I was in Latvia, Finland, and Sweden from the beginning of December 2024 to the beginning of January 2025. My husband, who works in the French film industry, had to stay in Latvia for a while for filming, and since we had Christmas break between shoots, we went to Finland and Sweden, which are close to Latvia.
It takes less than 4 hours by plane from Paris to Riga, Latvia. Riga is the largest city in the Baltic States, and the Old Town, the center of the city, is registered as a World Heritage site. The foundation of the city was laid by the Germans in the 13th century, and although many buildings have been rebuilt due to wars and other reasons, you can still feel the atmosphere of the Middle Ages. During my stay, a small Christmas market was set up around the Riga Cathedral, the symbol of the town, where visitors could choose gifts and enjoy Latvian food around a bonfire.
From here we will start our walk in the Old Town. The famous “House of the Three Brothers” is the oldest residential complex in Riga. Riga Castle, rebuilt in the 16th century, is now the presidential palace.
Southeast of the center of the old town is the huge market. Originally five buildings that were airship hangars became the central market in 1930. Today, a variety of goods are sold in and around the four buildings, and it is said to be one of the largest markets in Europe.
There is also a food court in the market, where I had pelmeni, which are like dumplings, bread with sausage sandwiched in between, and tomato-based soup, which was described as a traditional Latvian dish. The pelmeni would have liked some vinegar and soy sauce for me, but here it comes with sour cream. After that, I bought some ingredients to eat at home. There was also some delicious looking salmon roe, so I was very happy to eat rice with plenty of salmon roe in my apartment. By the way, I think the prices in Riga are just a little cheaper than in Paris, which is also in the Euro zone.
A little further northeast, this time from the center of the old town, are many Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) style buildings built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My family rented an apartment in this area, and the buildings here are very unique. The medieval townscape in the old town is nice, but I enjoyed looking at this area more.
We first visited the Art Nouveau Museum in this area. The walls, furniture, curtains, and everything else in the rooms are in the Art Nouveau style, and we looked around while imagining how people lived in those days. There was a mini-concert on the way, and time passed leisurely.
As you leave the museum and walk up the beautiful staircase, you will find another museum on the top floor. This is the apartment where the painter Yannis Rosenthals lived, and to be honest, there is not much to see in each room. But it was worth the visit just to see his work in the spacious, high-ceilinged room that was probably his studio.
We left the museum and went to look at the Art Nouveau architecture in the area, all very original! There were many sculptures that amazed, awed, and gushed over.
There are many cafes in the old town of Riga. You can choose from convenience store cafes, stately cafes, and trendy cafes of today.
I love cats and was lonely to be away from my cat, so I went to Kotoffski, a new shelter cat cafe in the old town. The cafe was located in another town, but has moved to Riga. When I visited the cafe, it was in the pre-opening period, so the interior was not yet complete, but the cats looked completely at home. There are said to be seven cats in total.
On the way back from the cat café, we also went to see a building called “Cat’s House. It is a precious construction in the art nouveau style, and the statue of a black cat on the roof is quite adorable.
During my week-long stay in Riga, I spent my time only in and around the old town, as the sun sets around 3:00 p.m. However, I had an opportunity to meet a friend of mine in Riga, so I went a little out of town once.
First, he took me to Lido for a cup of tea. It is a restaurant chain that serves traditional Latvian cuisine, and the place I went to was spacious and wooden, with a playground for children. I was curious about the brown liquid that one of my acquaintances was drinking, so I asked him about it and he told me that it was kvass, a non-alcoholic drink made from fermented grains. I tasted a bit of it and found it to be sweet and sour, just the way I like it! I liked it so much that I bought some at the supermarket and drank it.
After that, we went to Jurmala, a seaside town known as a Latvian holiday resort. It is about 30 minutes by car from the center of Riga. It was already dark when we arrived, so we were very disappointed that we could not get a good view of the town, but it must be a beautiful place during the daytime, including the wooden buildings illuminated by lights. However, my acquaintance said that after the war in Ukraine, the town is not as lively as it used to be because of the lack of tourists from Russia.
A friend of mine is of Russian descent, and according to him, nearly half of Riga’s residents are of Russian descent. After Latvia’s independence after the Soviet invasion, Latvians and Russians who remained in Latvia were able to coexist in a reasonable balance, but the situation worsened with the war in Ukraine. Some families have a mix of Latvian and Russian descent, and the situation seems complicated.
Many older people of Russian descent do not speak Latvian, but in order to obtain Latvian citizenship, a certain level of Latvian language proficiency is also required. However, it is difficult for elderly people to learn Latvian at this point, so many of them remain in Latvia. I think there are many problems in living as a non-citizen, but since it is a sensitive topic, I did not ask too much about it. Also, my acquaintance said that more and more people are leaving the country for political and economic reasons.
Returning to Riga from Jurmala, we were joined by people of Latvian descent and had a bland chat over a “typical Latvian snack,” but everything that came out was dairy products! Among them, this one was recommended to me as particularly tasty, marked “Karums”. The vanilla flavor I had tasted like rare cheesecake. I was told that there were many flavors available at the supermarket, so I went there later and found that they were about 50 yen each. I tried many different flavors just like candy, but it was interesting to see some flavors that made me say, “Hmmm? I tried many flavors just like candy, but it was interesting to find some that tasted like “Hmmm?
As far as I could see, Riga is clean and safe, with almost no litter. Riga seems to be a pro-Japanese country, and Riga and Kobe are sister cities. There was a clock sent from Kobe in Riga.
I would not have thought of going to Latvia if it were not for my husband’s job, but I would like to use this stay as an opportunity to pay attention to what Latvia will become in the future. After Riga, we will move on to the next two Scandinavian countries we visited during our Christmas vacation, the first of which was Helsinki, Finland.
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