It's time to travel again!

It's been two years since our last visit to Latvia, so it's time to travel again! Early in the morning on June 1st, we boarded Turkish Airlines flight for Istanbul, from where we would catch our connection to Riga, Latvia. We stepped into the plane with some worries in our heart and recited the traveling Dua, as all of us still very well remembered our last flight Istanbul-Karachi, which ended with an emergency landing (due to some electrical fault in the airplane), delaying our arrival to Karachi for whole 12 hours. At that time, after finally arriving to Karachi, Uzair swore that he would never fly again... :) but here we were again - on the plane, arriving to Latvia safe and sound. :)

This time around, Asma had her very own seat - she was feeling quite important. Propped up by two pillows, she even managed to watch a cartoon in the small screen, which was fit in the back of the front seat. It was her first experience of using a headset all by herself as well, which she considered a very serious activity. :) Although the ear-pieces kept on falling out of her tiny ears, we managed to keep them in place with a head-band.

  

Pakistan Air Force museum

We had a really great visit to Pakistan Air Force museum with our friends from Bookworms Book Club! So many planes to see, so much space to run and even rides to enjoy! All the photos from our trip you can see here.

Our visit to Jelgava

At the beginning of September, we visited Mamma's maternal cousins in Jelgava - Inese aunty and Ilze aunty. We stayed with Ilze aunty for two days and had a great chance to see some of the nice places in Jelgava city. We visited one of the parks, where we saw an exebition of sand sculptures. You can read more about it in our earlier post: http://welive-welearn.blogspot.com/2011/09/sand-sculptures.html

We also visited a history museum in a church tower. The tower had three floors, each of which was devoted to one topic of history - we learned about history of Jelgava city, Zemgale region, Latvian presidents and also about Latvian handicrafts and folk costumes. We liked that the exibitions were very interactive - had lots of puzzles and touch screens. We were taken to all the floors by an elevator. The fourth and last floor (the top of church tower) was a viewing point of Jelgava city. It was made of glass and we could see the city of Jelgava all around! Here you can see the photos from this museum: church tower history museum

Some of his free time in Jelgava, Uzair spent working in Dzintars uncle's wood workshop, as he loves woodwork. He made his very own house, which you can see in an earlier post: http://welive-welearn.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-house.html

Thank you to Ilze and Inese aunties for making our visit to Jelgava so memorable!

This Sunday, our uncle Ralfs (our mother's brother) invited us to come and see his carpentry workshop - he is a professional furniture carpenter. How could we refuse such a wonderful offer? The day for the visit turned out really excellent - it was sunny with a feel of autumn coolness in the air. Since the walk to the workshop was about half an hour long, all of us had a pleasant stroll in this beautiful early autumn weather.

When we arrived to the workshop, we were surprised by the size of it - it was HUGE! We had expected that many machines would be there but had not anticipated such vast space and so many different machines. Ralfs uncle showed us around, starting from their recreation room, through the different workshop stations and ending with the office of their boss.

Ralfs uncle showed us every single machine in operation, so we could see, how he makes those beautiful doors and windows we saw ready made. To demonstrate the process of work, Ralfs uncle made for Uzair a one meter long and 6 milimetres thick wodden ruler. After coming back home, Uzair made on it number marks by a permanent marker and is ready to take his treasure back to Karachi with him.

Ralfs uncle let us try out the paint-sprayer he uses for painting. That was really fun, even though he put for us just water in it. :) We also learned that they make not only furniture but also bird feeders and bird houses, and even real coffins! For getting the feel of our trip, take a look at our pictures here: photos from carpentry workshop

Medieval Castle Ruins in Cēsis

Today we went to close-by town of Cesis, where Mamma took us to see a really old castle from the Middle Ages (13th century). The castle is pretty much just ruins now but still there was plenty to see there - it has been made into a museum now.

As we paid for our tickets, the museum staff gave us special laterns we were to use on our adventure through the ruins. We guessed that the laterns are made to look like exactly the ones people were using centuries ago - they were made of wood, with glass on three sides and a small door on the fourth - for putting a candle inside. When we got our laterns, the candles were lighted already.

Our first stop was the western tower of the catle, which was preserved enough to climb up onto the top of it. We were climbing small, narrow and dark stairs (here our laterns were really handy for seeing the way), which were winding around the inside wall of the tower. Once we got to the top, we got a spledid view of surrounding area!

When we got down from the western tower, we explored the courtyard of the castle and the remaining bits of what has been preserved from the castle. On our way out, we took a peek into the dungeon, where the lords of the castle kept their prisoners!!!

We also visited a jewelry shop, where we saw ancient Baltic jewelry - the real excavated ones and the modern day copies of them. Uzair was totally blown away by a real knight's armour set - the rings shirt, helmet, real sword and shield. The rings shirt only weighed 12 kgs, so we realized that medieval knights had to carry quite a lot of kgs on them. Hafsa was captured by the medieval Baltic jewelry. We saw a fully dressed bride. The lady at the museum was kind enough to let Hafsa wear the medieval bride's crown! You can imagine, how special Hafsa felt. :) Interestingly, also medieval men wore quite a lot of jewerly on them. We also saw a medieval money making press and the money made that way.

After the castle ruins, we visited our 'old friends' the black swan family in a nearby park. When we saw them a few weeks ago, they had six cute little ducklings. When we saw them today - the birdies had grown into nearly fully grown swans!

Below is a link to a folder with photos from this our trip. Take a look and enjoy!

Photos from our trip to Cēsis Medieval Castle

Sand sculptures

At the beginning of September, we visited our Mamma's cousins in Jelgava city. Our relatives kindly took us on a tour of the city, which included a stop at one of the local parks, where we saw an exibition of sand sculptures. These sculptures were made this summer as a competition of international sculptors from all over the world. The topic of the exibition is "Circus", as you can very well guess it from the pictures. All the sculptures are covered by some protective layer, wich preserves them in such harsh weather conditions as rain and strong winds. However, still some parts of the sculptures have already collapsed. We were told that during winters, the same park hosts another competition of sculptors - but in cold season, they make sculptures of ice!!! The ice sculptures stay in the park until spring, when the warmer weather comes and they melt. :) You can take a look at more scupltures here: sand sculptures

Turkish Airlines to Latvia

On July 4th, all of us (Mamma, Uzair, Hafsa, Asma) boarded Turkish Airlines plane in Karachi to start our journey to Latvia - for visiting our Vecmamma. The journey was long: the flight from Karachi to Isanbul took 5 hours, then 6 hours waiting time in the airport, and then 3 more hours of airtime on a flight to Latvia. Below you can see us in Istanbul Ataturk International Airport, while waiting for our connection flight.

In Latvia, we were received by Māra aunty, our mother's sister, who, according to good Latvian traditions, gifted us a bouquet of sweetpeas flowers, which smelled really sweet. Latvians give flowers on every occassion - it is the most commong gift in Latvia. Māra aunty took us from the airport straight to Vecmamma's home, where she received us with hot dinner. :)