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.

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.

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.

Shoes exterminator

Shoes exterminator – what a fuck is that, you may ask. Well, let me tell you a story, my little friend. A story called “Shoe exterminator”.

Once upon a time a little girl named Katie from rich warm Western country came to Latvia in winter time. She liked the snow and was happy walking down the streets of Riga and catching snowflakes with her tongue. So one day, after a cold night, she decided to wear the nice boots she bought for £500 on Bond Street in London last Autumn. She had her expensive boots on for the first time and felt so happy walking down the streets on a nice snowy day. At the end of the day she got back to her hotel and was surprised to discover that her boots looked like she had them on for like 30 years or so. They had changed colour, had white marks and it was impossible to cover that with shoe creme either. Little girl Katie was so unhappy and she cried all night and sweared she will never go to Latvia again.

Morale: Don’t wear expensive boots/shoes if it’s cold and snowy in Riga, because since Soviet times to make pedestrian roads less slippery they (those fucking council cunts) are using salt. A lot of salt. Just like that, they put in on a ground. In tons. And it destroys your shoes within a few days.

Public transport price increases

It looks like lately we are writing only about public transport, but believe me, it really sucks. And unless you are a rich bastard who can afford to live in Old Center or a bored tourist who only wants to see “nice staff” within 50 meters of your hotel in Old Riga, you have to face it. So at the end of last year some dickheads decided “let’s charge now 10 santims more!” on tickets. When people started to ask questions – “why?”, they couldn’t give a proper answer. It turned out that they increased price just because everyone does. So now we have to pay 0.40 Ls for single journey, however in tram, where you have to buy tickets before boarding (in trolleybus and bus there are conductors that sell you a ticket once you get in), in case you want to buy a ticket from driver it will cost you 0.50 Ls. The idea that you have to pay little more would be fine, but it happened that on the first days of new year there were no tram tickets in shops at all so people were forced to buy tickets from driver and pay more. Nice, very clever way of cashing in some money!

PS: Just to let you know that bread and cheese now costs more than in Germany or even Great Britain. Simple cheese starts at 5 lats per kg, bread at 0.60 Ls. Yes, food is made of gold here.

Cars rules…again and again

“Pedestrian, without a reflector you will be angel” says this advert in the streets of Riga. The advert means that you have to wear reflector, otherwise you risk being killed by car. For people of no hope in life (pensioners, beggars and punks) this might be very tempting to become angels. Latvia has second worst drivers in EU (after Lithuania), but instead of fighting that, they think that it’s pedestrians fault (they kinda invisible, right?). Isn’t this weird? It seems like when the city’s pollution level will reach high risk of being poisoned, there will be another law and campaign for people to buy gas masks (no, drivers are saints, let them drive as they want).