Goodbye Latvija . . Hello Kuwait

My goodness where did the summer go?!  After our trip to Spain and Portugal it seemed like it never stopped.  Since my last post so much has happened.

Pecis flew back to America, I was glad that he could come out for yet another summer of fun in Latvija.

Kaija decided that it wasn't going to be possible to bring her cat back with her over the summer and decided to come back during the winter time to collect him and with hope Latvian citizenship.  Finally discussion is really underway of allowing dual citizenship.  I was lucky, when Latvija first regained independence there was a short time span where people could gain citizenship without giving up another one, IE American citizenship in my case.  So Kaija made her trek home minus the cat but with everything else.  I am pretty excited about all of what she has accomplished this year.  But sadly her cat did not survive.  The day after she left, he decided that enough was enough and passed away among the bushes.  It was a sad moment and very unfortunate.  But at least he was in my yard and not in the airplane.

After that the summer continued to become calmer and quieter.  I went to dinner at a few colleagues houses and started to say the "see you next summers" to all of them.

I got news of a distant relatives mother who passed away too.  So being the only Aivars in Latvija I went and represented the entire family.  Open caskets are not my favorite thing, but I was glad that I went as was the family.

I applied to a masters program.  Its a one year intense program.  Masters of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology.  I am pretty excited about it.  It has been in the plans for a long time now and since I am living in Kuwait with not much else to do, I will work my little tail feathers off this year and get a masters degree.

Went to a Lady Gaga concert in Latvija.  Yup she made the trip up north and was stopping in each of the Baltic states if i remember correctly.  Goodness does that girl put on a good show.  Sadly a lot of people in Latvia are far more taller than I am and there for I didn't see much, but a small group of Latvian men pushed me forward to try and get me to a better spot.  In the end I did end up seeing the show a little better.  We were quite far back, but that didn't matter cause the music was great and I even got some good videos and pictures.  Will have to upload those at some point.

Finally My cat and I made the journey back to Kuwait.  The flight was pretty uneventful.  3 hours from Latvija to Istanbul and then another 3 hours  to Kuwait.  Its weird being back but at the same time it will be good to get back into a routine.  The only downer is is that my SIM card for Kuwait doesn't seem to want to work, so I will have to see what I can do about that.  Otherwise nothing much has changed here.  A few more paved roads and building continues to happen all around our apartments.

And I think that is really all that has happened

Back home in Latvija

Sometimes when flight leaves as late as 1:00am its a good thing because you can get on the plane and just fall asleep.  Well that was not the case for me this time.  Not sure why but I did a little bit of reading, played a few games, slept for maybe 1 hour.  Knowing that we were getting in at 6:00am i figured that I would just sleep at home when we get there.

Got home, unpacked a little, attacked the cats with love, and settled down to sleep.  But once again I could not get to sleep, so I continued to unpack and catch up on missed e mails.  Since we had turned off the water heater while gone we had to wait quite a while for the water to heat up again.

It was quite the long day, my mid afternoon I grabbed my laptop, started to watch Hell's kitchen and finally was able to catch a few zzz's.  Being home really does feel good.  This was a hard day though.  at 9:30 I had had enough and gave in.

Over all, I still love Spain and Barcelona is still my top favorite city.  Still not sure what it is that draws me to the city, maybe its the constant movement of people, the internationality,  the beautiful architecture.  I don't know but I advise all of you to get on a plane at some point and visit this pretty city.

Day 17: Madrid

Well rested we packed up our suitcases one final time.  We decided that the smartest part would be to bring them to the train station to lock them up in a locker for the day.  The hostel was going to charge us per bag to be held for the day (like I said, not recommending this place to friends).  From the train station we would be able to catch a quick train to the airport for our 1:00am fight.

We made our way back to the center to find some breakfast and to continue wandering around and checking out the last few things that we wanted to see.  We wandered through a few stores because we had time for it and finally made our way to some tourist attractions and finally making our way to a park were we decided to relax for a bit and enjoy one last sangria.  Gosh sangria is amazing!  Just having a laid back day to wander where we wanted to and to not be rushed was nice. We had a few key places we wanted to see but nothing too big.  After all it was Monday and a lot of places are closed on Mondays.  But thats ok.  By the end of the day we had made it to a small park where there was a statue of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote.  There we spotted an advertisement for Indian food that seemed to fit our price range possibly and we were in the area.  Though upon arriving there it was still closed, but we were hopeful and thought that maybe they would be open for 8.  So we found a restaurant in the area, the same one we had found in Algeciras where we liked the drinks, and had a drink there.  Well upon returning to the restaurant we finally noticed that on their door they too were closed for Monday.  Oh well!  So we wandered back to the touristy area and finally settled for an all you can eat buffet that was decent.  By this time we were now fed and ready to just make our way to the airport.

