Travel report: Latvia

Country ranking by area: #123
Country ranking by population: #147

Date of visit: December 2015

Latvia was the first of the three Baltic countries I’ve visited. It was a cold weekend in December, when Matt, Simon and I travelled to Riga. We studied together and it was our second trip in this combination after five days in Tel Aviv in 2011.

Drunk Latvia

Riga was an insider trip for many years. The mixture of cheap alcohol, beautiful women and low cost flights made the city a popular destination for many young European men, especially from the United Kingdom. However, the increased number of tourist had also its downside. Riga was suddenly known as the ‘Bangkok of the Baltics’, and the British stag parties turned out to be a real problem for the locals. This bad reputation led to more party animal-tourists, and friends of mine followed that trend a few years before my visit and were absolutely amazed by the city.

Latvia wasn’t and still isn’t the most accessible country if you live in Switzerland. Although it’s the only Baltic country you can reach with direct flights from Zurich, flights to other typical stag party destinations like Budapest, Prague or Krakow are more frequent. Air Baltic was the airline that took us to Riga. “Air Baltic?” you ask? Yes, the airline whose crew including the pilot was sentenced to jail after drinking two bottles of Whiskey and beer prior to a flight…

As you can see, most stories about Latvia or the Baltics are somehow linked to drinking.

One night in Riga

I remember that the weather was lousy when we arrived in Riga. It was in the late afternoon of a Friday, and a taxi that offered free WiFi got us to our apartment. Why am I mentioning this? Because I have never seen taxis that offer free WiFi anywhere in the world. That makes Latvia a unique country. Somehow. Our apartment was an old one with two bed rooms, but it cost only 15€ per person per night. The location was unbeatable, as it was only a five minute walk from the city center.

After hearing all these stories about the wild stag parties, the English tourists and the cheap booze I had a certain image of Riga. But the city center was empty. It wasn’t the wild party mecca we expected at first view. Visiting the capital of Latvia in December might not be the worst thing if you can handle the weather, as you most probably won’t see hordes of stag parties. We were lucky, as temperatures were slightly above zero degree. I had the same temperature in Estonia by the way but in May.

We started the evening in one of the highest ranked restaurant on TripAdvisor. Eventually, we paid about 20 Euro per person for several starters, a main course, dessert, non-alcoholic beverages, wine, coffee and liquor. It didn’t take us long to realize that we just arrived in one of the cheapest cities in Europe. The food was outstanding by the way.

Although the streets are empty in December, the bars definitely aren’t. The city gets lively as soon as you enter one of the many venues in Old Town. However, some of the bars were dubious, and we weren’t sure if they were mafia-run strip clubs or regular bars. The first and only incident happened in a normal bar though. We were having a drink, when two ladies approached us. We chatted a bit, they seemed likeable and nice.

They asked if we were going to pay for a round. Sure, why not. Drinks are cheap in Riga. I ordered myself a beer and one of the ladies ordered a Whiskey. I was astonished when I got the hefty bill. My beer cost 2€, her Whiskey more than 20€. I fell victim to one of the oldest tricks: they worked in the bar and got a commission for every drink the customer paid them. I gritted my teeth and paid the bill. Matt just refused to do it. The same happened to him.

Therefore, I was quite baffled when my two friends sat at the table with two other girls in the next bar. I was smoking a cigarette outside, that’s why I didn’t enter the bar with them. Just when I sat down I saw how one of the girls ordered a shisha for €50. “Do you really think they will pay for the hookah?” I asked the guys. Unsurprisingly, they left the table as soon as they found out that no one of us would going to pay for it. We saw the girls with other tourists smoking the hookah when we left. “Poor guys,” we thought.

Nightlife turned out to be great in Riga. We went to many venues, and I must say that if a city is so much fun at night in winter, then it must be absolutely fantastic in summer. At least, I found the city had a better nightlife than other stag party destinations like Prague or Krakow.

