How to use public transport in Riga?

Yes, it’s confusing, because there’s different system of paying for tickets, also there’s no way to find out what kind of stops the transport has on its way besides the first and the last stop. Well, if you speak some Latvian, you can find it out on internet, not very practical if you are already walking down the streets. Also, don’t rely on timetable unless you are at the last stop or very close to it, traffic jams and driver’s I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude makes timetables very approximate. Bus, trolleybus and tram costs 0.40 Ls per ride. There’s no day travelcard in Riga. On a tram and trolleybus you need to buy ticket before boarding, otherwise you can buy it from a driver for 0.50 Ls. Tickets can be bought in newsagent’s shops, such as Nervessen or Pluspunkts, but you might find it difficult to spot one outside the center. Once you get on board you put your ticket in a yellow puncher, it will stamp some numbers. Ticket control is quite often, so make sure you don’t lose your ticket. On a bus there’s different system – you buy your ticket from a conductor. When your stop is approaching, make sure you stand next to the door well in advance, because in Latvia, once the transport stops and the doors open, driver’s don’t wait while you pop up your ass and linger towards exit. If nobody is at the doors while the stop approaches, it might even keep driving. In public transport most old people (pensioners, also smelly alcoholics) crowd at the topside of the transport, so better sit/stand somewhere in the middle.

Mini bus in Riga

In Riga there’s also a popular way of transport – maršruta taksometri, which means “mini route cabs” or “small buses” with 11-12 seats that normally take similar routes as main public transport, but much faster and with less stops (actually it will stop whenever you ask the driver). You buy your ticket from a driver (the price depends on a route, but is usually between 0.40-0.70 Ls within Riga), it is very common that the driver doesn’t issue you a ticket.

Why Riga isn’t good for stag parties anymore?

If you google “Riga stag” you get get quite a few websites that offer stag holidays in Riga. We believe there are many reasons to argument why stag parties in Riga is a history.

First of all, Latvians hate stag party boys, so if you are one of them, don’t blame the country or their people if you have been robbed or beaten. So in that sense, as a stag party guest, you can’t feel welcomed here. You will probably fuck the most stupid girls in town and they won’t do it for free, you will also pay much more than they actually cost. Because you are not perceived as a civilized human, but as and asshole with no brains and a lot of money in the arse and they want to get the most out of your ass. One of a typical scenarios is to be ripped-off by barely dressed girls that appear to want to flirt with you, for instance, at Groks bar – it’s a cafe/club near Livu sq., next to Pepsi Forums dance club. According to Latvian daily Diena, some guy have paid 2000 Ls for a bottle of champagne. He was too drunk to notice for what amount his credit card was charged. Later he didn’t want to bother with police, cos he was leaving the country and also had family back home, so obviously his wife and kids wouldn’t be happy hearing their daddy was spraying liters of expensive champagne on some local Barbies. So let’s say the first reason is that stag parties are not welcome by locals and if you are ripped-off, Latvians won’t feel pity for you, they will rather call you a dickhead and be happy that you got what you deserved.
The second reason is that it’s not that cheap anymore. And Riga is famous for bad service in bars and restaurants, very often they have pumped up prices, but not service, attitude or content. In the last year overall inflation was 17 %, but some staff jumped up even 30 %. Cigarettes cost 1.50 Ls (which is around 1.55 in GBP; last year the price was 0.80 Ls), while beer is around 2-3 Ls per pint. A meal will start at around 5 quid and a bus ride cost 0.40 Ls (remember, there’s no day pass, so if you need 6 changes, you pay 2.40 Ls per day, which is almost what Londoners pay for a day travel card on bus). Prostitutes are still in last year’s prices, which means around 30-40 Ls for a normal chick, while expect to pay 60-100 Ls for a VIP type beauty queen. Average food prices in a shop are about 10-15% more than in Berlin, for instance, a liter of orange juice is around 0.80 Ls, a simple white bread – around 0.60 Ls. Knowing that stag parties take place in Old Riga mainly and that you won’t have time to see much else besides some stupid bars and boring dance clubs, you will drink the most expensive booze of Riga, eat most expensive food and visit most boring places. For instance, one of a stag travel companies offers an option to travel to Sigulda and ride down the bobsleigh track in a bob on wheels. This package costs 36 Ls (it includes two rides) and you must be 10 people in a group (it means that you might need to pay more if you are less). In the reality this could cost you much less – return trip to Sigulda costs 2 Ls on train, while the ride in the bob is 5 Ls. So if you take the ride twice (we can assure you that one time is enough, cos your head will ache from shaking) you end up paying 12 Ls instead of 36. As a stag boy, you have overpaid three times.

