We had to get up at half past 8 which is too early for most of the students of our group. When we climbed on our bus for the first stop of the day, everyone, except 2 guys, were sleeping. I think it is a little bit normal because of the almost 2 hour ride. The first stop was Cesis, wich is a town with a very old castle, old? Maybe not so old... It was built 800 years ago wich isn’t so old, compared to some castles in Belgium. That is due to the fact that Latvia lays in the very north-east of Europe. The Rome empire had an influence on their culture, but it took a while to see those influences in Latvia. Their believe had the same thing. It was influenced very late and in Latvia it was called Lutheranism or something like that. They have told us how their castle was conquered many times by many different cultures. They showed us the dungeons and towers and the guide called us their prisoners.
When it came to an end and the guide let us go, we went to a small science center which was pretty cool. Our groups were separated into 2 smaller groups so that the first group could just walk their own way in the building and check all the nice and weird things out, while the other group was making a kind of robot. After an hour we switched groups.
When it came to an end, we went to a kind of restaurant to eat something. The Latvians had already decided that it would be chicken or fish. I think it was pretty good. For dessert we had some strawberry thing with 'slagroom' (don't know the english word). Many said it wasn't 'slagroom' at all and thought it wasn't good at all.
When we had eaten we went back to the castle for a next command. It was like a town game. We had to make a line, youngest in the front, oldest in de back. The funny thing was that we could not speak, so we couldn't use words. After we did it, they gave us numbers and we had to go to the other persons with the same number. Now we were separated in groups again, so the town game could start. Th first task was to make a difficult puzzle. After you did that you could begin with the other tasks. You basically had to go to the given points which were signed on the map and do some tasks at that place, but when you are walking to another checkpoint you had to look for some cards who were also hidden.
And then it was time to enjoy the local bowling area... We were divided into groups and apparently Ilyasse, Naim, Said and Chaima had never played a bowling game before... It was funny to see... We also discovered some local talents, Mohamed and Ilyasse appeared to be star dancers... We don't have any pictures of them, but the trip is not over yet! So they are warned...
Here are some other pictures of our night out.
When we had eaten we went back to the castle for a next command. It was like a town game. We had to make a line, youngest in the front, oldest in de back. The funny thing was that we could not speak, so we couldn't use words. After we did it, they gave us numbers and we had to go to the other persons with the same number. Now we were separated in groups again, so the town game could start. Th first task was to make a difficult puzzle. After you did that you could begin with the other tasks. You basically had to go to the given points which were signed on the map and do some tasks at that place, but when you are walking to another checkpoint you had to look for some cards who were also hidden.
And then it was time to enjoy the local bowling area... We were divided into groups and apparently Ilyasse, Naim, Said and Chaima had never played a bowling game before... It was funny to see... We also discovered some local talents, Mohamed and Ilyasse appeared to be star dancers... We don't have any pictures of them, but the trip is not over yet! So they are warned...
Here are some other pictures of our night out.