Beautiful Riga

We didn’t sleep much from Friday to Saturday and the cold weather didn’t help either to feel fit the next day. But we had one full day in Riga and we wanted to use that time to see the city.

Riga is a charming city. It might not be a fairytale city like Tallinn, but it’s certainly pretty. Old town is obviously the charming part I’m talking about with its colorful and cute buildings. The architecture of the city is interesting and the houses definitely contribute to the beauty of the city. Some buildings are even listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

We spent much of our time in Old Town. Although the weather wasn’t the best, we wandered through the cute streets of the city center. We also passed by a Christmas market, who didn’t look very spectacular though. Riga has several spots where you can see the city from above. We decided to do that from the Skyline Bar on top of the Radisson Blu hotel.

The city starts to get ugly once you leave the city center, as you can see the old communism character of Latvia when you look at the buildings. Latvia was part of the former Sovjet Union, and believe it or not, it was the first former USSR country I’ve visited. Obviously, Riga still looks much more European than Moscow or Kiev for example. Perhaps, because Latvia is a member of the European or more likely because the Baltics are culturally closer to Europe than to Russia. At least, that was my impression after two days in Latvia.

All in all, I liked what I saw. Riga is a nice city for a couple of days or even more if you’re into delicious food, interesting architecture and great nightlife. The capital city of Latvia is also one of the best value for money-destinations in Europe. It’s even possible to visit the beach or the countryside on a day trip. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for that during this short visit.

Locked out

We had our flight back at noon so that we had to leave our apartment at 10 AM. That’s why we didn’t want to go ‘all in’ the second night. Unfortunately, the best intentions often become useless. We spent the night in a nightclub near the Radisson Blu, because we were told that this was a place where all the Latvian would go out (contrary to the Russian disco we went to the night before). It was quite fun, but at 4.30 AM I told the guys that I needed to go back to the apartment in order to have 5 hours of sleep at least.

My friends said that they were going to stay longer. The problem was that we had only one key for the apartment. As you had to go through two doors, it was impossible to hide the key outside the house. I said that they should just call me or ring the bell, and I would open the door afterwards.

90 minutes later. It was after 6 AM when the ring tone of my cell phone woke me up. I checked the display and saw 40 unanswered phone calls. Damn. I didn’t hear anything. It got worse when I saw that Simon waited almost one hour outside the house. Temperatures were about 0°C by the way.

You can imagine how furious he was. He sent me almost 100 text messages, and while the first ones were quite normal, every message after the 10th wasn’t anymore. Most of them were just “aasdasd”, but some of them were quite insulting. He wrote things like “I’m loosing my patience!!!” and “open the door you #![/&ç*/)”. And I absolutely understand it. I think that I would have reacted the same way.

Standing drunk and freezing outside of a house at 6 AM in a foreign country isn’t the way one wants to end a city trip. Today, we laugh about the situation, and I wish that I still had his text messages. Because they were hilarious (after a while at least :)). I have to say in my defense that the door bell didn’t work! And I didn’t hear my phone ringing. As a consequence, I will never book an apartment with only one key anymore.

My travel experience in Latvia

As I mentioned before, Latvia was the first Baltic country I’ve visited. In times of writing I have only been to Estonia so that I can only make a comparison between these two countries. If you compare the capitals of both countries, I would say that Riga is not as beautiful as Tallinn but more fun and also cheaper. I definitely had the impression that Latvia was more Slavic than Estonia. That’s probably because of the high amount of Russians living in the country.

Generally, the trip to Latvia was a short one but fun. It included great food that cost almost nothing, a charming city, great nightlife and an unfortunate but funny story about an apartment key. Will I revisit Riga? Yes, I think so, although it hasn’t the highest priority right now. I guess the flight schedule must be a bit better until I go back, because I wouldn’t take another half day off for a second visit. Will I travel to other places in Latvia? To be honest, I have no idea what Latvia has to offer except for the capital. That’s why I don’t think so, although I wouldn’t completely rule it out.

But first, I need to visit the last Baltic country: Lithuania. Maybe in 2019.

 

Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!