The cosmopolitan city of Riga was the second port of call on a Baltic journey from Vilnius, Lithuania to Tallinn, Estonia.
Here are some reflections of Riga interspersed with some examples of what to do in Riga.
Arriving in the Dark of Afternoon
The luxury bus ride from the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius had reached it’s conclusion.
The hours seemed to have flown by while on the bus and it was now dark.
Very dark. But it was barely 7pm yet.
Darkness aside, Riga seemed a bit more modern and lively than Vilnius had.
There were more lights, more people, more traffic and more open stores than there was at a similar time in the Lithuanian capital.
Reflections of Riga – Confusing Subway Tunnel
More open stores meant a better chance of finding some decent food. Riga was an easy city to navigate; unless you needed to go through the subway tunnel at an intersection near the train station.
Even GPS became confused by the myriad of exits and slight curves of the tunnel. Curves that were obviously just there to throw off one’s sense of direction.
This short game of choose your own adventure ended with the arbitrary selection of an exit that ‘looked nice’.
Luckily, it turned out to be the right exit. Sort of.
Not Quite, But Close Enough
The exit was just past the required exit. That still placed it on the correct street, so that’s a win, right?
It was possible to cross to the correct side of the road at ground-level.
I made it to my accommodation soon after and decided to enlist the help of the local receptionist in my quest for good local food.
She was very chatty.
She advised that a chain called Lido would be a good choice.
What to do in Riga – Eat Local Non-Local Food
I found the nearby Lido quite surprising, but not necessarily in a good way.
It was a buffet style restaurant, with a twist. There was no set price. You had to pay for each serving, of mostly American types of food, from the buffet individually.
As you could imagine, that might get a little expensive, so it was time for plan B.
Grab a €1 beef wrap from the place next door. It hit the spot and didn’t break the bank.
That’s my favourite kind of food!
Reflections of Riga – Beautiful Buildings and Lights
Now that I’d got some food in me I was feeling much better and was ready to explore the town a bit!
I had passed some interesting sites on the way to my accommodation that I wanted to revisit for a closer look.
Almost all of the buildings in Riga seemed to be beautiful. That was possibly because they had lights in just the right places.
It also could’ve had something to do with the Christmas lights everywhere; at the end of January!
What to do in Riga – Be Mesmerised by the Blue Bridge
Something that had caught my eye earlier was a blue bridge. This bridge is the path of Krišjāņa Barona Iela over Pilsētas Kanāls or City Canal.
Of course, it looks like any normal boring bridge during the day.
Actually, to tell the truth, it’s quite pretty during the day as well, but at night it’s nothing short of mesmerising.
Especially with the reflections of Riga in the canal.
The canal starts and finishes at the Daugava River which flows 1020 kilometres.
It starts all the way up north in Russia, then flows through Belarus and Latvia to the Gulf of Riga.
Pilsētas Kanāls, as it’s known in Latvian, is flanked on both sides by lovely parks and green spaces.
But who cares about that, how about that bridge, eh?
What to do in Riga – Day Trip to Sigulda
One of the main things I was looking forward to doing in Latvia was bobsledding at the international track in Sigulda.
The town is about an hour from Riga by train. The train runs quite regularly throughout the day.
I didn’t want to leave it until too late but I also wanted to leave after sunrise. Would you believe sunrise was around 9:40 am?
I settled on the 10 am train.
Unfortunately, I had miscalculated the time it would take me to walk to the train station.
I nervously approached the ticket window at 9:58 am.
I half expected the lady behind the counter to refuse me the ticket as it was so close to departure time. She didn’t.
She took my €2.10 then gave me the ticket with a smile and no hint of urgency.
I still needed to get to the platform though!
Reflections of Riga – Train to Sigulda
Most people would run at that point, but I’m not a runner.
I just started walking faster. To be fair, my fast walking is faster than some people’s running. I made it onto the train and was comfortably seated just before the train started moving.
The train ride was quite relaxing and the scenery was very green. I was especially impressed with the pine forests where all the trees seemed to line up in perfectly straight lines.
Reflections of Riga – What’s in Sigulda
Just over an hour later I had made it to Sigulda. It felt like the temperature had dropped between Riga and Sigulda by at least 5 degrees.
I might’ve thought this was all in my head if it hadn’t been for all the people dressed in snowsuits and ski gloves. This was amusing to me as I’d never seen people walking around in snowsuits when there was no snow.
