Culture & Lifestyle
Laimīgu Jauno gadu! (Happy New Year)
I don’t know if it’s just me, still high off the rum-infused fumes of Christmas pudding, but it strikes me that “laime” or “prieks” (happiness) is most certainly in the air now that we’ve hit 2015. Despite the crisp, biting -10 (feels like -16) temperatures outside, I continue to experience little nuggets of happiness during […]
Useful Addresses In Riga: For Renovating Your Home
Renovating a property in Rīga? You’ll find there are a whole host of massive hardware stores for pretty much everything, as well as smaller specialist shops for articles like sink fittings and paint. If you live out of town and don’t have access to a bricks and mortar store, there are also a number of […]
How Latvians Earn A Living
Three conversations and events inspired this post… Then, a colleague told me a fourth story about a taxi driver that really drove the point home and made me want to write about the mad ways in which Latvians earn a living. 1) Recently, a Riga citizen journalist reported a police raid on a number of […]
Latvians & Mushrooms – A Not-So-Secret Love Affair
Anyone who is privileged enough to be friends with a Latvian or two on Facebook may have noticed that over the past month, the usual slew of cringe-inducing baby photos, screaming goat videos and ice-bucket mishaps were replaced by unfathomable mountains of mushrooms, hand-picked, fresh and displayed in various assortments, next to proud pickers with […]
16 More Amusing Uses of English in Latvia
Our latest linguistic findings in Latvia. I’ve lost count of the amount of times native English speakers have visited and suggested that someone could make a fortune helping out establishments with spelling and grammar. The thing is, nothing’s perfect. Not only that but then we’d have to make our own humour when going out for […]
How To Drive Like A Latvian
Latvian drivers are some of the best drivers in the world. After all, what other country can boast the highest car crash fatality rate in the European Union with 222 people killed per 1 million inhabitants? Where else can you find 4,674 traffic collisions, 525 fatalities and 3,925 injured people per year? That’s got to […]
Linda Araja – Humans Of Latvia
Linda Araja is the photographer behind Humans of Latvia. Inspired by the Humans of New York photography project Linda can occasionally be found wandering the streets looking for people to take pictures of. I took some time to have a chat with her about the venture, and how she feels about it. Hello Linda, has […]
Clothes Shopping In Riga
Just like any European capital city, Riga has its fair share of generic high street stores including the likes of Zara, Oasis and Bershka. To the delight of many, 2019 saw the arrival of &Other Stories. FYI, Riga doesn’t have any Primark stores. Any bags you see have been imported. To spend your evening or […]
How To Piss Off A Latvian
With bloggers recently feeling the touchy sides of the Dutch and Singaporeans, there seems to be a minor web trend informing expats on how not to behave like cultural cretins. If you know what’ s good for you, don’t tell a Dutchman he’s from Holland, and that shtick about chewing gum is getting stale down […]
How To Survive Winter In Latvia
When I was growing up, we spent countless New Year’s Eves mucking about in the knee-deep snow in the countryside. These days, we’re lucky to get a few days of such beautiful winter weather each year. Undeniably, winters are getting milder and kicking in later, with snow becoming a rare delight. But, come November, temperatures […]