Rundale Palace

Hiiiiii!! It's Raquel,

A couple of weeks ago I went to a guided visit Rundale palace with a couple of England by car.

The ride was an hour to a ruined castle called BausMuseum. That was our first stop.                     She had beautiful views of the river, we climbed to the highest point of the castle.





After visiting the castle and the forest we returned to the car and went to Rundale palace.














Just that day was crowded since there was a meeting in the main garden.

The palace is huge and very nice, we walked through an entrance stairs and the hall was impressive.

This palace is the most important baroque palaces built by the Duke of Courland from 1736-1740 and from 1764-1768.

The interior of the palace was all decorated with fabrics on the walls, family portraits and objects valuable for them.

We saw the Duke's room, the bathroom, the guest rooms, lounges, games room, etc.

After visiting all went to the garden palace that everything is full of roses of different colors and types.
I had never seen such a large and colorful garden, the halls are filled with stands of clothing, food, souvenirs, flowers, etc.


















After a hot and interesting day we returned to Riga.

Have a nice day!!

Raquel.

Tallin, Estonia

Hi!! It's Raquel,


A few weeks ago Jordi and I went to Tallinn, Estonia.
We met my friend Veera of Finland and had a great day.


We went by bus for about 4 hours with a company that makes it very cheap and comfortable routes where we could enjoy internet, games, music and movies.


There we could visit all the old town and typical Estonian places. The old part was nice but to bad wheather.

We went to visit churches and souvenir shops, after visiting the old town we went to eat at a typical restaurant Estonian.

Then we went to visit the panoramic view of the city where we took pictures and we bought a coffee and some snak.

We found a machine where we could made Estonian stamp in a coin.

Finally, Veera went to Finland and we went to the bus station to come back to Riga where we could enjoy a comfortable trip.

See you!!

Raquel

Trip to Sigulda

Hello! It's Jordi!

My placement work offer me a free tour to one of the most beautiful cities in Latvia, Sigulda.

It is located not far away from Riga, just an hour and 20 minutes by car.

The first stop we made was in a farm where me and two other tourists were able to touch a deer, after that we visited a fantastic castle in the heart of Sigulda.

If that castle was not enough later we visited another castle not far away from there, that one was bigger than the Sigulda castle and there are fantastic views from the top of the tower.

Then we visited the center of Sigulda, a really cute place, almost everything is covered by grass and there are also a lot of leafy trees so while we were enjoying about that heavenly place our guide was explainig to us what happened there when the Russians ivaded the city.

 After that we found a nice place to eat typical food , while we were eating we discussed about the possibility to go to Cesis where there is an stunning castle over there. 

 Before we went to Cesis we had made some other stops, the first one was in a cave where the people from the 13th century wrote their names in the rocks and the the other one was near a lake where a family were selling some sculptures made of iron and stone.

Finally we arrived to that huge castle, the biggest I have ever seen. There was a festival next to the castle about "lamps", I don't know what that means but I suppose that is something relationed with party.

 

After our last stop we were glad to return to the car, we visited a lot of places in a really short period of time so we were really satisfied with ourselves.

Finally in home I just relaxed so, I used my time sleeping for the rest of the weekend. 

Work in Riga

Hello!! It's Jordi again!

After one month here I think I must talk about what kind of work I'm doing here.

The company where I work it's Smile Line, a walking tour agency, located in the hall town square. And what I do there is offer our walking tours or also tours around Latvia to the tourists. It's funny the fact that a tourist (me) try to sell tours to other tourists, but anyway after one month here I can't consider myself a tourist anymore.

In the first week of work Raquel and me were working together to understand what we have to do and how to manage with the different situations, for example, costumers could ask simple things like where the washrooms are or maybe a little bit more difficult questions , like what this building is and if they could go insde. In this weeks we have learnt a lot about the maps in Riga and the most interesting sightseeing points in the city ,we almost have visited all of them.

Tomorrow a big ship from Spain is coming to Riga and our boss said that we could offer a information tour in spanish if we feel enough confident to try it, We will see how this is going.

See you in the nexts posts!!!

Riga

Hello everyone!

This is the first post I do in this marvellous city, Riga.

We arrived 2 weeks ago and we had some kind of problems to enter to the net, because the range of the internet is not so large and it doesn't arrive to our rooms.

Anyway, internet is not necessary to enjoy this city. We have visited a lot of places  for example parks, the old town, churches even the zoo!! 

By the way the most stunning place we have visited is the freedom monument, a memorial for all the soldiers who died in the independence war, there is a beautiful park in the surroundings of the monument where you could go for a picnic or whatever else.

We also have visited some other places like Tallin (Estonia)  that we will talk about in the next posts.

Have a nice day!!

