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On the foot bridge over the Pilsetas canal, by Bastion Hill just outside the Old Town, you will notice a large number of padlocks locked to the fence - this is part of a (mainly) Russian wedding tradition; the just-married couple will lock a padlock to the fence, and together they'll throw the key into the canal - as a symbol of the strength and "unbreakable bond" of their marriage. (I am not quite sure what they do in winter though, when the canals are frozen...:o)
Many of the padlocks have the names of the newlyweds and their wedding date engraved.
Quite romantic, worth a look..! Leave a Comment
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 10 Latvian Lats note by HORSCHECK
The sign "0 % COMMISSION" does mostly refer only to "SELL" and not to "BUY" transactions. So don't hesitate to ask, how much you really get for your money.
Don't change your money on the street; these people usually cheat you with other foreign currencies. Leave a Comment
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 by Vija_v
As in Latvia lives just a bit over 2,5 million people and only half of them are Latvians, our language can be considered as not very popular.
It is quiet complicated to learn it, because even you speak Latvian but are traveling
around Latvia, you can hear some dialects which might sound very different. And not
always u will understand what people are trying to tell you.
Some most needed words:
Hello - Labdien!
Please- Ludzu
Thank you - Paldies
How are you? - Ka tev iet?
Good bye - Uz redzesanos!
My name is___ - Mani sauc____ Leave a Comment
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 Smoker by Inguuna
It's not allowed to smoke in public places and public transport. If it's necessity to smoke better to check whether there are special signs which allowing to do that. Mostly in all restaurants and bars nowadays smoking is prohibited, you can smoke only outside.
Drinking
It's not allowed to drink alcohol in public places, except restaurants and bars where it is served. It also isn't allowed to walk with open bottle. With alcohol I mean also beer. Leave a Comment
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 by Vija_v
You will see a lot of places that offer pancakes filled with different stuff starts from the sweet things like strawberries, till salted ones like minced meet with onions.
The same with dumplings, they can be filled with different kind of meet or sweet stuff- jams for example. Leave a Comment
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 by Raimix
Surely, in Riga much Russian by percents live (about 35%), but I havent had that feeling as I heard mostly Latvian language around, only in old town some English, German... Leave a Comment
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In the park next to the Freedom Column there is a small bridge. This bridge is full of padlocks. Young couples put a lock right there to evidence their never ending feelings! What a wonderful idea! Well, Heinz and I felt that after 8 years of marriage it would be a great thing to more or less renew our vows by putting up our own padlock there - and that was what we did first thing in the morning! What a fantastic feeling! Leave a Comment
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 by lotharlerch
As a means to integrate the non-autochthonus residents the Baltic countries offer now the easiest way of access to citizenship of all civilized countries (in Switzerland for example fulfillment of these conditions would not even be enough for a permanent residence as a foreign citizen). It is more than generous and quite unique that citizenship is offered to occupants and this seems still not to be enough for the former occupants as the cases at the European Court of Justice show.
But nevertheless the integration seems partially to be successful, other than in 1992 I found in 2002 that many of the ethnic Russians living in Latvia today appear quite assimilated and far less “Russian” than the “Germans” from Russia who emigrated under the last two decades to Germany and are there living often in some sorts of ghettos and are still speaking Russian. Leave a Comment
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 Toilet signs, Latvia by kit_mc
In Latvia they have symbols for Gents and Ladies toilets, in the shape of upwards or inverted triangles. This may seem really clever and logical to Latvians, but it totally confused me, and even after reading and re-checking my guide book, I still got it wrong and used the wrong loos in the hotel lobby almost the whole weekend.
This culminated in me hiding away in what had turned out to be the ladies loos for a good 15 minutes when I heard a group of women entering, all chatting away and doing whatever a gaggle of women do in the loo. I had to wait until I could hear no more noise and then make a dash for the door.
Thing was the staff had seen me go in there before and hadn't said anything, so either they were being polite or having a laugh. So perhaps best to ask if you're unsure, and don't always trust your guidebook!
Photo attached is important if you want to avoid the hazards of being trapped a cubicle by your shame at using the wrong facilities! Leave a Comment
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This place was the best thing with whole our trip, the park is so beautiful and peaceful. The Pilsetas kanal runns right through and there is a small bridge in the park (look at the pictures) on this bridge it´s tradition to hang a padlock there with the names of those in love. It means that the love of the people who hang their padlocks there will last for ever, and the couple throw the key in the kanal when they locked the padlock.
This is one of the most beautiful parks I´v seen. It´s definatly worth a trip just to go to the park.
This bridge is located in Bastejkalns park just besides Freedom Statue.
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