It’s quite likely that you’ve not heard much about Riga? Maybe some of you have, but I can bet that most of us never considered the capital of Latvia for their bucket list. Don’t worry, we didn’t either! In fact we choose to fly to Riga while we were in Manchester for a weekend before driving back to the North of England. Looking at our options for places to visit, we realised that spending 4 days in Riga would be cheaper than 2 days in any English city. So here we go, in our low-cost flight full of Latvian folk… ✈️ 🇱🇻
1 – The Latvian Bakeries
Let’s begin with a serious topic: the Latvian bakeries. Before we went to Latvia we had a divided opinion about cakes there. We thought that it would be too creamy, too heavy or too sweet, in fact we had no real idea. Pleasantly, it was probably one of the biggest surprises in Riga.
Following the advice from le Routard, we went straight away on our first day to taste the Latvian bakeries and we found a little café near our Airbnb flat. With some difficulties to communicate, we succeeded to buy 2 cakes, 1 coffee, and 1 tea, all for only 2,40€.
The good side of 30-70 cent cakes is that you can taste all of them! The bad side is that you cannot stop… So enjoy and try some! There are a lot of different ones to try, you’ll find them with jam, cream, fruits and plenty more.
2 – The old town
The city centre is based around the old town. The streets are cobbled and the architecture of the buildings are typical from Eastern Europe countries.
There are many places to stop to in the old town such as the House of Blackheads, St. Peter’s church, Riga Castle, and the two Guild Halls.
I recommend you look up while you walk around the two guilds. On top of the building facing the big Guild Hall are two statues of cats. You will see that these cats appear as if they are spraying their urine. There is a funny story behind this. The owner of the building built it after being rejected to enter the two Guilds. Offended, he decided to build the building and add the two cats on top of the towers, in a way that the cats are showing their butt to the people who refused him in their Guild.
A joke that obviously the big Guild didn’t appreciate to which they took him to court and the result was that the cats had to be turned to make them show their heads instead. Apparently the cats changed position many times before getting back to this one. The last time was while the big Guild became the soviet bank. The cats were one more time showing their but to the building, to which the soviet bank immediately demanded the change of the position of the cats. Today the cats are showing their face to the building but who knows for how much longer 😉.
3 – Art Nouveau District
Riga is well known for the architecture in it’s Art Nouveau District. Since only few years ago, this quarter had been renovated, and in particular the most famous street of Riga for Art Nouveau, Alberta street (Alberta iela). Only a few buildings are still awaiting renovation. This is quite an impressive area for architecture which will surprise you for sure.
4 – The Canteens
We spoke about the bakeries, but you can also taste traditional Latvian food in the well known canteens of Riga. Lido is a famous channel of canteen restaurant. The decorations are quite typical, the waiters wear traditional outfits, and the food is very cheap. We both took a drink and a plate with two different meals, and it costs us 5-8€ each.
5 – Central Market of Riga
The last stop of our weekend was the Central Market located near the river. It constitutes of several old and fascinating hangars, each with a speciality (meat, cheese, cooked meal…). The market continues to the outside with flowers and plant sellers. It is a nice way to taste Latvian food before you finish your stay here or for something bring back.
Riga is very nice city. The photography lovers will definitely find great places to take pictures. If you know some other cool places to visit in Riga, share them in the comments below 😊
PS: All our pictures from Riga are on our Instagram @FranglaisTravel.
ML
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