Living Latvia Outloud

For those of you who may have missed my blogging....without actually missing me.......here is my final post.

We are home. Have been for 2 weeks.

Am I happy to be home?

Answer: It's a process to process through the fantastic journey that we had the absolute privilege of experiencing.

No one can slap me for that kind of an answer, right? LOL!

It was strange to walk in the front door of our house and feel nothing. Personally, I think we left too soon. But, that was just our circumstance. Someone made the comment to us before we left Latvia that it's better to leave while the experience of being there is still good. I disagree. I would rather leave at the point where there is nothing left to miss or regret about leaving.

One thing that I know for sure, apart from any additional desires I may have, I am humbled and excited to have experienced a period of time that I know for certain was in God's perfect will for us for this specific time. I had never before experienced any decision in life with 100% certainty, but I did the moment the Lord planted this idea of our summer into my mind back in March. I now know what it looks like, feels like, and thinks like. Certainty....from God.

I don't know what it means for our future specifically, except to keep my mind and eyes open for unexpected opportunities, because the world is incredibly large and worth exploring. Worth opening up my life, shattering my tunnel vision, and embracing new adventures, new places....different places, and different people.

It's so good to get away!

I do have the hope and belief that this was not just a "trip of a lifetime", rather an opportunity for us to get our feet wet for future possibilities.

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Now for the documentation of our days.

To understand why I am posting one month later from my last post, here are my reasons:

1. I'm lazy

2. Tallinn, leaving Riga, swarming London, gawking over Cambridge, returning home, and being without internet for 10 days.

I am justified! So now let's get to it!

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Let's go back to Tallinn, Estonia!

What an amazing village town! Absolutely loved this enchanting, medieval, Nordic Old Town. So many of the building in the Old City were stucco, which is what made it so unusual. I thought it had a lot of Spanish-like appeal (regarding the architecture).

And the doorways!

This would be a "Doorway Photographers" dream town to document. I was deeply enchanted by the display of colorful and beautiful doorway entries.

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Last week in Latvia

A surprise from nature.

Salaspils, Latvia

The floored forest.

A storm blew through and delivered tornado-like activity. Probably straight line wind damage.

Jekabs, Christian, and I had the RARE opportunity to climb the tower of Dome Cathedral! Jekabs' uncle, Elijs (the pastor of the cathedral), gave us this wonderful tour! It doesn't happen often. It was one of the most exhilarating things I have experienced. Old, dark, historical, layers of enchanting staircases, sweaty hot, stories of fire burning inside the tower from centuries past, and a very raw view from the top.

I was weak in the knees.

This was special.

Pictures around Dome Cathedral

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England
Let's Head to Cambridge University!

Peteris and Naomi joined us for an afternoon trip to Cambridge. What a sophisticated university, dating back to 1209, when it was founded. Impressive would be the word to describe it.