Riga Shopping

The best souvenir to buy in Riga would be Amber.
The locals find it washed up along the Baltic coast where they collect it to sell to tourists.

This amber has made the region renowned amongst jewellery lovers, traders and archaeologists.
Amber dates to 20 to 50 million years old and is fossilised resin of ancient conifer trees, formed by pressure and time. It's a transparent golden colour, and I found it made into jewelery and into all types of different souvenirs.
In folklore, it's believed to be good for love, strength, luck, healing and protection, calming for hyperactivity and relieving stress. It is a very soft substance and should be worn with care to prevent marring the stone.

Amber is beautiful to look at and comes in 250 colours or shades, changing colour in the different light. Its shades range from greenish to a warm, reddish orange, and pieces can often include tiny insects, flowers or pieces of bark which were trapped when the sticky tree sap fell to the forest floor millions of years ago.
There are many shops and market stalls selling beautiful, locally-made pendants, all types of jewellery, and also private traders..

Be careful when buying.
Look out for a white pearling and sediment within the resin.

This was a pleasant and very enjoyable place to visit - lots of flowers available, and the stall holders very feiendly and always on the look out for a sale.

The market is open 24 hours a day and demonstrates the need and desire for northern Europeans to enjoy the fruits of the sunshine no matter when in the year takes their fancy!

What to buy: Flowers of course

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Narvesen is a Norwegian chain of convenience stores/news agents, and is one of Norway's largest convenience store chains with 440 stores.

Narvesen was established in 1894 by Bertrand Narvesen.

Narvesen stores also exist in Latvia; I used one of them in Riga to buy postcards, stamps and bottled water.

What to buy: convenience goods!

What to buy: Riga champagne is tasty and costs only a fraction of the proper namesake from France. There are different types; we usually go for pussaldais (semi-sweet) or pussausais (semi-dry).

Rigas balzams is another local drink, a bit like Vana Tallinn from their neighbouring country to the North, or Jaegermeister. It is very flavourful and traditionally considered very good against colds ;) not to my taste, but then again, to each his own. The Rigas balzams bottle is a brown ceramics bottle and it looks rather nice.

What to pay: Much cheaper than at home in the supermarket, more at the airport though not outrageously expensive.

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The Central Market in Riga is THE shopping facility per se - it is the biggest market in the Baltics and people from all over Latvia come here to sell their goods. It is located near the central railway station and is housed in 5 huge halls that in former times were hangars for zeppelins. Each hall has a specific emphasis, like meat, fish, vegetables, dairy products and groceries. Outside you find more vegetables, flowers and clothes. Look at this interactive map for the exact location - or just go there and discover it yourself!

The market is open every day from 7 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays and 6 p.m. on all other days.

What to buy: We bought smoked fish, cheese and vegetables there - and could not resist those fantastic mushrooms either!

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The central market is located in and around four Zeppelin Hangars vacated by the German Imperial Army when they left Latvia. If you are at a vantage point looking out over the city, you can't miss these buildings.

Actually you can get anything at the market place. Mostly food, but also shoes, hats, clothes, beauty articles, music...
This is such a fun place to go and have look, even if you don't actually fancy buying anything at all. This is the place where the locals come for groceries.
The food is displayed nicely, and the prices lower than in the supermarket. There is also a certain charm with the way trade goes here. Prices for food are, as far as I could tell, not really negotiable, but other items you can haggle for if you want to.
There are old ladies also selling plastic bags, as a means of providing shoppers with really nice plastic bags (!) and as a means to earn a living. We do not haggle for the prices of these bags as they are cheap and the ladies selling them are trying to get by on a very meager pension.

What to buy: Food is the main thing here, and we usually go for caviar here (well, we have the luxury of home cooking as my mother lives here). The prices are much lower than at home and the quality good, if you know how to check it. Ask to try some, and if it smells and tastes strongly of fish, it's going off. Fresh caviar has a taste of sea and salt that is pleasant.

What to pay: 100 grams cost something like LVL 15-18 last time I checked.

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Local handicraft is still good value for money in Riga, and also foreign companies have realised the value of investing in the local textile business. That is why the Swedish company Klippan has paired up with the local company called Saule (= Sun). Saule have products intended mainly for the Latvian market (well, the locals come here too) as well as products intended also for the international market.

This is the factory outlet, the factory is just opposite in Bruninieku iela.

What to buy: The woollen throws and blankets are particularly good value I think. There are different types with traditionally Latvian patterns and more trendy ones as well as the age-old classics. There are also throws with cashmere and mohair mixed with wool -- luxurious! Also the cotton ones are nice.

What to pay: We bought 2 woollen throws and 2 cotton ones for 100 euros, which is pretty much what we'd pay for 1 in Finland.

What to buy: Riga Black Balsam is a local herbal drink (there are 24 herbs and ingredients in it), bitter in taste and medicinal, too if drunk straight - at least after it is rumoured to have cured Catherine the Great of Russia. For pleasure you can use it as a component of many interesting cocktails. Here are just some:

Black Shooter: 1 part Riga Black Balsam, 1 part peach juice

Hot Black Currant: 1 part Riga Black Balsam, 4 parts hot black currant juice

Fresh Black Cranberry: 1 part Riga Black Balsam, 0.5 parts cranberry liqueur, 4 parts cranberry juice

Black Mojito: 1 part Riga Black Balsam, 4 parts Sprite, half of smashed lime, fruit syrup, crushed ice

Innocent Balsam: 1 part Riga Black Balsam, 0.5 parts peach liqueur, 3 parts peach juice, 3 parts ice-cream, 1 canned peach

Riga Coffee Black: 1 part Riga Black Balsam, 0.5 parts coffee liqueur, 4 parts coffee, 1 part whipped cream

What to pay: It depends on the size of the bottle