Goodbye!!

Well everyone, thanks for reading our blog, we have had an absolutely fantastic month!

Thank you to all of the very generous Rotarians in Sweden and Latvia who have welcomed us into their homes and given their time to make this the experience of a lifetime.

Thanks to the Rotary Clubs of Boronia, Monash, Healsville, Templestowe and Box Hill Central for sponsoring us and all of your support. Also to the Rotarians of D9810 who have encouraged each of us to participate in this program.

Also thanks to the Rotary Foundation for giving us this opportunity!

If anyone is reading this and is interested in getting involved in a future GSE please send us a comment and we will respond!

We said goodbye to Brooke today who is getting on a plane right now. Tomorrow Jackie heads to Stockholm to meet her husband Craig and travel Europe for another 2 months, Christie is meeting her husband Mark in Berlin for a 1 month tour of Europe, Tim is meeting his family in Copenhagen for a 3 week holiday and Lesley is also travelling on in Europe and meeting John in Berlin.

Signing off - the team!!

Paradise

We stayed our last night all together at a beautiful property about 50kms from Ventspils, right on the beach.

The property consisted of 4 houses, a basketball court, a lake and was situated about 100m from the beach.

We spent most of the evening in the bath house (house on lake pictured). The evening started with some traditional Latvian soup cooked over the fire by a traditionally dressed woman (pictured). After dinner the women hit the sauna, minus swimsuits, and of course (some!) participated in the traditional dive from the deck into the freezing lake every 15 minutes (also in our birthday suits). The sauna included covering ourselves in honey!! (sorry no pictures available!)

We also tucked into 30 litres of beer from a Keg which had been purchased at the Brewery we were at the other day.

Traditional Latvian dancing and folk singing took us into the late hours of the night, it was a gorgeous setting with lovely people.

Saturday 5th May

This morning Brooke, Lesley and Christie went to an anchor park where there were many anchors, up to 25 tonnes on display (they were found during a dredging operation to make the port deeper). this walk also included a beautiful beach, where, as you can see in the sign, you are not able to wear a swimsuit!

We then travelled to Ugale church and organ workshop where the organ maker played for us in the church and showed us the art of organ making.

Then we went on a mind blowing excursion - we travelled along a long dirt road to the middle of nowhere, the area we were in was restricted to Russian military during Soviet times. We ended up in an old Soviet military base and were given a special tour (not many people get to take) of a satellite dish used by the Soviets during their occupation. This dish was absolutely massive and our heads were spinning. There were bunkers and tunnels under the ground linking the 3 satellites on the base together. When we began to ask too many questions the response was 'I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you' (no, really). The satellite was used by the Russians to track radio communications. The tour guide had an interesting career much of which we can only imagine. We climbed to the top of the dish, were able to stand in it and played some cricket!! It really felt very surreal.

As we headed out of the army base we went through a place the Latvians call the 'Dead City". This was the accommodation for the army and when independence was declared they evacuated and it was very eerie to drive through. Much of Latvia is covered with buildings that are disused Russian buildings that are going to ruin, it is a strange sight. Heading out we drove some more dirt roads specifically built for Russian tanks, and also saw a deer!

We are doing a separate update for Saturday night as it was a BIG night!

Friday 4th May - Arriving in Ventspils.

Today we left Liepaja and traveled to where we met our hosts who were going to look after us in Ventspils. It was a sight seeing journey to the new town, including a brewery, beach and lighthouse (which was a bit of an adventure to find!).

We all had lunch at Ventspils at a soup kitchen which is the Rotary clubs main local project, feeding about 70 people per day. We then went to a castle and were given time for a quick change and then taken to an amazing house which won an architectural award 4 years ago. Brooke and Lesley stayed at the house with lovely German speaking hosts (Brooke speaks fluent German) and had a nice time having a sauna and swim in the indoor pool.

Dinner was again amazing and we were made to feel very welcome.

Today is Latvia's independence day, declared in 1991. (the cake in the picture is the Latvian flag)

Thursday May 3rd Update

Vocational visits for us all, Jackie and Christie went to a school and Jackie took 2 year 11 classess, Christie answering many of the questions Jakcie asked! Brooke and Lesley went to the Ministry for Culture and Tim went to a forest which included seeing some old Soveit missile launchers.

After an arvo of some shopping we all piled on a bus with the Rotarians and went to a hotel a bit out of town near the beach (where Christie found some amber on the beach!). We gave a presentation and then proceeded to be part of the strangest Rotary meeting we have ever attended (Lesley included). The meeting included nude men in the sauna, pictured is the president of the club who had just been in the Sauna who came to have a break and sit with us, sweating profusely, for our benefit he was wearing a towel, although loosely! All Rotarians had a great time, including polishing off quite a considerable amount of Cognac and Whisky! They were an absoulute blast, we had a great night.

Wednesday May 2nd Update.

Today we arrived in Liepaja welcomed by our mate Verners who was on the D2410 team recently in Melbourne. We were shown around the city, which is a bit bigger than Kuldiga, and we climbed the bell tower at one of the cities churches. We were also went on a bus tour of the town, taken to the beach and then given a beautiful meal before settling in at our accommodation (girls all together in lovely apartments, Tim with a host).

A dinner followed which included fruit fondue, there was some discussion about going to Lithuania tomorrow for a coffee (truly) but we were a bit iffy about the visa issue and didn't want to be the 1st GSE team blogging from prison!

Childs Play!

Today we had one of the most awesome days of the trip. Armed with soccer balls, chocolate and pencils and paper we visited a orphanage which has 27 kids aged 2-22.

The kids were fantastic! We played a few ball games with them, drew some pictures etc and generally had a great time, complete with hugs when we were leaving. This was a very special experience for all of us and one we won't forget.

It was also fantastic to see more Rotary funds in action as the laundry, kitchen and other renovations had been partly funded by the Rotary Foundation.

After the orphanage we went to some sand caves, there was 2km of man made winding caves, at one time the sand was used for making glass. Only Lesley, Tim and Christie went in, Jackie and Brooke stayed outside to coordinate any search and rescue mission required! We carried our candles into the cave, it was very narrow at points and we also had to crawl a bit! We were also made to blow the candles out when we were 12 metres underground, it was a bit unnerving but fun!

Lunch followed the cave adventure (pictured) which was a massive BBQ, they sure do a good BBQ here. This was at about 3-4pm. We then went to the Rotary club meeting and had dinner, food glorious food! We gave a presentation complete with interpreter who lived in Adelaide for 5 years which was great as the communication is a little harder in the rural areas (we are playing a bit of charades!) but everyone is trying very hard to communicate. The Rotarian's have made us very welcome in Kuldiga and we are sad to be moving on! Tomorrow we head to the coastal town of Liepaja for more adventures.

P.S Jackie and Christie had a sauna at their hosts house tonight - it was Jackie's first sauna, in the winter here is gets to -30 degrees and they jump€ from the sauna into the lake outside, of course only after breaking through the ice first (crazy!).