Day 9: You never know what tomorrow will bring!

Yesterday I was meant to go to the athletics stadium (called J. Dalins Stadi in Latvian) but instead I went to film to hot air balloon take-off so I decided to visit it today while an international athletics competition was taking place. Fortunately, just as I texted a new friend I made from this week's event, she told me that she was already planning on going and we could go together! It was meant to be... 

Posing with two beautiful Latvian folk dancers.

Being in an athletics stadium and watching all the sports began to take me back to when I was an athlete a few years back. When watching the high jumpers and the 200 metre sprinters (my track and field events), part of me was very nostalgic. It was one of those moments when you sit back and think about how much life has changed, in a good way of course! Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself that I am here in Latvia...

Latvian Olympic medallist Jelena Prokopcuka in the 5000 metres race.

After a day of getting to know my friend much better, eating a Latvian cake (which are wonderful by the way!) and watching the athletic events, I left my friend and met up with my boss who was babysitting and also at the stadium to have dinner in the city centre. We went for a lovely walk through the forest and along Gauja River. When it is hotter, we hope to have a tram ride up and down the river!

I think I'll stick to the tram!

In the old part of the town, where the castle ruins are, is a lovely italian-style pizza restaurant that my boss has been meaning to take me to. Today was my lucky day. I highly recommend it to anyone who comes to Valmiera. It is cheap, delicious and they even have an outdoor oven to cook the pizzas!

The pizzeria: I'll definitely be back...

I began talking to the foster mum of the children my boss was helping to look after and found out that she used to live and work in England for a while; the third person now. But it gets better... she asked me where abouts I'm from and gave her the same reply I give everyone: "Kind of near London". She then said "I used to work in Oxford" to which I replied "My university is in Oxford! That is amazing". I was so shocked. I was not expecting that at all... Wow.

Later on I met up with my friend who I was with earlier. She lives opposite my block of flats so she is affected by this hot water crisis as well so she kindly offered for me to come to her second house on the other side of town and have a shower there. The great thing about going there was that she is best friends and housemates with the Latvian student who will be assisting me and the other intern when making our next project! Such a small world! I was able to have a hot shower, tell my friend's friends (who were getting ready to go out) all about British accents and food and get to know her before having to work together.

A perfect day in so many ways.

The weather was absolutely perfect today: hot but not too hot, just right! I hope it is the same tomorrow as I aim to explore even more of Valmiera, first by visiting the tourist office to see what goodies they have there and just seeing where the sun takes me!