Riga, Latvia | A beautiful city, with a brutal history 🇱🇻

About Riga..

Riga is the capital of Latvia & is a stunning city, pre world war 1 it was one of Europe’s Art Nouveau capitals for several years. It is full of colourful buildings with unique architecture. The Old Town is packed with bendy streets, trendy bars & amazing restaurants. You can do everything from gun shooting, to archery, to canal boat rides or spend a day lost in history visiting the plethora of Museums. Judging Riga purely on it’s aesthetic, you couldn’t begin to imagine how brutal & savage some of the last 125-150 years have been for the Latvian people. If I had to sum them up in one word it would be resilient.

During WW1 Riga was occupied by the Germans, in 1918 Riga became the capital of the newly independent Latvia. However, this was short lived as the Soviets annexed it in 1940, only to be “liberated” shortly after by the Nazi’s. Post WW2, the Soviets occupied Riga once more. For a few years, Riga went through a massive period of industrial growth becoming a key hub of the Soviet union. However, this wouldn’t last & the soviets ruled with an iron grip, leading to some truly harrowing times. In 1989 the Latvian people took part in the “Baltic Way” protest, forming a human chain interlinking arms with people from Estonia & Lithuania charting a route of 600+km demanding freedom from the Soviets. In 1991, Latvia became an independent country again. If you travel outside of the city centre, you can still see a lot of the old Soviet architecture. We often tend to think of history as being some distant relic from the past, but the lessons are more important today than ever.

Story time 📚

Whilst I hesitate to describe it as a tourist attraction, the Cornerhouse was one of the most important stops in my visit. It is the old KGB headquarters, the building itself has not been touched & remains now how it always was. Some of these other places of that nature have been turned into big exhibitions or actual museums. Keeping the building in the same state that it was previously, gives you a profound appreciation for just how haunting life was for anyone imprisoned there. You go into the interrogation rooms, prison cells, dungeons & walkways / kitchens. There was a certain moral quandary about posting the photos from this place & whether it is appropriate on a blog. However, pretending evil doesn’t exist doesn’t do justice to the people who had or continue to live in such circumstances. It’s important to remember, that if you live in a relatively ‘free’ country, you are very fortunate, freedom is never guaranteed.

Given that you are walking through decades of torture & anguish, the mood inside this place is very sombre. The tour guide did an incredible job of finding the right balance of tone & it certainly isn’t a place where you would go & find something funny. There was a small tour group of around 12 people & the guide directed us through into the interrogation room, I was straggling along at the back of the group. A lot of the rooms & walkways have limited lighting. On route to the room, I saw a side door that was completely dark inside, with some trepidation I wanted to pop my head in the door to see what was inside. The tour guide had went in there behind the door to let everyone past into the interrogation room. However there was no lights in that room, it was quiet & the guide was dressed all in black. I crept in behind the door & bumped into the guide, almost face to face, any closer & I would have kissed him. The building was eerie enough, but I really got the fright of my life & let out a wild tumultuous squeak. The gent laughed it off, I felt a bit disrespectful for laughing in such a place, but thankfully it wasn’t taken in bad faith.

In Latvia they have a recycling scheme where if you return bottles & cans to a store you can get money. Prior to my arrival I was oblivious to this & was wandering down a dark alleyway, not for any nefarious reason, I just love to walk through neighbourhoods & get a feel for the place rather than sticking to tourist areas. There were some massive wheely bins on this quiet street & some guy jumped out of one of the bins, I almost passed out from the fright. However, I later came to realise that he was looking for things to recycle & he wasn’t trying to kidnap me. I think that is a great scheme, it keeps trash off the streets, improves recycling & helps people to earn some money 😊

In the shadows of St Peters Church, a stunning building with incredible views of the city, you will find an archery stand where you can fire about 12 arrows for 8 euros. I desperately wanted to partake as it looked great fun. However, there was a group of drunken lads fannying around (excuse my French, I couldn’t think of any other appropriate description) with the bows, pointing the arrows at each other & just generally being a nuisance. Absolutely an accident waiting to happen, so I decided against it 😂. If you have ever done the archery, let me know, at least that way I can live vicariously through you. I have posted some additional photos & videos to my Instagram here.

Some photos of the trip… 🤳🏼

Where to eat & drink? 🍻🍽️

If you want to try some Latvian food in the city centre I would recommend going to the restaurant Golden Coffee – Kungu iela 7/9 Riga 1050. The food here was really good (photo above) & it wasn’t too expensive for the location. It is right beside St Peters Church, it cost me around 19 euros for a large bottle of water & a great main course. It is a little strange when you go in though as you can just sit anywhere & order on the QR code on your phone, but it isn’t inherently obvious that’s what you’re supposed to do.

I didn’t go for a beer, so can’t recommend any bars, however what I did notice was that a lot of bars had different happy hour times. Therefor you could just bounce between different bars to take advantage, Riga wasn’t cheap so it’s best to keep an eye on the purse strings.