Day 17 - July 13, 2019: Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory No. 2

On Saturday morning, we woke up really early. It was around dix thirty when we left the house to take a four-hour long ride to Riga, the capital of Latvia. After driving for one and a half hours, we arrived at our first destination: the Hill of Crosses. Here, thousands, or even millions of crosses can be seen. Crosses that have been placed by people from all over the world. It was quite spectacular to see. However, we could not stay there for long because we still had to get to our final destination. Near the parking lot, an old woman was selling homemade pastries. As we had not eaten breakfast yet that day, we decided to buy one to share. However, we ended up barely eating a quarter of it because it did not taste as good as we thought it could be. 

On a better note, while we were driving, we started running out of really fast. Well, I don’t think that’s a very good note, but there was a shop next to the gas station, so we got “breakfast.” This was a coffee for dad, a microwaved pizza slice for me, and сушки for Isabella. Anyway, we kept on driving and got to Riga at around ten thirty/eleven. There, we walked into the hotel we were staying at. The room wasn’t ready yet, but they did let us park in the parking space under the hotel so our valuables wouldn’t be stolen. Funny story about that, actually: we asked about the parking in Russian and they told us they would find out. However, when the couple next to us asked us if there was parking in English, they were told that there where no more free parking spaces.

After successfully checking in and parking our car, we went for a walk around the city. We stopped by our favorite shops and stores, but soon got hungry and decided to go to a gourmet dining restaurant for lunch. We had gone to it a few years ago with mom, and returned this year with extremely high expectations. Luckily, they were met and beyond. I got fried fish, excellently cooked with multiple sauces, kale, and the most beautifully fried egg I have ever eaten. 

Next, we went to the Laima factory, a chocolate factory. They served us real free hot chocolate - the kind that is just dark chocolate that is melted and mixed with the slightest bit of milk. It was soooooo good! Eventually, though we had to leave to go back. However, we rented a small paddleboat for a while and rode around the river. It was really fun, albeit hard, work. 

After our adventure on the water, we went to our hotel to check in and see our room. Little did we know, it was a luxury suite - wee wee baguette, ze very fancy suite - including a sauna and free slippers! Then, we went to the bazaar and bought a whole box of fresh blueberries. It was exceptional! After walkinng around the city some more l, we decided to go to dinner in a pub. What surprised me was that it opened early and closed early- in the morning!!!!! It opened at around noon and closed at seven in the morning. Anyway, we had a really good dinner there. Isabella got meatballs, but didn’t enjoy them, so she and I switched meals. The meatballs, combined with her sauerkraut, were so good! After dinner, we walked around the city some more and went to our apartment, where we went to sleep, waiting for tomorrow’s fun day.