A nice city for bimbling about onfoot and enjoying that Eastern European atmosphere (Riga)

Member Name: lm09

Product:	Riga
Date:	14/03/09 (154 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great to feel really foreign. Cheap hotels, flights and cheap to eat out

Disadvantages: Not the greatest depth of history and no real jaw dropping sites.

I visited Riga, Latvia in early December 2007. Having previously visited Prague with my wife this gave me a taste and love of Eastern European Cities. Whilst Prague seemed very touristy and sanitised I wanted to experience life deeper into the former Eastern Block.

Riga, with Ryanair and Easyjet both offering cheap and cheerful (ish) flights from many cities across the UK, was an easy choice.

December though! The average temperature in December is -1c. The weather is generally snowy if cold enough or rainy if not. More importantly, perhaps, if you are planning your get away for mid-winter, the light - even on a clear day - is short and gloomy. If you have in the past experienced ill effects from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) perhaps wait until spring. However coming up to Christmas with Wolverhampton (my closest home town) having the festive cheer of a turkey, I decide that a bit of snow and a bit of Eastern Christmas cheer would be the perfect option.

It terms of making this useful the best time to visit Riga is in the summer months. Latvian summers pretty much mirror British summers with the norms around 18c and the weather changeable. In the summer (so I've read) Riga is packed with street cafe's. Not so in December.

Riga airport is around 8kms from the centre and with taxis in Latvia very cheap the journey to our hotel was only at 8 ls. At the time of our trip 1ts = £1.20 though Latvia is struggling now with the global crunch and its currency struggling even more than the pound the rate is now neared £1.40.
Good time to get on the plane then!

Our hotel, the Europa City hotel was around 3 kilometers out of town on Britvas Gavte. For the three nights we stayed it cost £75. An absolute bargain. Flying with Ryanair we only paid around £160 for the whole three days. So what does £25 a night get you in the Europa City hotel. A very nice clean spacious room with a nice clean spacious comfortable double bed. A television with limited international news channels and an adequate bathroom. Our only gripe was a problem with the hot water which after a quick phone call to the English speaking front desk was quickly sorted.

Breakfast was extra but we paid as the breakfast buffet at 7ls was really good. At breakfast we were joined by mostly business people in suits and tourist from other parts of the Baltic states.

Getting into town was no problem either. Right outside the hotel was firstly a small kiosk selling bus tickets and also a bus stop. Britvas Gatve is a busy road and one of the cities main arteries. Buses flow down this about every twenty minutes. Be prepared on the buses to meet the most sour faced race of people on earth - Latvian bus conductors. Always women, always old and always miserable as sin. Please leave me a comment if anyone has experienced these people and managed to glimpse a smile.

The buses stops outside the beautiful Orthodox Cathedral. Completed in 1884 in the Russian-Byzantine style it is wonderfully photogenic. The Orthodox Cathedral marks pretty much the furthest East you will need to venture to experience the sights.

This is except for one other place. The best place to take in a view of the city is the Skline Bar of the Reval Hotel Litvija. This is the masive building just up from the Orthodox Cathedral. The Skyline bar on the 26th floor of this chic and expensive hotel gives amazing 360 degree views around the city. A lift blasts you up to the 26th floor so no leg power required. Oh and the mojitos aren't too bad either!!

Away from the bar then, the next sight you will see, again walking back past the Orthodox Cathedrale is the Freedom Monument. Paid for by public donations and built in the 1930's this landmark is so important to Latvians.
The monument itself is a marble column with the feminine Liberty holding three gold stars, representing the three states of Latvia. During Soviet rule this statue was off limits and the statue became an important symbol to the Latvian Independence movement in the early 90's. Time it right and you could be there to see the changing of the guards.

The monument itself stands in the middle of park land that stretches to the north right up to the Daugava river and to the south to the centre station, dissecting the park is the city canal.

This parkland has both happy and sad memories. Firstly the happy side is the bridge just in front of Bastion Hill to the north of the Freedom monument. This bridge is literally covered in padlocks. A Latvian tradition is for the groom of his wedding day to carry his bride over the bridge and as a symbol of their love to bolt a padlock to the bridge.

