two backpacks and a diaper bag

Sunday, March 18th. Riga. When people ask me what my top three favorite places are, Riga is definitely one of them. There are so many reasons to why this is one of the best places to which I’ve traveled. The Old Town is so all-encompassing. From the medieval cobbled stones to the historical architecture to the amazing contemporary food and the buzzing nightlife. And with the Central Market, the Jewish District, Moscow District, and the Art Nouveau area, Riga seems to me to be an amalgamation of everything European. I’m so glad to be back here again and to enjoy this town with Sean and Arthur.

On Saturday, Arthur woke us up around 7. He had the best night so far. He slept from 9 to 2:30 and then again from 3 to 7. In the morning, we did our usual routine and left the house around 11.

We started with a walk to Riga Castle where the President of Latvia lives. It is not open for visitors so we only took pictures outside. Our Airbnb on Biskapa Gate was in a very good location. It was only two blocks away from the Castle and one block away from Riga Cathedral.

After Riga Castle, we walked past the Three Brothers and made a quick stop at Riga Cathedral.

Then we headed towards Jacob’s Barracks, the Swedish Gate, and Powder Tower. All three sites were within two-minute walk of each other. It was such a nice walk.

We decided to continue towards the Cat House, but before that, we stopped at a Narvesen (like a 7-11) right across from the Powder Tower to get some water. As Sean made payment, Arthur started to wake and cry. We took him out of the stroller to soothe him. The cool thing about this particular Narvesen was its basement sitting room. I first thought there was a cafe below, but it turned out to be only seating spaces. It worked just fine for us to feed and change Arthur. We were the only ones there. We weren’t in a rush to get anywhere so we decided to get coffee and hot chocolate and hang out with Arthur.

After a feed, a change of diaper, and a quick play, Arthur went back to sleep. Sean did his car-seat-swaying trick again to hell Arthur sleep.

We then headed to the Cat House. The house is called Cat House not because of real life cats. It is because of two cat sculpture on top of the house. And by house, I mean palace-looking building. Apparently, the owner of the house was denied membership at a Great Guild, so he placed the cats with arched backs and raised tails to face the guild house as a demonstration of his contempt.

From here, we walked towards the Freedom Monument which is a memorial to honor soldiers killed during Latvian War of Independence between 1918-1920 against the Soviet Russia. What’s interesting about this is that Russia later occupied Latvia again from 1940 to 1941 and again from 1944 to 1991.

The park by the monument was so beautiful. The frozen city canal added to the haunting feeling of the park.

We decided to head towards the Art Nouveau District. We went through Park Esplanade that housed an Orthodox Cathedral, a neo-Gothic building of the Art Academy of Latvia, and a Baroque-style building for the Latvian National Museum of Art. The walk was simply beautiful. It was so amazing to see the different types of building all in one scan.

We were only a block away from the Art Nouveau streets when Arthur woke up crying again. We decided to head to the nearest restaurant. It turned out to be a restaurant called The Flying Frog.

We ended up getting some beer and appetizers there. We fed and changed Arthur there again. And afterwards, he fell asleep again. I think we’ve gotten a hang of his needs now. In addition, we’ve learned to be more patient and to take things more slowly. He is actually not that difficult to handle. And… he is a fun baby to hang out with. He’s so funny and so cute and soooooo adorable.

Going back to Art Nouveau style. The buildings on Elizabeth and Albert streets were so intricate. They were such a joy to look at.

As we made our way back to Old Town, we stopped by a gift shop.

As we entered the shop, Arthur woke up. We took him out of the stroller and tried to soothe him. I asked one of the ladies if they had a nursing room. She said they didn’t. I saw that they had a fitting room. No one was using it so I asked if I could use it really quickly to feed Arthur. She was kind enough to say yes. Arthur didn’t feed very much but at least we met his needs. After the feed, he was still unhappy somehow. I suspected he needed to be changed. We took out the car seat from the stroller and used the stroller in bassinet mode to change him. Sure enough, he had pooped and that made him feel uncomfortable. After the change, he was all happy again.

