worldwidepedrol.com > ‘Rigas Diena - My 9 months experience in Riga’ Sveiki! (Hi! In Latvian), my name is Pedro Luís and I´m the boy in this photo. I was born in 1981 in Portugal and I grew up in Lisbon. In October 2015, my companion at the time had the chance to work in Riga and I decided to join her and moved to the biggest city in Latvia. At the time, I decided to start a series of daily life chronicles called ‘Rigas Diena’ [in english it means ‘Days in Riga’], dedicated to the city but also the country that hosted us for 9 defiant months. In this ebook you will have the chance to discover this fantastic town through a foreigner´s eyes and read my impressions based on an experience that was a challenge from the very first minute. For a Lisboner, Riga was always this enigmatic city in a mysterious country: located ​ on the opposite side of Europe (in the Baltic states), with the reverse weather (aggressive and long winters) and with an unknown yet enigmatic culture to discover. Over 9 months I lived a series of episodes and events you are about to discover: from meeting new interesting people to miss my relatives and friends in Lisbon; from the desperation of being stuck at home for consecutive days to the bliss and excitement when I started to work in a local company. For those who already followed this adventure at worldwidepedrol.com, you will find a revision and new edition on most of the chronicles as well as an updated and more complete version of the Riga Guide, with my favorite suggestions of what you can find in the city. Enjoy this ebook and feel free to give me feedback to [email protected] worldwidepedrol.com > ‘Rigas Diena - My 9 months experience in Riga’ Riga, October 2015 ~June 2016 worldwidepedrol.com > ‘Rigas Diena - My 9 months experience in Riga’ Welcome to Riga (4th November 2015) I´m in a bar. The waiter answers simultaneously in latvian and russian languages. I recognize a group of german tourists. In a table, a french family discusses around a map. Tv is switched on to an american music channel. From time to time, my laptop is attacked by pop-ups in cyrillic. Outside, there are posters promoting something I don´t understand. Welcome to Riga! I just arrived in Latvia and its capital will be my home to discover the Baltic countries in the following months. For a world citizen, my new expat experience is more than welcome. Necessary, I would say! And Riga seemed to me the perfect destination: from here, I can easily discover Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, but also Finland, Russia, Bielorussia (I will try…) and Poland. Beautiful and quite mystical are my first impressions about Riga. Autumn brought charm and fits like a glove in the latvian capital: these days, a mist covers the Daugava river at dawn and both streets and parks are painted with yellow and auburn leaves. Night arrives early. As a matter of fact, days seem to shrink every day. I believe it´s due to the cold. And speaking about cold, please allow me to demystify something about people from Latvia: latvians are not cold, whenever I communicate with them I get a smile back and attention, I feel them very comprehensive, interested and empathic. To be honest, me and A. are pleasantly surprised and we are wondering if their behaviour will change when the days become darker. After some days in Riga, I discovered how latvians face the cold weather: walking with a coffee in their hands. In Portugal we have a similar tradition: every autumn worldwidepedrol.com > ‘Rigas Diena - My 9 months experience in Riga’ you can find in the streets locals selling roasted chestnuts. Different habits with the same purpose: keep the hands warm. In this bar I can´t find roasted chestnuts. But I will get a coffee. It´s cold outside and I still have a lot to discover in my new city. You´re more than welcome to come with me. Welcome to Riga! Thoughts in the Post Office (10th November) When you are in a new city, there are events that turn your status from a simple traveller to a local. You can notice it when you comment on the football results with the butcher, when you start to plan how to avoid the drunk of the street or even when you give a tip to someone you (want to) believe is lost. Well, this week me and A. turned officially to locals in Riga: we went to the post office! To be more precise, we walked from our home to the post office. Once in there, we took a number and waited to be called by one of the ladies. And during this time I realized something about myself: all my life I had a strong connection with post offices. I´m a curious person and, when I was younger, I had some penpals. And I loved it! I learned a lot about other cultures and ways of living. Furthermore, it helped me to develop my writing skills and deepen my (sparing) english. Back to the Krisjana Valdemara iela´s post office, I remember all the emotions about receiving and opening letters sent from all over the world. At that time, it seemed to me I was travelling to all those countries. So, I found myself concluding that a post office is like an airport. worldwidepedrol.com > ‘Rigas Diena - My 9 months experience in Riga’ Before judging my mental health follow the fact: a post office is the place to do the check-in of letters, some of which will fly everywhere in the world, right? It explains why I like so much post offices. Everytime I go there, I think about all the possible destinations I can take for my next journey. Discovering Latvia... step by step (17th November) To walk is, from my experience, the best way to discover a city! Last week, in our beloved Riga, I decided to take part of a ‘free walking tour’… but I didn´t: I failed the meeting point. This has reminded me of one of my favorite books ‘Traveler of the Century’. In this Andrés Neuman´s novel, a wanderer named Hans arrives in a fictional and mysterious german city called Wanderburg. Hans intends to leave the following day, but Wanderburg had a surprise for him: this labyrinthic city has a capricious geography and the streets take him, everyday, to different places. The meeting point of the ‘free walking tour’ was at 11am in St Peter´s Lutheran Church but, at that time, just like Hans, I went to the Dome Cathedral. ‘How is possible the tavern where I had lunch yesterday, changed today to the opposite side of the street? What about this road going down that, from night to day, became a hill?’, wonders Hans… worldwidepedrol.com > ‘Rigas Diena - My 9 months experience in Riga’ And I was wondering the same: I had the idea to reach the centenary gothic church by Zirgu iela, turning to the right once I saw a lavian flag I knew in a building of Šķūņu iela. Until that moment, I thought it would be a great method: Latvian flag is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful in the world! Nonetheless, its colours remind me of my team, Benfica, so whenever I pass a latvian flag I feel comfortable, in a mix of pride and safety. However, on that day, Riga was full of flags. It was November 11th, Lāčplēša Diena, a special day in Riga and one of the most significant days of latvian history: Lāčplēša marks the independence of the country, after the national army´s victory over the Bermont forces, back in 1919. The truth is, my method failed but (and this is the most important) I learned more about this country´s rich history. In the end, I discovered a bit more of Riga: I followed the locals and I took part in a local tradition. Together with hundreds of latvians, this day I lit a candle in the castle of Riga to honour all those who have fought for the country´s freedom. In portuguese we say, ‘there are errors coming for good’. That´s true, I failed the ‘free walking tour’ but I can do it some other day. Lāčplēša Diena is only once a year and I would feel worse if I had missed this event. I just realized how wrong I was: to walk is not the best way to discover a city; it became, in fact, the best way to discover a country: Latvia. worldwidepedrol.com > ‘Rigas Diena - My 9 months experience in Riga’ The Eternal Dance of the Frozen Ballerinas (24th November) – It´s snowing! It´s snowing! Come on PedroL, it´s snowing! – woke me up A. this Monday morning. I met my girlfriend in the kitchen and suddenly I felt like I was still dreaming: outside, snowflakes were harmoniously floating like ballerinas dancing. Staring at the window, me and A. were openmouthed looking at the street. – It looks like there was a pillow war between gods in the sky of Riga! – I said. It was so surreal, that my eyes blinked a dozen times trying to develop all those unusual images-in-movement for me. Probably I will sound like an alien, but the first time I saw snow I was 26 years old. (That´s true!) In Portugal, snow is common in the interior, a few days every year.