Finding remains of recent history

Latvia has changed fast. A lot of things have been destroyed, especially houses and even areas. New ugly houses and towns have been build, but still, Latvia has a lot of forgotten sites that might be completely erased one day. There’s a group of people in Latvia that like to creep in such wrecks – abandoned houses, half destroyed factories or unfinished buildings and even empty Soviet army military sites. You can see some photos on Bradajumi. Unfortunately, they don’t have an English version, but you can go straight to the gallery and see some photos. Time to time those guys organize creeping into abandoned places collectively, so you might drop an email, maybe you are lucky and they take you on board, the only thing we have to warn you that it’s not always legal, however there’s no danger that you can get any fine, but you should be rather aware that there’s no health and safety once you get in, so don’t come in high heels or most expensive dress.

We have also entered a few interesting sites on our own, for instance, forgotten Russian army village near Skrunda in Western Latvia. It was a small village that used to belong to Soviet army. The village had military area and also about 8 block houses where families of militarists lived. They also had a school, kindergarten, shop and, imagine, they all lived there behind the fence for many years. Russians left it only in 1999.

Abandoned Soviet army village in Skrunda.

Another Riga

Riga by night

We have found a website entitled Cita Riga, which means “Another Riga”. They have a motto that has something close to our ideology – to show the city on the other hand. They have given some background information on various districts of Riga, such as Sarkandaugava, Kundzinsala and Agenskalns that are usually underrepresented in tourist guides. It’s pity that their English version sucks – besides main intro nothing else is available in English, at least we couldn’t find it today. Yet, what they do have, is at least some photos of these districts, some historical, some from today.

Party on bus

This looks like a good option for bored foreign tourists – a party bus, which, according to their website is the first legal one in Riga. You can rent a bus that has a dance-floor, large sofa and a bar with barman and cruise the city and suburbs. You can even smoke inside. Price starts at 130 Ls per hour, but discounts available when booked for longer hours. A bit pricey, but if you are 20 people it makes just £22 per person for 4 hrs partying. This looks like a great stag party place – you sing karaoke, have some booze, take some beautiful Russian girls on board and have a great night. And once you can’t take no more, no need to call for taxi to get home, the bus will bring you to the door.

What about our soviet story?

We have noticed how actively and emotionally some readers have reacted to our recent post “Why Latvians don’t talk about soviet times?”. In fact, the most emotional posts came from youngsters who have never lived in those times. It looks like they are victims of 1990s rewritten history of Latvia, where Latvians are portrayed purely as victims and that they had nothing to do with the history or events of Soviet Union. This shows one tendency – instead of analyzing our history with “cool attitude” it’s easier to pick up only the sad side of it and forget the other side(-s). It’s like showing ourselves as sufferers only but forgetting what was our own role in maintaining the soviet ideology. Some people say that Latvians were collaborating to survive. Yes, but not only. Researching archives (and we have done that) we have found out that in 1987 the high ranked positions within the Soviet Latvia were occupied by 71% of Latvians. And it includes local “cheka” (KGB). Remember that informers of “cheka” were not just Russians, but anyone’s friends or colleagues at job, university students, neighbors etc. And regarding monuments of Lenin – it was local initiative, but, of course, purely economical and not political, because sculptors could get a lot of money for a monument of Lenin. Yet, you cannot ignore what consequences this avidity for money had.
In the previous and this post we don’t want to glorify Soviet times or to justify the fact of occupation. What we want is to understand that the history is always rewritten again and again after every major political change and that we (Latvians) have re-positioned ourselves in the events of Soviet Latvia. In this post we want to remind that suffering was caused not only by Russians but also by passionate Latvians, ideologically, economically or sometimes even personally (for instance, to denounce to KGB a friend you hate) motivated.

It does looks like Soviet times is still a hot topic and yet we cannot analyze it without overacted emotions. Recently released movie by Latvian director Edvins Snore entitled “The Soviet Story” is creating more and more noise in Europe. A few people in Russia, of course, wanted to kill the director, without having seen the movie. It does also reminds that this Russian-Latvian “issue” cannot be resolved that soon. And such movie definitely will not help that. But it will help to gain awareness to some historical events. It is understandable why Russians don’t like to watch it. It is a preservation mechanism of national identity, as psychologists would call it, to ignore some parts of the history in order to maintain the “desired” identity. Russians attitude towards the movie is as emotional as Latvians attitude towards Soviet times, and in a way there’s nothing to do about it. And if you haven’t seen the movie, try to get it (it looks like it might be shown in some European cinemas soon as well). It’s a good lesson for new filmmakers as it illustrates how greatly you can manipulate with images for illustrating some facts in order to create strong emotions in viewers. Obviously, watching thousands of corpses will make you sick (in that sense it reminds the infamous banned book “Baigais gads”, released in Latvia during German occupation in WWII), but when in a modern world it’s hard to impress, it’s a good choice as it will play on your nerves for sure. The movie is already a blockbuster in Latvia (and will be shown on national TV on 17 June), let’s see how it is perceived elsewhere.