I stopped for a quick eat in a cute little cafe near the station where they served soup in a bowl made of bread.
Then I made the freezing walk to the international bobsled track.
I was excited about the adventure on which I was about to embark. But of course, things didn’t quite go to plan.
I saw many people walking around adorned with colours of different countries. Canada, Russia, Korea.
Uh oh, it was a competition day! That meant that bobsledding was closed to the public for the day.
I had gone all that way, so I decided to take a walk around the complex. It was rather impressive actually.
After watching a few of the teams fly past me from a viewing area, I couldn’t stand the cold any longer.
Reflections of Riga – Train to Sunset
As I had decided to leave earlier than planned, I got back to the Sigulda train station rather early. More than 40 minutes before the next train was due.
I was happy to wait inside the station where it was much warmer than outside!
The wait didn’t really seem to be that long, even though I was having problems accessing the free WiFi at the station.
There was no announcement when the train had arrived. Luckily I’d seen it pass the station building on the way in.
Once I was back in Riga, the sight that I saw was nothing short of amazing.
You know the strange thing, it wasn’t even night time yet! I had arrived at the Riga Train Station just after 5 pm!
It was still afternoon.
Reflections of Riga – Leaving on Another Luxury Bus
I had learned my lesson from having to pay extra by purchasing my bus ticket at the last minute in Vilnius. So I had pre-purchased my ticket online the day before.
This was a weird concept to me, as transport prices are generally set, or negotiable, no matter when they’re purchased in most other regions that I’ve travelled in.
Reflections of Riga – Almost Empty Bus
After I showed the bus lady my ticket she motioned for me to get on the bus and said that I could sit anywhere on the bottom deck.
The service was going all the way through to St Petersburg in Russia, but it was almost empty until Tallinn, which was my destination. This bus also had a swanky hot drink machine like the Vilnius to Riga bus.
The seats weren’t as comfortable though.
We made some random stops along the way. At one of the stops, we seemed to just be waiting, as no one got on or off. One of the passengers decided to take the opportunity to pop off the bus to have a quick smoke.
The driver wasn’t having it, but as he didn’t speak English, the best he could come up with was, “No bus stop please”. Can’t argue with that, I guess.
Do you have any of your own reflections of Riga? We’d love to hear about them in the comments!
If you’re looking for fun and free things to do in Riga, we’ve got you covered with this post
Do you want to plan a trip and need help figuring out what to do in Riga? Head to the Live Riga website.
Check out all the destinations visited on this trip –
Vilnius
Reflections of Riga
Tallinn
Helsinki
Kemi
Oulu
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24 Replies to “Reflections of Riga”
Great night shot love them.
It felt like it was dark most of the time I was there, haha.
I would love to visit this place and take great shots. The canal is so beautiful. <3
I love the reflections in the water!
Wonderful storytelling as always.
Thank you for sharing K.
I hope you’re keeping safe during this pandemic.
Aw thanks :o)
After 3 months of not working and 2 of not being able to travel, I may be going a little crazy :oP
The reflections look absolutely mesmerizing and enthralling. Thank you so much
Mesmerising enough for me to go back out into the cold to see them again, even though I hate the cold!
I like your night photography. That is something that is a challenge for me to get. Hope to visit this place in the future. It looks amazing.
With barely 7 hours of light a day, I ended up taking pictures in the dark a lot! It took a long time to get some of those night pictures. My camera does not like blue light from certain angles.
I’ve been to Riga last year and wanted to come back next month but alas world has other plans. It is a lovely plans, I highly recommend the marathon they have
It certainly does have other plans! Luckily I got this trip done just before it all started!
I am loving the night shots, they’re so beautiful. Thanks for sharing this journey with all of us!
It was mostly dark while I was there, so I didn’t have much of a choice but to take night shots, haha.
The adventure did not disappoint! I would have totally ran unnecessarily! haa! The reflections are beautiful!
I was going to run if the train started moving, but I figured they wouldn’t have sold the ticket at that time if they weren’t going to give us all a chance to get to the train, right?
Beautiful photos! I love reflections as well. So much beauty.
I love all the lights of the night! :o)
Beautiful sights and the blue bridge is so cool. You really captured an impressive shot!
I love blue! It just makes everything cooler!
I am so ready to start traveling again! Your adventures always make me want to plan my next trip.
I’m quite ready to get back to travelling too!
The place is so captivating and beautiful especially at night! Amazing shots! Thanks for sharing!
Yes, it’s definitely a beautiful place.