Ice skating in front of Riga Railway station.

Labels: center, christmas, entertainment, holidays, people, railway, stations

This alley in the middle of Brivibas street is decorated in colors of Latvian Flag since Independence day.
Picture is taken from Freedom Monument side.

Labels: center, christmas, design, holidays, independence, lights, parks, streets, trees

New year decoration of Wall Street in Riga. The streets are quite empty those days because of cold weather.

Labels: design, empty, lights, streets, vecriga

Christmas Market at Dome square with Dome Cathedral at background.

Labels: churches, holidays, lutheran, markets, shopping, towers, traditions, trees, vecriga

You may ask, what is the point to sell Christmas trees after 24th of December? :)
Basically half of people living in Riga celebrate Christmas on 7th of January and then an Russian New Year on 14 of January.
Terefore, to make Christmas tree stay fresh until middle of January, you have to buy it just before 31 of December :)
On the picture hidden Lada in firs. It is mobile office of Christmas trees vendor :)

Labels: cars, holidays, markets, prices, russian, shopping, traditions, trees, vecriga

Winter decoration of Laima Clock in Riga.

Labels: christmas, clocks, lights, sights, towers, trees, vecriga

Square of Blackheads house (Ratslaukums), with Christmas attributes and Roland in the middle.
By the way, just few meters from current position is the monument of the first ever Christmas tree in the World.

See also Webcam on Ratslaukums

Labels: buildings, christmas, holidays, lights, medieval, monuments, night, sights, trees

Merry Christmas Riga.
This is photo of the biggest Christmas tree in the world for the past years located in Lido Amusement park

Labels: christmas, entertainment, holidays, kengarags, trees

Bolderaja cemetery is one of two cemeteries still operating inside of Riga borders.
And it expands its borders every single day.

Labels: bolderaja, cemeteries, snow, towers, winter

This building is more than just a good example of Art Nouveau architecture in Riga, but also it is a German School.
Actually it is my school. By word "my" I mean that I spent several years in this building to get some knowledge about the life, and German language of course :)
The school named after famous German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, who used to work in Riga as teacher.
One more interesting fact that this is the only school located on Skolas iela, which means School street in Latvian language.
See also English school in Riga.

Labels: center, german, jugendstil, schools, snow, winter

Last days there was a lot of snow in Riga. So children have enough of material to build their own fortress during winter holidays ;)

Labels: children, purvciems, snow, winter

Now the most breaking news in Latvia is the fire of several tank cars near Ventspils town.
The incident caused by collision of oil car and benzine car. It is said that 2 dead bodies already found.
The flame of is as big as it can be seen from far distance.

Labels: fire, incidents, jobs, railway, towns, trains, ventspils

After a fire in La Rocca and 1 year of being renovated, the biggest club in Riga continued to work.
Thousands of people came to the new La Rocca last night to have a party.
Actually the atmosphere of the nightclub is the same as 1 year ago.
Due being under schauffe, I couldn't take any better picture that night than this one :)
The big screen with aliens watching party people - quite good idea ;)

Check also Studio 69, another dance floor, which is connected to La Rocca.

Labels: clubs, events, lights, nightlife, people

Riga Water towers, the as in Ciekurkalns and in Agenskalns.

Labels: buildings, center, industrial, railway, towers, water

After Soviet Union collapse all writings in Russian language were replaced by Latvian.
I wonder how this plate written in Cyrillic alphabet survived ;)
Locomotive was parked not far from Zemitani railway station.

Labels: railway, trains, transport, writings

On the picture in picture is the same building, but before renovation.
Interesting is that the top floor with very high ceiling was split into two with medium range high ceiling.
The address of this building is Kugu iela 11/13, the backstreet part of the house is in much worse condition.

Labels: buildings, houses, kliversala, pink, projects

Soon this device will be a history because in next year e-tickets should be used in transport
And no paper tickets anymore.

Labels: tramways, transport

Most probably most of foreign readers doesn't even know that such car brand as Lada even exist.
It is Russian car make. Shitty and cheap.
I don't think you can meet Lada in any developed country just because it doesn't fits any safety standards :)
On the picture you can find trailer full of so-called Lada Jeeps

Labels: bridges, cars, roads, russian, streets, transport

Kaļķu vārti is one of my favourite night clubs in Riga. Sometimes there is a spontaneous performance by regular visitors.
Obviously the club is located on Kalku iela, just next to Mad House ;)

Labels: bars, birthdays, clubs, girls, nightlife

Prime Minister of Latvia, Mr. Ivars Godmanis runs every morning.
Difficult times are coming in Latvia, so everybody must be in shape :)

Labels: daugavgriva, famous, funny, nature, people, persons, roads, sea

What size is the biggest poster of your favourite artist? :)

Labels: ads, brivibas, cars, jobs, shopping, teika, writings

Smēķēšana nogalina is written on each cigarette pack made in (for) Latvia.
It means Smoking Kills, of course :)
how long it would take for you to fill such bucket? :)

Labels: funny, writings

In Latvia only government facilities are authorized to issue annual certificates of roadworthiness.
Kind of monopoly, I could say.
For little car it costs around 50 EUR, but bigger cars are more expensive. There are around 1.3 Millions vehicles in Latvia.
Not bad business, I could say.

Labels: cars, industrial, jobs, prices, transport

Unfortunately, I couldn't take any better picture of this man, who was doing absolutely illegal thing in tramway.
Guess what? :)

Updated: At the moment of writing this comment I was not informed that some stuff is legalized.

Labels: drugs, people, poverty, tramways, transport

Riga Container Port is on of the biggest on Baltic Sea.
Every year about 200000 containers are being passed through this facility.
Cargo harbour located in special Riga zone named Osta (Port), but in fact it is Sarkandaugava neighbourhood.

See also Riga Coal Port, which is located just next to container docks.

Labels: daugava, harbours, industrial, rivers, sarkandaugava, ships

Building Freeze of Orthodox church in Daugavgriva area.
due global financial crisis, Latvia is suffering from lack of money, so many buildings are being stopped now.
Hopefully building of National Library is in force.
Updated: a church building is nearly finished in spring of 2012

Labels: bolderaja, buildings, churches, daugavgriva, orthodox, projects, religious

One of the last week top news, is the fire in Domina shopping center.
It is the second fire in Domina for the last couple of weeks.
Hopefully I managed to buy new shoes before the fire :)

Labels: cars, fire, incidents, jobs, purvciems, shopping

Actually it is not a river, but canal in Mukusala area. During autumn it looks really ghastly.
In fact it has own official name Kileveina gravis (Kilevein ditch)

Labels: autumn, mukusala, nature, pardaugava, rivers, trees, water

Honda anyone?

Labels: cars, kengarags, shopping

Window cleaners remind me spiders weaving their web.
See also another Riga Window cleaners, or maybe they are even the same :)

Labels: buildings, center, jobs, people, urban

One of the courtyards on Elizabetes iela. This is what inside of fancy street filled with trendy boutiques.

Labels: buildings, cars, center, night, urban, walls, yards

Riding wheel of touring Amousement park which has visited Riga last month.
On the background you can see the top of LMT office.

This photo is for Monthly Theme Day, which is "Circles or Spheres".
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Labels: brivibas, events, lights, night, parks, teika, themes