Sea Battle

This article is going to be bigger than the previous ones because it includes not only more cities but also more pictures and experiences that I lived in this trip. ESN Sea Battle is an event organised by ESN ( Erasmus Social Network ) which brings together students from all over the world in one amazing trip on a ship from Riga to Sweden and back.

But let's start with the beginning. It was an early morning when all of us met in Vilnius to take the bus so we could go to Riga. Just imagine that there were like 4 or 5 busses full of people and that were only the people from Vilnius so imagine how big this event is. We were both tired and thrilled about what was to come. 

I will not say anything in particular about the trip itself because until we arrived in Riga we pretty much slept, people were still not feeling the party that was to begin in no time. When we arrived in Riga, suddenly everything changed. Why so? Because we didn't embark right away on the ship called Romantika which would take us to Stockholm, but we had more than a few hours to explore the capital of Latvia. 

Riga

We all formed small groups of 5-6 people and started exploring the city.

After walking for a little bit we have ran into a beautiful building and at the time being I didn't know its name but I found it later. It was the House of the Blackheads.

From there we walked more into the center of the city and discovered some very interesting statues there.

The architecture was very interesting because the buildings seemed old but they tried to combine that style with a different one which was displayed in the city center. For exampe, these hanging mirrors.

The city center was really empty at that time and it was not so early, it was about 8 am. The interesting things was that most of the shops didn't open until 9am and we could barely find a cafe that opened a little bit earlier and we  did find some that opened at 8.30 instead of 9 which was still better than waiting for an hour.

But we didn't stay in one place because we still had limited time until we went to embark the ship so we continued and ended up in a park from where we could see a very tall monument.

This is The Freedom Monument from Riga. I mananged to take this picture before the tourists came. Imagine that this place was full of people in less than 2 minutes. They also have guards here and like in London, there is a Changing the Guard time which is impressive.

Later on the same road we have found a very beautiful church that was like made of gold. It is called Riga Nativity of Christ Cathedral. The shine shone brightly and it made the cathedral looked beautiful.

In the back you can see a Radisson Blu hotel and because we could we also went there because we wanted to take some picture from up high of the whole city.

The photos are not so good but the view from there is really amazing and if you are in Riga I strongly encourage you to go up there and take some pictures or just gaze at this landscape.

Next on our list was to go and visit Laima Chocolate Museum. On the way to this museum we ran into a statue of a wise man. We didn't get the story of it but I bet it is something interesting.

Finally, after all of these we found the Chocolate Museum and we were so happy to taste some chocolate from their big fountain.

It was a little too sweet but still very good. But beware! You will be in need of water after drinking some. No problem about this as you can take free water after. They made sure it will be comfortable. At this museum you can also personalize chocolate bars. You have a message ( I love ....) and you just choose what to write and then in some minutes, it's yours. The first one is for free but you have to pay if you want more. It is just 2 euros/piece.

What I also loved there was that everything was so sweet and before you left you could buy many chocolate things. From candies to soap. And they would offer you free candies as well and you take as much as you wanted. Just don't be shy. They are more than happy to offer.

Life on the ship

This would be the first part of the trip. Now, about the life of the ship ''Romantika''.

We had a beautiful opening ceremony and we all danced on the song Don't Your Worry Child and after that there was a big show on the ship that we couldn't miss.

Apart from that, the parties were amazing. We partied more on our way back when the people from Sweden and Norway also came aboard and we were even more people so it was so amazing. The whole ship was crowded with people from all over.

Some of them even got painted either on their hand, face, legs, it didn't even matter. It was just amazing and it was a party in every part of the ship. You couldn't escape even if you wanted to.

Now down to the serious part. Outside, the landscape was just breathtaking. The sunset on the Baltic Sea is pure love. We stayed outside for hours and just took photos and amazed on how beautiful mother earth can be.

Stockholm

In no time we found ourselves in Sweden. There we didn't that much time as we needed to return to the ship in about 5 or 6 hours if I remember correctly. So we only explored the city and took photos of this amazing capital.

And because everybody knows these buildings in Stockholm I just couldn't be able to resist and also took a picture of them.

The following picture has a name. I still do not know if that people knew one another but it was an interesting shot. I named it ''The three travelers''.

The architecture in Stockholm is also astonishing and you cannot describe in words how it felt being there.

That being said, this experience was one of the most beautiful ones during my stay in Lithuania. I encourage everybody to take part in this amazing event, make a lot of memories and then put them on paper and share them with other people because it is worthy.

Photo gallery