Just back from beautiful Riga and thought I would share my experiences. Everybody is mostly friendly is Riga until such time as the sun goes down and tourists like ourselves hit the bars and cafes and restaurant and suddenly we are all treated with a little more distain. We were turned away from more places claiming "private party", "No English" and after explaining we are Irish, "No Stags", when we explained we were not a stag party we were intimidated to move away from the door.
Nice Welcome. However, I have vowed to return to the city next year with my Fiancee as Im sure we will have a better time just the two of us. There appears to be a massive industry built up around stupid drunken males, to get as much out of their pockets as possible in the quickest amount of time. During the day it is like a relaxing sleepy town but by night, the pimps and club reps pour about the streets.
Even two girls with sash's, hats and breathalisers were going about. I said I did not need to be breathalised because I know what a "0" looks like and she said "but how can you be sober, your English". Nice attitude. We did the shooting in Regro S, Museum of Occupation, and both Catherdrals amongst visiting the sqaures and plazas including the market whereby everybody seems to sell shoes. With near to stalls thats a lot of shoes.
We both some typical souvenirs and the odd piece in the Shopping Centre. Jelgava about 40 minutes from the city was like opposite poles. It was residential by far and we looked really out of place in our suits for a wedding. We asked about a bar on Thursday night, the receptionist said as it was after 10pm the bar was closed in the hotel. We asked about bars around the area. She said "why, its a Thursday, why would you drink on a Thursday?
Taxi's were not used by us very often as we stayed in the Reval Latvija. We used the shuttle from the hotel 3LAT and walked everywhere. I did notice that the Red taxis outside our hotel were normal people driving normal taxis but late at night the white taxi's were like Brothels on wheels. Walking back from Club Essential 5 mins away every taxi offering a taxi ride home and when you say no, the ask "would you like to have woman for? Like those students working from Amnesty international on pedestrian streets, as much as you put your head down and try to avoid them, they will always get you!!!
