RISEBA Riga, Latvia

It's the 22nd of December and as I write this I'm back at my parents' house on Lake Constance and it's wet, cold and grey outside. In my mind, however, I'm still 1,600 kilometres north-east in the Latvian winter wonderland. So welcome to the seventh digital postcard ( not really ) from Riga!

Although we've been blessed with a beautiful snowy landscape in Riga and Lapland over the past few weeks, the Christmas spirit hasn't quite arrived yet. I'm celebrating Christmas and New Year's Eve at home with my family and friends, as is pretty much everyone in my Erasmus group in Riga. Only a handful of people have stayed on and are celebrating Latvian Christmas. The last few weeks have been very busy and between mulled wine, university and the first goodbyes, the Christmas spirit has been a little lacking.

However, Riga has a lot to offer in terms of Christmas. For centuries, Estonians and Latvians have fought over who invented the Christmas tree. Accordingly, they go all out when it comes to Christmas lights and Christmas markets.In Riga, there are several Christmas markets that last until mid-January. In my opinion, the most beautiful is the one by the Dome Cathedral. Here you can find the typical huts and fill your belly with everything from mulled wine to langosh, crêpes and all kinds of dishes with sauerkraut. There is also a DJ on Fridays and a Latvian folk band on Saturdays. German Christmas markets could learn a thing or two from this. But the best thing is that there is about half a metre of snow all around, and you really get the feeling of winter and Christmas. 

Apart from the Christmas market, we also had our own little Christmas party with friends and baked chocolate chip cookies and vanilla crescents, which looked more bad than good, but were very tasty!

However, this was not only a Christmas party, but a farewell party as well. Most of the students, especially the Masters students, have already finished their semester abroad before Christmas and won't be coming back after the holidays. As a result, the last week in particular was more sentimental than festive, and the chat messages were more about last minute meetings and packing chaos.

But the upside is that even though it's sad to say goodbye every time, and you can't help but notice that you won't be meeting for coffee every other day, there are still plenty of places to visit in Germany to see everyone again. 

So with that: Happy Easter, er, Christmas, or as they say in Latvia: "Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus"!