I woke up far too early. I was the first one up, so I got ready, and then yelled at everyone else to get up when it was getting close to breakfast time. Breakfast wasn't so great. It was in weird building. All it was was some veggies, eggs, and bread. Not the best way to start the day, but you can't complain too much. Then, once back at the dorms, we had to grab all of our stuff for the day. Of course there's just one elevator and it's slow, so it was easier to run up and down the 6 flights of stairs to the dorm.

We were first taken to a park where we waited a little bit and basked in a bit of sun and green. When it was close to our time for our sound check, we were taken to a University hall where we had to wait again for a bit. We waited outside for a little bit, and then inside for a bit when it was coming up to our turn for soundcheck. They hustled us into the room really quickly and we had a scant 10 minutes to figure out where we'd be standing for the performance and run a couple bits of our songs so we could hear what the hall would sound like. And then we were hustled right back out so the next group could go in.

Of course, with trips like this, you always live by the rule 'hurry and and wait', so that's what we did. We waited around outside for quite a while afterwards until our walking tour guides showed up. The hall was right next to 'Old Riga'. We just had to head over a bridge in a park to get into the oldest part of the city past the big freedom monument.

Our tour guide took us on a meandering path around the city. We walked past one of the main churches in the area, St. Peter's, and as we were passing, we noticed the Choir Games banners outside. This meant they were using the church as a venue - and then we found out that would be the church we'd be singing our spiritual set it. That was pretty exciting news for us.

We walked almost to the edge of the old part of town and saw the House of the Blackheads - one of the most striking buildings with lots of ornate bits on the outside. Part of it was under construction, so we didn't get to see all of it, but it was still impressive. We then walked back to Livu Square.

Just past the square there is the iconic Cat House. It's a lovely yellow house with the Riga cat on top of the turrets. The story is that the house builder wanted to become part of the Tradesman Guild, and was refused, so to shame them he placed the cats on the building right across from their guild house.

From there we walked over to the last parts of Riga Castle that is left to look at the old walls and the Swedish gate and barracks. From there, we walked past St. James Cathedral towards the 'Three Brothers' houses. Out in front were a French Horn and Tuba player that played O Canada as we walked past. They asked us what other song was Canadian that they could play for us. No one was really coming up with anything, so I suggested Four Strong Winds, and amazingly enough they found music for it and serenaded our group.

After that we walked back towards one of the main squares next to Riga's Cathedral where we said goodbye to our tour guide. We were finally given free time after that. Sophia and I decided we wanted a bit to eat because it was lunch time by that point. So we headed to the nearest cafe. I got a latte and a marzipan cake because I wasn't in the mood for much else.

We then went off shopping - we found some of our friends outside and they took us with them to a chocolate shop. We spent quite a while in there looking at the different chocolates while Taylor bought a few things to bring home. We also took pictures in the mirror ceiling they had with little candies stuck to it. After that, we did a bit more shopping as we weren't quite certain when/if we'd get time later to do it. I got a couple postcards to put in an album along with a shot glass for Zach.

We stopped in a couple of the open markets. I picked up a little watercolour of Riga to put up in my house while Sophia and Johanna decided which rainbow hats they wanted. I picked up a couple fridge magnets as well. With our shopping out of the way, we headed back to meet up with the rest of the group in the main square again.

From there it was time to go to our workshop. We actually had to walk a fair ways to get to the building. My feet were hurting pretty badly by the time we got there. We sat outside for a bit and listened to a Russian girl's choir sing. When we finally got in for our workshop, it was a lot more standing. The clinician was good though.

After sitting outside to rest for a bit after the workshop, we all headed back to Old Riga again for a little bit of free time, where we just wandered the streets again. Taylor and stopped by a drugstore and another couple shops so she could pick up a couple things. On our way back we stopped at McD's for a snack (as it was the only non-sit-down food place we could find).