Another great trip comes to the end.

Day 16 Back to Madrid

This morning we had our final train trip for this adventure. I can't believe how fast it all has come to the end.

We left Algeciras early in the morning, this time have a direct train back to Madrid.  It is clear that we are becoming tired and just about ready to be home again in Latvia.

During this train trip I finished the book "House Rules"  by Jodie Picoult.  Even though its the summer I sill find my self reading books based on children.  This one was about a child who has asbergers who had connections to a murder that had happened in the story.  In the end a really great book, a simple read but good.  I tend to like simple books for the summer because of all the intense reading that I do over the school year.

Upon arriving in Madrid we had figured out about where our hostel was and started to head in that direction.  Based on the address that we were sent in the confirmation e mail we had found on the map the area and which metro stop to get out at.  Well after wandering around the area, we realized that it was not the right address and decided to head to a Mc Donald's to get something to eat and to use their internet.  After re-energizing ourselves and seeing that their address is different on their website, we once again headed out to find where the hostel really is located.  I am not even going to tell you how this place is called because its not worth the stay.  The people there aren't the most friendliest, plus their english was non existent.  But the location was good and the room was fine for the one night we were going to stay in Madrid.

After getting settled we decided to head out to do a little shopping.  Spain has this really cool colorful clothing line called "Desigual".  Not sure if I have told you about them but the clothes are amazing, expensive, but fun.  They were having these pretty amazing sales so it was hard to hold back and not get something.  After that we continued to look for our small tourist items that we collect.

Way back at the beginning of the trip we had found a bar that we liked, so we decided to return there for dinner, because they also had the beloved paella that we wanted to have.  After being stuffed to the gills we decided to walk off all the food for just a bit more.  We wandered through one area that was clearly the area you might go to pick up a hooker.  Quickly leaving that area we found a nice pedestrian zone to walk along.  We found a few places to return to tomorrow.

Tomorrow is our final day here in Madrid and in Spain.  How time really does fly when your having fun.

Day 15: Algeciras y Gibraltar

Today we planned to go to Gibraltar.  I honestly didn't know much about it other than that there were monkeys and it was a really big rock.  We first had to take a public bus to La Linea from where we could walk into Gibraltar.  The 30 minute bus ride was nice because we got to see the local area.  Still not much there which makes me think what do people do here?  There are a lot of apartment buildings but it's can't be that they are all shop owner or having something to with tourism. Then I remembered this is a port area so many of them must work there, either loading or unloading or anything else related to port work. We had to go through past port control to get into Gibraltar.  It was neat being able to walk into a country.  Once we got into Gibraltar we stopped to check out a map of where to go first and try to decided what we would do.  There we met a man who offered us a tour of pretty much everything for a good price.  Seeing all the great distances between the different points of interest, I knew that we would not be able to get to them all on foot.  So we signed up for the tour which worked out nice because it was the three of us and a family of 4 and that was it. He was great he drove us around in a 8 passenger van and gave us some fun facts about the country.  Our first stop was a look out point at the Pillars of Hercules.  It was a clear day so we could seed all the way across to Africa.  Next he led us farther up to caves where there were stalactites and stalagmites.  This was really cool to see because I had never been in a cave like this, also this cave had an area for concerts which I thought was really cool and would be a fun place to see a play or listen to a concert of some sort.  Out side of the caves there were monkeys just wandering around and trying to get you to feed them.  Wile Kaija and I were taking pictures of this one monkey he decided to crawl up the fence and then he jumped onto her shoulders.  He just hung out on her should as if it was something he did every day.  He also did the standard monkey move of picking through her hair.  After capturing a few good pictures we coaxed him to get off. Our next stop was on top of the rock were there were even more monkeys.  Here our guide coaxed a monkey into getting onto our shoulders for nice a nice photo opportunity.  After hanging out with the monkeys for a bit we were ready for our next stop which were the army caves.  In these caves is where the military. Was stationed and from where they shot their canons.  This was also pretty neat to see how it was organized and how well it had preserved itself. From there we returned back to the town to the main pedestrian street and the tour was over.  I thought it was a great tour, the guide was funny and interesting and gave us enough time to see everything.  We continued to explore the city on our own.  We found some lunch and then just warned along the pedestrian street to find our touristy souvenirs.  As we were getting tired the city too was closing down for the mid day siesta.  So at this point we decided to head back to outside of the port to our hostel to relax. In the evening we went out to wander around just to see a little more about Algeciras.  We found some place to eat dinner, found some breakfast and eventually made our way once again back to the hostel to play cards and drink some wine.  A cute small town.  But for all the people who do go there to get to Morocco or Gibraltar they don't seem to do well with tourists.  Aside from our hostel owner, he was quite nice.  Tomorrow we return to Madrid for our final days in Spain.  

