A building on the crossroads of Kokneses prospekts and Visbijas Prospekts was built in 1934.
I've been growing up in this area and I remember that on the first floor, here was a shop with a lot of interesting stuff, today, after 20 years I discovered that it was a book store ;)

Labels: buildings, mezaparks, shopping, streets, summer, tramways

Sometimes travelling in Riga Tramway you can meet quite famous people, like tipsy nationalistic politician Ingmars Lidaka going home from Zoo.

Labels: famous, politics, tramways, windows

Cleaning of tramways by trams themselves at Barona street.
BTW, there is no Richmond store at the corner. Now it is cheap clothes store called Tridueks.

Labels: buildings, lights, night, snow, streets, taxi, tramways, weather, winter

Usually I don't post photos of traffic accidents, which are more than regular events in Riga.
But in this case, I just curious how driving school car could get there? :)
This picture was observed today on 11. Novembra krastmala during sunset.

Labels: buses, cars, incidents, streets, sunset, traffic, tramways

Dammes iela (formerly Sergeja Ļuļina iela) is one of the main streets in Imanta neighbourhood.
The street was open in Soviet times and initially named after Soviet hero, the aviator Sergey Lulin.

Labels: autumn, buildings, imanta, panoramas, skyscrapers, streets, tramways

Taxi drivers are infamous for aggressive driving and strong immunity against police.
Although in this case, young taxi driver was forced to pay a fine :)

Labels: cars, lights, night, police, streets, taxi, tramways, vecriga

An apartment building located on Miera iela 93 was finished in 2006.
It was built according the best Riga traditions and as many other buildings in Central Riga it has a little tower on top.

Labels: brasa, buildings, houses, modernism, towers, tramways

Metropolia is a complex of 5 elite apartment building located in Imanta 3 across Solaris complex.
It was finished in 2007, just before crisis started and hence could be considered as successful :)

Labels: benches, elite, houses, imanta, modernism, skyscrapers, tramways

A real night out must be from Dusk till Dawn, especially in summer Riga, because the sunrise is always very early.
Photo has been taken at beginning Kr Barona iela, next to Kapsula club.

Labels: center, dawn, morning, nightlife, people, streets, tramways, vecriga

The shortest night in Riga is on 23/24 of June, which lasts about 4 hours only. And by the middle of June there is almost no darkness anymore.
These two photos were taken at yesterday evening at 22:00 and today at 5:00 in the morning on Anniņmuižas bulvāris, which is one of the most urbanized streets in Riga.

Labels: dawn, imanta, lights, morning, panoramas, roads, skyscrapers, streets, summer, sunset, tramways

20 brand new Trams Škoda 15 T aka ForCity are ordered from Czech Republic for Riga.
Currently they are already delivered and perform trial runs by night.
I guess that the recent tramway repair works were because of this new beast :)
The capacity of the one single tram is 320 people!

Labels: lights, night, streets, tramways, transport

A lot of Emergency trucks by night at Aspazijas Bulvaris.
I guess the crew is performing some repair works to make possibility for new Trams could run here.
Photo has been taken in the beginning of April.

Labels: jobs, night, people, streets, tramways, trucks

23th February is Defender of the Fatherland Day (День защитника Отечества) in many ex Soviet countries.
Fortunately in Latvia it has not legal status. Otherwise my patriotism would look for answer, who is the defender of Latvia? And from who?
The guys on the photo are doing very serious job, they are hunters of deadheads in tramways, aka Controllers.
They fight against crime everyday, perhaps they are defenders? :)
BTW, the price for single use ticket has grown for almost 50% since last 6 months. Now it is 0,70Ls (1 EUR)

Labels: funny, holidays, jobs, military, pardaugava, people, prices, snow, tramways, transport, winter

A huge traffic jams this morning made thousands of people delay their work.
Snowstorm last night brought additional 20 centimeters of snow. Some snowdrifts are higher than 1,5 meters (5 feet)

Labels: brivibas, incidents, snow, streets, teika, traffic, tramways, transport, vef, weather, winter

This night in some Riga suburbs like Airport the temperature was -27°C (-17°F), but in the center it was only -19°C (-2°F). At 9 o'clock in the morning in Teika I took this picture and it still was -21°C (-6°F). It is absolute record this winter.
When it is lower than -15, the children are allowed not to go to school, so all tramways are half empty today ;)
You can check weather in Riga at riga.in :)

Labels: buildings, clocks, holidays, morning, people, teika, towers, tramways, transport, vef, weather, winter

Slokas iela is the most twisted street in Riga. Slokas is also one of the longest streets in city (10km).
It starts next to Stone Bridge runs across whole Pardaugava, Agenskalns, Ilguciems, Imanta, runs out of town and finishes next to Babite Railway station, where you can take train to Sloka town.

Labels: agenskalns, cities, lights, pardaugava, streets, tramways, windows

13. Janvāra iela (13th January street) is not named because of Riga riots, that happened in 2009, 13th of January.
It is named because of riots that happened in year 1905, basically it was the beginning of Russian Revolution in Latvia.

Labels: buildings, center, streets, traffic, tramways

Ģirts Rozentāls aka Ozols is the most famous rapper in Latvia and, I guess, the most successful.
Ozols quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his rap song about Zolik. During his artist carrier he won several Latvian music awards. Nowadays Girts Rozentals owns several shops and works as DJ in Essential Club.
Today I couldn't believed my eyes, when I saw Ozols in tram together with his unknown friend, but I would like to help him to make his name taste like ass :)

Listen some songs of Ozols.

See also the similar photo of Nark in tram.

Labels: candid, famous, funny, life, music, people, persons, tramways

Big red brick building is Āgenskalna tirgus (Market of Agenskalns neighborhood). It is one of the biggest markets in Riga.
Market was built just before 1st World War in 1914 and quickly became very important shopping point in Riga.
It became especially vital when Riga was split into two big parts, because of bridge demolition.
Nowadays, Agenskalna tirgus is informal center point of all Pardaugava area.
The prices here slightly lower than at Central Market.

Labels: agenskalns, buildings, markets, pardaugava, roofs, shopping, tramways

One of the less popular areas for living in Riga is Maskachka neighborhood.
The name delivers from Maskavas iela (Moscow street), which goes through the whole hood.
One more popular nickname for this district is ghetto, because it was the only area in Riga where Jews were allowed to live during Second World War, when Riga was occupied by German Nazis.
See also the beginning of the same Moscow street.

Labels: criminal, maskachka, night, poverty, streets, tramways