Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus!

That's the Latvian equivalent of Merry Christmas!  A fitting title for this entry, as I recently traveled to Riga, Latvia for another Airline Ambassador trip.  This was my second time to Latvia and my third trip on behalf of New Horizons For Children (www.newhorizonsforchildren.org).  This trip was being done in conjunction with their winter hosting program and I would be traveling with two Latvian chaperones (Kristine and Inga) and 30 children from Riga to Frankfurt to Chicago.  From Chicago, other flight attendant volunteers would be meeting up with us and taking the kids to their final destinations in cities like Denver, Raleigh/Durham, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

I opted to go a day early so I could do a little winter sightseeing in Riga.  The trip over was uneventful.  I was able to snag a business class seat to Frankfurt and even had the extra luck of having the seat next to me open, so I had plenty of room to spread out.

We arrived into Frankfurt on time and I made my way over to Air Baltic and checked in for my flight to Riga.  That flight was also wide open and I had a whole row to myself and slept most of the way.  I knew the weather was going to be cold, but I had no idea how much snow was on the ground until we started descending into Riga for landing.  Even looking at the pictures now makes me shiver.

Because Latvia is so far north, by 4:30, the sun was already starting to set.  I arrived at the hotel a little after 5pm and it was already dark.  I stayed at a hotel on the banks of the Daugava River and my room had a wonderful view across the river of Old Town Riga.

I watched a little television that night before turning in.  Sadly, the news was just breaking about the school shooting in Newtown, CT, as it was Friday morning back home.  We didn't know of the full scale of the tragedy at that time, and I remember hoping everyone would be ok, as I drifted off to sleep.  Only when I woke up the next morning did I learn of the full scale of the tragedy.

Of course I was glued to the television the next morning, but finally after several hours of watching the coverage, I decided I needed to turn off the television and head in to town.  There were several Christmas markets going on and I wanted to visit the Dome Cathedral since the last time I was in Riga, the other escort that was with me was bossy and wouldn't let me go because she said I had made her visit too many churches already.  It was only snowing lightly, but the wind was so strong, that it made the 9 degree weather feel much much colder. 

I could have taken a tram over the bridge, but by the time I would have got to the tram stop and waited, it was just easier to walk over the bridge.  I had layer upon layer of clothing and a wool coat and wool socks, so I thought I was prepared, but that wind was harsh.

I made my way into old town.  I had a general idea where the markets were, but I didn't know for sure so I just wandered around in the cold.

I was almost completely frozen by the time I discovered the markets, but I was rejuvenated by the Christmas spirit.  

And the four glasses of hot blackberry wine weren't too shabby either!

At noon, I walked over the the Dome Cathedral and purchased a seat  for their mid day Organ Recital.  Afterwards, I stayed on for a short Lutheran service in partially in English.

I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around old town and visiting a few of the other markets.  Here's a shot of two multi colored snow man who also encouraged recycling.

For the right price, one could ride a pony.

I stopped for a minute and listened to these wonderful musicians playing jazz music. They were really good, but for some reason they were on a quiet side street instead of a main street so they didn't get much traffic.  I gave them a few Lats and I felt sorry for them.

Of course I had to pay a visit to the "Cat House" again.  The story goes that a merchant was denied entry into an exclusive guild, so he constructed a building adjacent to the guild hall with a cat on the spire.  He had the cat turned so that it was mooning the hall.  Once he was finally accepted into the guild, he turned the cat around.

When I could take no more of the cold, I called it a day and made my way back over the river and to the warmth of my hotel.  I had an early night since I was going to need to be at the airport at 4:00am the next morning.  

All the kids and chaperones were wearing red shirts so they could be easily identifiable.  There was actually a larger group that was traveling on a nonstop flight later that day.  I was only traveling with thirty kids and two chaperones.  We got everyone checked in for our Lufthansa flight and made our way thru security easy enough.

I think most of the plane slept on the two hour flight from Riga.  We had a few hours in Frankfurt to make our connection.  My favorite child on the trip was little Jurijs (pronounced Yuris).  He's been to the states twice already and spoke a little bit of English.  The same family has hosted him each time and hopefully will be able to officially adopt him soon.

Trying to make the connection in Frankfurt was crazy.  They had two agents doing security questioning, so I had to pull my "ugly American" card and push us all to the front of the line.  I don't think the chaperones would have managed that.... the size of the Frankfurt airport had them shell shocked.  We finally made it thru all the lines and got to our gate.  The agents were kind enough to let us board first and the cabin crew couldn't have been nicer as they helped us get to our seats.  The kids were seated all over the place but we finally got everyone seated where they needed to be.

