"Labdien Riga!" a Riga Travel Page by Airpunk

In some brochure, I read that Riga was the bully among the baltic cities. And from what I have seen (I have visited only Tallinn and two smaller towns in Latvia), I can agree with that. Not only, because it is by far the largest city in the Baltics. Especially in the summer months, it becomes victim of a tourist invasion. And after Ryanair commenced to link Riga with a couple of european cities, you are not safe of the infamous stag and hen parties. With its mix of latvian and russian population, Riga has developed its own kind of charme. Surely a little rough, but as soon as you get used to it, you will discover the friendlyness of the latvian between the often hard façade.Riga is famous for its nightlife, with dozens of pubs and clubs in the old town and that’s perhaps the main reason why people visit Riga. But it is surely worth to spend a day in the old town, discover the beauty of different architectural styles and climb the spire of St. Peter’s.

Riga has a population of around 750 000 inhabitants, making it almost twice as large as Tallinn. Latvia’s capital has to handle with the fact that its population consists of slighty more russians than latvians. Perhaps, that is one of the reaasons while latvians are not that open to the influence of other cultures. The settlement received its city rights in 1201. It quickly developed into an important town of this region. During its history of 800 years, it was under rule of different powers including the Livonian Order, the Swedish Empire and later the Russians. After Latvia became an independet country for the first time in 1918, Riga became the capital of the new nation. Unfortunately, this freedom did not last for long. First, the Soviets occupied the country in 1940. But only a year later, Nazi Germany atacked Russia and occupied the Baltic States. After WWII, the Soviet Union occupied the country and made it a province within its own territory.
After Latvia gained back its independence in 1991, Riga became once again Latvia’s capital. After dealing with early struggle on the way to a democratic, trully independent nation in the early 1990s, an economic boom is taking place in Riga. The city, which was once called Paris of the east, is now the main business center of the region. You see construction works taking place quite everywhere in the city as sign of an uprising economy. Unfortunately, there are not only winners in this uprising periods. Prices for everyday life are rising quickly and especially russians are facing a situation of poverty which appeared in many post-soviert countries after 1991. Even that is an obvious sight during your tour through Riga…

I am not a big fan of Good Charlotte, but I will surely remember one of their songs: The River. I associate this song with my trip to the Estonia and Latvia in 2007. It does not have anything to do with the meaning of this song, it was just played a couple of times in the hostel bar in Riga so that it became my background music for the time being there. The only "real" river I can associate with this song is the Daugave, which happened to be just in front of my hostel. So, if you are a fan of Good Charlotte or if you accidentally have this song in your collection of music, turn it on while you read all the stuff I have written about Riga.