Jordi

An experience that i Will never forget

It has been a wonderful experience which would repeat a thousand times more. 
The first days, as usual, was with fear, insecurity... don't know how to get to the sites, being so far away from my family and above all, as it would be to relate with people so different from me and some very different cultures to the mine.


I have spent it very well and I have learned many things, aside from improving my English, I have learned as they live in a country that is not mine, their customs and their food, if I have to tell the truth, that has been refusal of this experience, the food part. Not that would be bad, if not because they cook very different to us and as Spanish food there is nothing.

With the weather, the first two weeks had snow and I loved it. It was the first time I saw so much snow! It was very cold and it is very different from the cold of Badalona, there is more dry.

I have loved this experience, I have really enjoyed and I have met many people. I have to thank my teachers the opportunity that have left me to live and here I finish my last entry on the blog!

MY EXPERIENCE

At finally we are here after a month.

For me this has been an unforgettable experience. With my comnpañeros I could enjoy much of this country. Thanks to the opportunity he has given me my school to know a culture and a language so different from mine.

The first day, the most difficult because it was a totally unknown to my country , so I tube that intregrar and accustom my day to day in Helsinki.

After the first few weeks was already fully integrated , and the truth is that I liked to spend that month with the other Finnish girls like Kaisa and Katri.

It was really amazing to get so many different things to our culture , such as museums , parks, the zoo, frozen lakes and other countries around.

But for me the best moment of all was when we went to Lapland to visit Santa Claus.

I hope to repeat this experience ever again .

An unforgettable experience

Hello everyone,

I am very happy to had this Erasmus+ opportunity in Finland, because it's an unique experience where I learnt a lot about the culture of Finland and to manage myself in one language that it's not my mother language, and with this I can say that I learnt a lot of English and some words in Suomi.

I also value my job experience because it was great to work in a different country and it was an opportunity to see a different way to work, in my case at Sokos, a department store where the different colleagues were very careful with us. Almost I can say that I've discovered a new country with lots of places that I visited like Lapland, some museums like The Kiasma Museum or The Sibelius Monument.

I value my experience at the apartment like one opportunity to manage better myself, and I think that I solved the different problems that I had and I enjoy all the good moments. Finally, I liked so much to share this experience with my classmates, with them it was so easier to enjoy this unforgettable experience.

Thank you for read the blog!! See you soon!

Helsinki experience summary

I'd like to have all this experience because I think it's only one opportunnity on your life, no everybody can go to one Erasmus experience with 17 years old, and I am very glad to have this opportunity.

I think my family here has been a great one, because they were asking for me if it's all okey, what kind of food is my favorite, if I want to do some activities with they, and finally, the last present they gave me, the hockey stik, I am very glad to have been in Helsinki with this family.

Another part from this experience, is that I've improve english, now I've experience on clothes sector, I know a little of finnish language and culture.

Thank you for read the blog and good bye!

The last post

Hello!

Today I talked about my experience in Helsinki, Finland.

In my opinion has been a good experience because I have learned about the other cultures, the language (suomi) and improve the english.

I liked to stay with Katri's family and her, they are so friendly and good people with me and my friends also.

I hope that one day I will see them again and go there to visit Lapland another time.


See you!

The return

Hello everyone,

We past one month with some new experiences which includes new tasks at the different jobs, we had known some new people and we had visited amazing places.

And the most important thing is that we faced all this new experiences in group.

And finally, today we arrived to the Barcelona Airport after one month and we saw to our families it was a special day and with lots of emotions.

Thank you for all!!!

Last day

Today was our last day, the Sokos boys and girl, we've received a little present from our collegues, then , everybody has been doing their bags, and preparing all the things for tomorrow fly.

I think the other 3 girls have received too some presents from their workplaces.

My finnish family, gave me a present, one ice hockey stik, and a I am very glad because of this. They said me that they'll come Barcelona next summer, so I think I will give all help they need!

At the night, we've gone to Vapiano Restaurant , where we have our first dinner all together to have the last dinner.

The last wednesday!!!!

Hello!!!

Today it has been last day of work, has been very exciting, because they are very good companions. This month I have been very nice with them, they have taught many things to me. At the moment of going out, my boss has given me a full bag of souvenirs of Finland, and has thanked me all this month. It me was not waiting for it!!!!

This evening, we have done the last activity with the college, and have gone to the Island Soumelinna. It is a very ancient island, and we have gone with Katri, which is the sister of the Aina and has been explaining to us a bit of history of the Island. The time has accompanied enough for that it was sunny and not a lot of cold. I have enjoyed very much this month, have known wonderful people and have learned very much. I am glad to be able to live very much through this experience and hope that it is not the last time!!

See you soon!!!!!