes of awkward "almost pain" from having a needle jammed into our veins and having blood drain out of our bodies, will one day be of benefit.

I just hope, for my own sake, that these awkward 3 months in Latvia will also be of future - albeit unseen - benefit.

So for the last time from the capitol of the beautiful Baltic state of Latvia, goodbye. I'm gone!

1 comment:

ms-mclaws said...

I don't think you are home from Europe yet... but in case you are, I tagged you. What does that mean, you say?! Read my latest entry and it will all become clear :)