Life in Riga is the hybrid of an expat blog and a guidebook. It’s a blog designed to help you move to, live in, appreciate and understand Latvia, its capital city Riga and locals.
While we set out to document our practical experiences of moving to Riga, such as opening a bank account and buying an apartment, we feel many of those aspects are better addressed by expat forums and relocation companies.
Our focus now is on stories of life in Riga. We love exploring unfamiliar places, meeting new people and discovering things we never knew. This is where we share our discoveries and learnings to try to give an authentic overview of life in Riga to oppose existing stereotypes and exaggerated news stories.
We aspire for the blog to be a useful companion to anyone planning to visit Riga, move to the city or adapt to living here. Since living in Riga means having access to the largest airport in the Baltics and fantastic international bus companies, we may also share the occasional travel story.
Team
Lelde Beņķe-Lungeviča
I’m an Australian-born Latvian who first moved to Riga aged seven, then set off again at 18 before returning at 24. I’m now a 30-something freelance writer and tour guide. The blog is my very dear passion project and has a lot to do with trying to understand my identity and figure out the concept of “home”. Lelde’s posts.
Guest authors
We welcome contributions from people who live or have lived in Riga and always indicate the author. You will see Alex Cowles’ name quite a bit. He was a Riga local between 2013 and 2016 and co-founded the blog, however, no longer contributes.
How You Can Support Us
Life in Riga is a largely self-funded initiative. If you like what we do, have learnt or gained something new through reading the blog or following us on social media, say thanks!
We’ve started a coffee and maintenance fund to help cover the costs of hosting the domain, technical maintenance and staying up-to-date with Riga’s event and food scene. Donate here! Cheers.
Alternatively, hire Lelde for a writing assignment or guided tour of Riga!
