Fucking Daugavpils

Among Latvians the second biggest town in Latvia – Daugavpils is considered a shithole. It is the place where even Latvians speak Russian (occasionally even better than Latvian), because most people are Russians. It is also known for Daugavpils fortress, Grīvas prison, trams (besides Riga and Liepāja) and collapsed heavy industry – in Soviet times it was a massive industrial town, there’s not much left from that, just abandoned factories. Daugavpils was also the birthplace for Mark Rothko, a famous American painter (for unknown reason some Latvians consider him Latvian).
First of all, if you are a typical tourist who is looking for beautiful sights, there’s nothing much for you to do in Daugavpils. You can probably just stop over for a night in order to explore Latgale’s region later, for instance, many lakes or churches. However, if you are looking for some weird staff, Daugavpils is the right choice. If you take the bus to arrive to the town, you might be surrounded by some gypsies that try to sell black-market cigarettes at the bus station, so better use the train if you arrive from Riga, it’s also cheaper. There are a couple per day. In Daugavpils it’s quite hard to find a nice place to eat for a reasonable price unless you like cool food (bistro Vēsma), kebab (in front of the bus station) or Hesburger (on Riga street). To spend a day, you can go to the fortress to see the abandoned buildings of Russian army. In some of the areas people still live today. Try to ride there a tram as it is different than in other towns in Latvia. In the center you can explore a few shopping malls that have taken the best spots of the town or browse through the shabby looking areas such as Ķīmiķu ciems (village of Chemistry people) – a place for factory workers used to live. In general, Daugavpils can be explored within a few hours. Many roads of the town are still with sand (perhaps due to lack of money for asphalt), so remember to take extra shoes or a bottle of water to wash your feet if you don’t stay in a hotel or guest house.

Daugavpils is Russians’ town

People are experiencing economical crisis also in Daugavpils

Tram in Daugavpils. They are actually of different design and colours

Pirates rob the bus

If you arrive at Riga airport and consider taking the public bus Nr. 22, be very careful. It is cheap option to get into centre – 0,40/0,50 Ls only, while airBaltic city shuttle costs 3 Ls. Taxi could cost around 10 Ls or even more because you are foreigner. But the bus Nr. 22 is being watched by ticket controllers. The scenario is a but like pirates robbing a ship. Controllers stop the bus (it can be anywhere on the route and usually it’s not a stop of the bus) and get in and demand tickets. The bus will continue its route only when penalty fees are collected. They are usually at least 5, but can be even 10 controllers at the same time. The thing is that obviously most people have tickets, cos you can buy one from a bus driver, however, how the hell foreigners would know that they also need to purchase extra tickets for their luggage?! There is no indications in English in the bus about that. And controllers don’t take it for excuse that you didn’t know. So this is a honey for bees, a typical Soviet time attitude towards foreigners – to fuck them hard. And then the city council, who owns the public transport, will say that they are working with profit. And that profit will go towards promotional leaflets of Riga city. How stupid is that, cos such attitude from controllers at the bus is the best “advertising” for Riga. How dumb.

Totalitarian legacy

Let me write one more post on economical crisis. As to the response to one comment, I have to admit that in Latvia it is a criminal offence to rumour or spread lies about the country’s economical situation. Two cases already had been open that were publicly criticized, but probably there are more and papers don’t know about them. At the same time many politicians with power can make rumors or lies, such as the prime minister, but no charges are brought against him. The first case was when a professor at a seminar expressed his views on crisis, the second – when a singer of a band on stage made a joke about the infamous Parex bank. And of course it was not that the security police was patrolling there but people who were present at those events (seminar, concert) denounced them, just like in good old KGB times.

On 13 January there will be a mass protest meeting at Dome square. Some youngsters made a website (it’s already been shut down) where they called to subvert the government with violent methods, for instance, to go to the parliament with molotov cocktails and bricks. Of course, secret police has started the investigation.

This country centrainly lacks a sense of humor which would be especially needed in such hard times, and in a lot of cases you can notice the signs of totalitarian legacy – the old-fashioned laws, denouncements, actions of secret police, indolence of society etc. People don’t change, capitalism has brought new houses and cars but our mentality is still the same…

How crisis affect tourism

Some of you wonder how economical crisis affect the daily life in Latvia, has prices gone down or up etc. Although the crisis is a main topic in Latvia, consequences of it hasn’t been visible just yet. However, there are some changes. It’s easier to book a cheap place in hotel, because they are not overcrowded. Prices in restaurants and food places are the same, they hasn’t got down yet. The increase of VAT from 18% to 21% might not affect the prices as businesses might try to cut their income rather than rise the prices, because the market is low. But still, the VAT increase might affect the hotel prices, as the VAT there will increase from 5 to 21%. It means tourists will have to seek alternatives, such as renting flats from grannies for cash-in-hand. Clubs are also less crowded, a lot of young people try to get drunk at home or on the street before going to a dance club. There’s also some change in entertainment places. Andrejsala, once popular hang-out place, has been closed down. Now youngsters go to Spikeri near Central market or to Aptieka bar near Dome squere. Metakafe is still working, as well as Depo. There’s also a new place Leningrad bar on Kalēju street – it’s made in Soviet style with old furniture, TV set and portraits of Lenin. A nice place in the age of economical depression.

Latvia in unconventional photos

We have come across some blogs that feature photos of Latvia. All of them seems to be made by individuals, with more or less sense of humor. We decided to choose three our favorites. There’s a guy that takes random photos of Riga every day. The other one is the website with probably the longest domain name in the world – millionreasonswhylatviaisthebestcountryintheworld.com. And then there’s a photographer who shoots the things that remind of the Soviet past. Enjoy!

Like a surgeon

Recently a new restaurant Hospitalis has been opened on Stabu 14 in Riga. It is a must-see place if you like gore things. The restaurant looks like a medicine cabinet, while you are treated as a patient and taken good care by the long-legged waitresses in nurses uniforms. The food is served in flasks and operating-room’s dishes and isn’t that cheap (7 and more lats per meal), but this is a bizarre experience that is worth breaking the bank. Besides, the place is owned by local doctors, but unfortunately, the president of Latvia, who is also a doctor, declined his appearance at the opening once he realized how weird this place actually is.