Vilnius to Riga: Day 1 (9/17/19)

Caught the early bus to Riga this morning. But before leaving I had a conversation with an older guy over breakfast about physics! He asked my to explain how half-life arises from the mathematics of nuclear decay. I did my best to reason through it but to be honest I think he just wanted to turn the conversation to his own previous research which was about the geometric interpretation of matter. I snagged his email since I needed to catch my bus but he said that he would be happy to introduce me to his friend who runs a research group in Tokyo and is in need of students. Not what I expected from my morning oatmeal time!

I arrived in Riga around 2:30pm and took a roundabout way to my AirBnB that wound through the central parks. I have to say, they are quite impressive. Sprawling paths interspersed with gardens, scuptures, and fountains that follows the river and is overlooked by the historic opera house. They really are stunning for public parks. I also passed by the Latvian Independence Monument which symbolizes their fight for independence.

My AirBnB this time around is a large, very nice shared apartment with a huge bathroom complete with a massive tub. All the other rooms are vacant too, so I have the whole place to myself! Ran to the grocery store around the corner, since I didn’t feel like walking 15 minutes through the cold and rain to a restaurant, and bought some basic supplies to make a simple stirfry and some soup.