Day 14: Algeciras

Another early start to the day.  Today we are heading a little north only to go back down south to Algeciras.  We leave the hostel just before 7 to get to the train station.  Unsure of how long it will take to get there and what time the bus would come, it was better to head out earlier than later.  We arrived at the train station with lots of time to spare which is fine.  It's about 2 hours till our first transfer point, Cordoba.  At that point we transferred trains to get on a 3 hour train ride to Algeciras. On travel days we end up not doing a lot because the trip to begin with is long usually.  Upon arriving in Algeciras we make around the small town to find our hostel.  They have sent us directions but the English isn't that great and some of the directions are a bit hard to read but we made it there with out getting too lost.  Thankfully the town has posted maps in strategic places which were very helpful.  None of the apps that I have about Spain say much about this town.  We are just using it as a place to stay so that we can see Gibraltar.  So with that in mind the town is cute but very empty. After we dropped of our things we decided to go out and wander around a bit. Forgetting that it was mid afternoon, we quickly noticed that mostly everything was closed, so we spotted where the food store was and were potential restaurants for dinner are and headed back to the hostel to relax. After catching up on much needed zzz's. We once again head out to the food store first to get some snacks and some drinks.  Then we wandered around until we found a tapas place that the hostel recommended.  We weren't very hungry so we first had something to drink.  A nice refreshing drink called "tinto verano". It's pretty much. Spritzer with wine.  Very low alcohol content but very tasty.  Later on we flagged down the waitress and tried to order something to eat.  We chose off of their chalk board menus what we thought we might like and in the end did. We finished off the evening by once again hanging out on the roof top terrace drinking wine and snacking on a few things.  Tomorrow we are head to Gibraltar.

Day 13: Sevilla

Today is our final day in Sevilla.  I had read about a palace that was apparently according to the app I have a "must see".  So convincing Kaija and Pecis we all made that our point of interest for this mornings walk. The Real Alcazar was once also a fortress also.  Here you could see beautifully tiled ceilings and walls along with very pretty gardens.  We spent once again quite a while just wandering from room to room.  Some parts of this palace are still used when Spanish royals come to visit. Next it was time to buckle down and find the few touristy things that we wanted to purchase.  For as long as I can remember I have always collected these little spoons.  They end up being nice souvenirs and last Christmas my father gifted me a case so that I could display all of them.  Since moving to Latvia and through all the trips I have been on since then, I have also begun to collect magnets.  These I bring with me and make a great decoration and reminder of all the places I have been.  I have. Scratch off world map that shows me just how little of the world I have been but these magnets make me feel as if I have actually seen quite a bit.  Magnets are easy to find, they are pretty standard for every tourist shop.  While the spoons you can also find in most tourist shops, finding a nice and not so tacky one some times proves to be difficult.  After all I don't just want a spoon, I want a spoon that is pretty and I want to look back on.  With a magnet found I decided to leave finding a spoon for later as we wander around in the evening. We decided to return to our found restaurant and see if we could at least have lunch there.  To our luck that is just how it worked out.  On Thierry menu we had read that for a nice price of 5.95euro you could get a basket of bread, something to drink, a first course and then a second course.  The first course was great, a nice and small burrito with. Few fries.  Hoping the the second course would be of similar size we were excited about our restaurant choice.  though before finishing off our small burritos the second course was upon us and it as a full one!  I had ordered a chicken burger and it was HUGE.  It for sure turned out to be a great price for all the food that we got. And because it was so cheap I didn't feel too bad about not finishing the entire burger. Stuffed to the gills we headed back to our room to rest and relax again.  Sevilla doesn't have that much to see and we had felt that we had seen pretty much all that there was to see.  Until we started to write post cards and realized that we all had a post card of a place that we had not seen.  With time on our side we still had the evening to find this place and according to the map it wasn't that far away.  As we walked in the direction of Our destination we found ourselves among a rally.  One that we could only tell had to do with the economic crisis and the lowering of wages.  We observed for a little and then decided to just continue on our way (by now I had also found my spoon).  We our way into the Parque de Maria Luisa to the Plaza de Espana. This semi circle buidling was built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929.  Now it is a place you can wander around for free.  We wandered around here for a bit and then decided since we were still quite full from lunch that we would just pick up a few snacks from the food store and sit once again on the roof enjoying the slightly cooler air and each others company.  Tomorrow we are off to Algeciras to see the Rock of Gibraltar and to continue seeing more of the southern parts of Spain.