see what else this lovely country has to offer. I've been to other towns in Latvia but have only really seen them from the insides of a bus or a conference room. I wanted to go exploring and exploring I did.
My Latvian friend took my boyfriend and I for a nice little road trip. We started in her seaside town, Jurmala, which is best known as the rich Russian summer vacation spot. From there we drove about 2 hours to Ventspils. Ventspils is another seaside town with an old castle, a port, and amazing playgrounds. We had a traditional Latvian meal of meat, potatoes, pickles, and beer (mostly just pickles and potatoes for me) in a castle restaurant lit mostly by candles. This is one of those towns where the restaurant that should be touristy is actually quite good. We then toured the castle, where the museum docent kept popping up out of nowhere to share new facts. Very sweet but a little creepy in an old castle.
From the castle we went to the seaside. It was a tad windy and cold so we mostly just went to all the playgrounds in eyesight before we got blown off the beach.
We then stopped at every other playground we drove past, left flowers at the graveyard where my friend's grandma was buried, saw an old synagogue that has since become a library, and then that was pretty much what the town had to offer! Yes it was small but goodness it was cute.
On the drive back we decided we had just enough time to make it to Kuldiga, the home of the widest waterfall in Europe. Definitely worth the stop. The waterfall is on the list of top things to see in Latvia and the town should be too because it was a cute one.
On the drive home, in addition to the gorgeous trees and wooden houses that, had I thought about what the houses in Latvia were going to look like, that is exactly what I would have pictured, we also saw another synagogue. Yep, we are everywhere.
It was really a perfect day and just the kind of Latvian adventure I'd been waiting for.
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