After the meal service, I spent about an hour filling out 33 customs forms, which was a nice change from the 87 customs and 87 immigration forms I had to fill out when I was traveling with the group from Ukraine last December!  We arrived in Chicago to a long immigration line. I asked for special assistance from the airport services folks, but they said they could not help me, so we queued up in line and waited our turn.  I managed to send a clandestine text to Cathy, another flight attendant and Airline Ambassador volunteer waiting for us outside the Customs Hall, and she got the Lufthansa folks to come to our rescue and get us thru the line, because now our first group of kids going to Denver and RDU were looking at a misconnection.  The Immigration Officer was totally unhelpful and accused me of being a human trafficker of children, even though I had all the documentation and appropriate paperwork.  A supervisor finally let us thru, but not before they sent us all to agricultural inspection!

Once outside Customs, we were met by the other Flight Attendant escorts and the one family that was hosting kids locally.  The flight attendants had prepared Christmas goody bags for the kids and we took care of the formalities of signing off on passports and verifying who was going with who, before everyone made their way to their next set of flights.

Miraculously, everyone made their connections (the first time that has happened in the three trips I have done for New Horizons) and I caught my flight home to Dallas with a few minutes to spare!

So now the kids are happily spending the holidays with their host families.  On January 13th, I will fly back to Chicago and we will all regroup and they will head back home.

Spanish Homecoming

So I was able to trade onto the four day Madrid layover at the beginning of the month.  The flight only operates 5 days a week during the low season, so we get a two day layover twice a week and I was lucky enough to get on to one.

Since you have the third day free, everyone usually plans a day trip somewhere.  Last year, I went to Avila with my friends Catherine, Mark and Beth.

This time, I decided I would take the bus to Salamanca, about three hours away, to spend the day sightseeing and also pay a visit to my "Familia Española".  In 1997, I was the recipient of a Rotary scholarship and got to study in Salamanca and I lived with a local family:  María Jesus, her husband José Manuel, and their children Alexis and Sofía.

The last time I visited with them was in 2000, when my father and I vacationed in Spain, so I hadn't seen them in 12 years.

I got to the city around 10am or so and was surprised at how incredibly cold it was.  Luckily I had bundled up with warm clothes.  My first stop was the Universidad de Salamanca and the Frey Luís de Leon statue.  It was in this courtyard that I took all my spanish classes so many years ago.  The University of Salamanca is actually one of the three oldest universities in the world and was founded in 1134.

This is the facade of the university.  It's designed in the plateresque style, which means the late Gothic and early Renaissance tradition (but who doesn't know that!?).  It took me about three months, but I finally found "la rana" or the frog.  There is a frog hidden on the facade and the legend has that when you find it, you will make great scores on your exams.

Can you see it now?

The seal of the University features Ferdinand and Isabel, who were big supporters of the school.  It was the schools leadership who actually heard Columbus' proposal to sail a new route to India that led to the discovery of America.

This was my favorite restaurant in the town, Gran Shanghai.  I know it was actually a Chinese restaurant, but I still loved it.  My spanish family were friends with the owners.  They are actually refugees from Viet Nam.

The New and Old Cathedral were unfortunately under renovations.  Their construction goes back to the 12th century.

During a renovation in 1992, one of the sculptor's added his signature but carving an astronaut into the facade..... although rumors have circulated for years that it dates back to the 1500's, which is inaccurate.

One of the most notable landmarks of the city is the Plaza Mayor, possibly the most famous plaza in the entire country and represents the heart of the city.  Construction of the plaza was completed in 1755.

The Convent of San Esteban was constructed in the late 1500's and completed in 1610 and was a settlement for Dominican nuns.

When I lived here, I never really appreciated all the history and beauty of this town.  I was more excited about being 20 and being able to legally drink.  This visit gave me a whole new appreciation for the town.

The highlight was a visit to my "Spanish family".  It was so good to see them again.  I think my Castellaño was still passable because we were able to talk easy enough.  My Spanish papa, José, is now the Chief of Police, and since he was in uniform, we can't post his picture on a public site, but here is a photo of me and my Spanish mama, Maria Jesus.  

She made a great lunch and we had a lovely afternoon catching up.  I brought Texas pralines for her and she had bought Polvorones, my favorite Spanish holiday candies!  It's like heaven in a cookie!

I caught the late afternoon bus and got back to Madrid that night.  On the way home the next day, I had the most horrible couple.... there was nothing I could do to make them happy, and the more they drank the meaner they got.  And of course, as we were serving the pre-landing snack, I spilled wine all over the wife!