Ah, as much as I love life in Riga, it takes a trip away to refresh one's soul and to appreciate life outside of Riga. I decided to celebrate Christmas with my good friend Dāvid who is currently living in Brussels. Brussels is one of my favorite cities I've traveled to in the past year and I was so excited to return to the land of waffles, fries, chocolate and beer! It's a city to indulge in holiday cheer for sure.
A quick and easy RyanAir flight from Riga and I had arrived! Christmas Eve Day we spent cooking and baking- Davids and I were in charge of pīrāgi, rosols and piparkūkas (dough brought specially from Latvia- yes, we cheated and didn't make our own dough, but the rolling was all our work!) Dāvids roommate, Lāsma was the head of the kitchen, cooking up a delicious and lush Latvian meal of kotletes, karbonāde, pupiņas, zirnīši and a bacon cream sauce to top it all. We spent the evening eating, enjoying each others company! Santa even paid us a visit... hehe... we topped the night off by watching Home Alone- one of the best holiday movies out there!
While in Belgium, Davids and I had decided to take a few day trips. First trip was to Luxembourg. I had visited the peaceful and whimsical city while living in France and this time it was just as enchanting. Although the city was quite deserted, we filled it with joy and, by a stroke of luck, Peter and his mom were free to meet us as well! It was great to catch up, even for the short amount of time, with old friends.
The next day my goal was to take to the stores for some much needed shopping. Needed not so much, but I had been craving my favorite H&M and was happily surprised to see that Belgium also has Forever21! So I took to the hustle and bustle of post-Christmas shopping madness and came out with some great deals. Success.
After a day of intense shopping, David and I headed to Bruges. So quaint! Architecture that I hadn't seen before, heavily influenced by brick buildings. The canals were very nice and I could not believe the amount of horse carriages riding around town! Although very cold and windy that day, we braved the weather and took a general walking tour of the city, ate some fries and tried not to get too annoyed with the huge amounts of people trying to do the same...
The end of the trip had arrived and our last night in Brussels before heading back to Riga was spent at Celtica. This bar was suggested to me last year by my friend Christine, who had spent a semester abroad living in Brussels. Happy hour is from 1pm-midnight... and most delicious Belgian beers are at very reasonable prices! Even better that our friend Patricia had arrived from Portugal and was also on her way back to Riga. Cheers!
A quick and easy RyanAir flight from Riga and I had arrived! Christmas Eve Day we spent cooking and baking- Davids and I were in charge of pīrāgi, rosols and piparkūkas (dough brought specially from Latvia- yes, we cheated and didn't make our own dough, but the rolling was all our work!) Dāvids roommate, Lāsma was the head of the kitchen, cooking up a delicious and lush Latvian meal of kotletes, karbonāde, pupiņas, zirnīši and a bacon cream sauce to top it all. We spent the evening eating, enjoying each others company! Santa even paid us a visit... hehe... we topped the night off by watching Home Alone- one of the best holiday movies out there!
(The spread of delicious-ness!)
(Lāsma and I at the dinner table- incidentally we share the exact same birthday!)
(Christmas at the Palace!)
(Hey, Santa! Thanks for stopping by!)
While in Belgium, Davids and I had decided to take a few day trips. First trip was to Luxembourg. I had visited the peaceful and whimsical city while living in France and this time it was just as enchanting. Although the city was quite deserted, we filled it with joy and, by a stroke of luck, Peter and his mom were free to meet us as well! It was great to catch up, even for the short amount of time, with old friends.
(Peter and I overlooking "lower" Luxembourg)
The next day my goal was to take to the stores for some much needed shopping. Needed not so much, but I had been craving my favorite H&M and was happily surprised to see that Belgium also has Forever21! So I took to the hustle and bustle of post-Christmas shopping madness and came out with some great deals. Success.
After a day of intense shopping, David and I headed to Bruges. So quaint! Architecture that I hadn't seen before, heavily influenced by brick buildings. The canals were very nice and I could not believe the amount of horse carriages riding around town! Although very cold and windy that day, we braved the weather and took a general walking tour of the city, ate some fries and tried not to get too annoyed with the huge amounts of people trying to do the same...
(At the train station in Brugge!)
(Always have to stop for some hot wine!)
(Wall of beer!?! YES, PLEASE!)
The end of the trip had arrived and our last night in Brussels before heading back to Riga was spent at Celtica. This bar was suggested to me last year by my friend Christine, who had spent a semester abroad living in Brussels. Happy hour is from 1pm-midnight... and most delicious Belgian beers are at very reasonable prices! Even better that our friend Patricia had arrived from Portugal and was also on her way back to Riga. Cheers!
(Patricia and I outside of Celtica)
I too loved Brugge when I traveled there!! Keep living it up! got to love it.
ReplyDelete