Since he was all good again, we placed him back in the car seat and left the gift shop. Arthur was fully awake and we let him feel the cold air. He didn’t seem to mind. Three blocks later, he started yawning. He looked tired and he started to squirm. We went into one of the stores (NewYorker) and Sean put him to sleep using the car seat trick.

We then continued to walk towards Restaurant 1221. Once we got there, we sat down and ordered some food.

It was essentially our early dinner. We had beaver for appetizer. Sean had the herring for his main course while I got the sauerkraut soup. All three dishes were Latvian cuisine. The beaver was a dark-colored meat but it tasted like pulled pork.

Towards the end of the meal, Arthur woke up. I fed him, burped him, and had him sit on my lap as we completed our meal. Afterwards, we headed home. Arthur was once again awake through our journey home. It was only three blocks away and he seemed to be enjoying the walk, even through the cobbled stones.

When we got home, we played with Arthur for a bit. He liked blowing lip bubbles a lot now! And he started eating his hands more. He smiled so wide when we talked to him and entertained him. So cuteeee!

Afterwards, I fed him and changed him into his pajamas. But then he started crying in pain. When we tried to pat his back to burp him, he screamed. When we placed him on his back to try to do bicycle kicks, he screamed. He just kept screaming in pain. Poor thing. He kept crying and crying. I finally just held him close, up right, his left cheek against my face, and I sang to him. Even though he was still crying, at least it wasn’t a scream. He would only let out a painful scream intermittently. And then… a big burp. And another smaller burp. And another one. And a fart.

And he no longer cried.

I rocked him to sleep after that. He was so exhausted from all the crying. Sean and I went to sleep not long afterwards.

This morning, we had a late start. Even though Arthur woke us up at 7, we did not leave the apartment until around 12. We had breakfast, FaceTime with the grandparents, another nap, and a couple of rounds of tummy time and play time.

Our destination was the Central Market. Instead of going through Old Town, we walked by the river. The sky was clear and the sun was shining so bright. It was a nice day for a walk.

We spent quite some time walking around the Central Market.

We didn’t really buy anything other than a quick cup of coffee, some pastries, and small bottles of Riga Balsam, but it was still fascinating to see the locals buy meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, flowers, artisanal beer, and liquor. And the outdoor market seemed to be endless as well. We didn’t walk the entire thing. It sprawled well into the Jewish District.

After the Central Market, we headed back to Old Town, passing by the Galleria. Sean got portable speakers to go with our projector for our movie nights. Then, we made our way to Restaurant Petergailis for an early dinner.

When we got to Petergailis, Arthur got hungry. Right after I fed and burped him, he started pooping. He didn’t poop last night or this morning, so we did expect another blowout like the one in Tallinn, but I didn’t really expect a blowout at the restaurant. Nevertheless, we didn’t have a choice. I was holding Arthur and I could feel him pooping. And pooping. And pooping. The back of his shirt started to become wet. The leak was bad.

The restaurant had no changing station but the one toilet that it had actually had a window ledge wide enough to use as a makeshift changing station.

The change took a while but it worked out well at the end.

I loved the vibe of the restaurant. It was small but cozy and elegant at the same time.

And the food was delicious! We had scallop as an appetizer with dry apple wine. I had the catfish for my main while Sean had the steak with scallop wrapped inside. Soooo good.

We took turns holding Arthur during appetizer, but when the main courses arrived, we placed Arthur in the car seat right by our table. He was busy with his giraffe toy. I had just finished my food when he started to get bored. I took him out of the car seat and started to distract him. He wasn’t buying it. He was sleepy.

So I put him to sleep and once Sean was finished with his food, we ordered dessert and Latvian sweet apple wine.

I was holding Arthur who was asleep when the dessert arrived. Having a sleeping baby couldn’t stop us from enjoying good food. We just had to improvise.

Arthur was still asleep when we put on his coat and placed him back in the stroller.

On our way back home, we stopped by the House of the Blackheads to admire the building facades.

And when we got home, we gave Arthur a bath, packed, and did another batch of laundry.

It has been a wonderful couple of days here in Riga.

The Airbnb was in a great location. Even though the power tripped a couple of times, it had the essential things for our short stay.

Tomorrow, we head to Vilnius.