For the sad then; the memorial stones. Dotted around the parkland but mostly clustered around Bation Hill these stones mark the spot where Latvian heroes fell in 1991. During unrest in 1991, 16 Latvians were shot dead by Soviet marksmen. These included the renowned Latvian director and two camera men. These men filmed the event and broadcast the events on Latvian television. On the night they escaped with a brutal beating but after the documentaries aired they mysteriously vanished only to re-surface dead in a diving accident!

The other notable site on the parkland is the Opera house to the south of the Freedom monument. A beautiful building surrounded by the parkland makes for good photos. The road that runs by the Opera house, Aspazijas Bulvanis is home to the cities nicest and best value eateries.

The centre of town then where all the tourist sights are then is enclosed on one side by the parkland and on the other by the river. This whole area in perhaps a mile squared so no long walks or public transport required to see all the sights.

The first place to aim for if you are after a view again is St. Peters church (1.5ls). The entrance fee here allows you to climb the spire. A lift takes you up the first 75 meters and a winding staircase and your own steam takes you up the final 50. The views here over the rooftops of the Old Town are well worth the effort. You also get great views over the Daugava river.

For the rest of the sights then well we decided just to bimble around. The sights of the Old Town are the buildings themselves. The beautifully decorative Blackheads house adorns the Rifleman square. This square is also home to the centre stone of Riga and is the sight of Latvia's Christmas tree. Also in this square is the monument to the Riflemen. The Riflemen made up three units of the Soviet army with men from Latvia.

The best museum of Riga is also in this square, the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia (free). This black tiled modern looking building looks odd from the outside, surrounded by the beauty of Blackheads house and the town hall. Inside this museum gives good information on the occupation of Lativa by the Soviets and also the Nazi's during the 2nd World War.

The rest of the Old time sights are just some of the stunning buildings and narrow picturesque lanes. Some of my favourite to photograph are the houses on Maza Pils iela. The Three Brothers, numbers 17,19 and 21 make for brilliant photographs. Number 17 dates back to the 15th century.

Tip for you here. I am vegetarian and Riga is very much a pork loving city. The citiy does have an amazing vegetarian restaurant near the three brothers on Janiela street. The Kamila is an amazingly atmospheric place with hippyish decor and a very relaxed attitude. The food here is amazing though and a real find for vegetarians.

Another important re-fuelling stop for us was the coffee chain Double Coffee. There are half a dozen of these coffee houses dotted around the old town. These offer, in order of importance, somewhere to escape the cold, clean toliets, Baileys Irish coffees and tasty cakes.

The Old Town, in December, is fairly quiet and for a better feel of local life you need to head down towards the central station. This is home to a busy shopping centre and the station has the general hubbub you would expect.

Beyond the station is the real place to see and mingle with the locals. the Central Market located in the Moscow District is a great place to people watch. The market itself is made up of five massive Zeppelin Hangers. This is place where any tourists seem to vanish and you will be walking alone in a very Russian feeling atmosphere. I love feeling foreign and being in places with an edge so loved the markets. It is a great place to pick up some traditional Russian foodstuffs. Try the black bread which makes a brilliant 'beer snack' when toasted.

Having read the other Dooyoo reviews before mine Riga seems to get a poor press. For me whilst I would never go back it was a nice introduction to a more edgy kind of travel. I speak bits of French, Spanish and Italian and the cities of these countries have the same kind of shops and cafes as England. The cities have a similar atmosphere and a general feeling of safety.

Riga for me was the first place where the safety of familiarity was removed and I really enjoyed it. In terms of beauty, well it cannot compete with Prague or Stockholm say and in terms of romance not a patch on Paris or Florence, in terms of history nothing on Warsaw or Rome. What it is though is a beautifully relaxed and compact city that is perfect for a short weekend.
It has great bars and restaurants and is so, so cheap to eat well.

It has enough to do and see without you feeling rushed or that you have to cut things short to fit things in. It is the kind of place you can spend a weekend and come home with a really good understanding of what Riga is. It's modern history is accessible. It feels a long way from home when in reality only a two hour flight. You get that all so important feeling of being foreign.

It may not have it's Eiffel Tower or it's Uffizi gallery but what is does have is a beautiful and compact Unesco protected heart. The hoardes of stag do's and sex traffic is confined to areas outside of the historic heart. This is a beautifully relaxed city to explore and feel.

Summary: Perfect for a short weekend getaway. Any longer though and you may be crawling the old town walls.