Riga, Latvia has a terrible reputation -- criminal enterprises, corruption, taxi scams, credit card scams, purse snatching, pickpocketing, prostitution, poisoned drinks, & on & on. My beloved Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell published a book called The Dogs of Riga in 1992. It was early on in his Wallander series. It involved a series of murders that brought Inspector Wallander to Riga & most of the book's action took place there. This is an example of a novelist catching history at a moment of great chaos & changes, for the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 & Latvia was a dangerous, corrupt, murderous place & that is reflected in the book. For reasons I can't explain, it made me want to go to Riga.

The original Swedish cover from the first printing

The Riga of Henning Makell's book is long gone, with perhaps just a few ghostly remains of the old danger & corruption. Male tourists are warned to be extremely cautious if they get approached by a pretty girl who wants him to buy her a drink in a place she happens to know nearby. Biology being what it is, men will follow pretty girls to the moon & back, if invited to do so. She takes him to a club. It's electric inside...loud music & dancing. She has him buy a bottle of something. Before he knows it, he is given a bill for $500 for the bottle. When he protests, he is surrounded by a phalanx of scary-looking men who pummel him until he gives up his credit card & pin code, whereupon they wipe out his bank account before he can get his wits about him.

These clubs invariably have windows that are sealed with black paper.

Club window covered with black paper

I'm sure there are still elements of bad Riga, but they do not glare on the surface. Riga now has an abundance of wonderful items at the Central Market (watch out for pickpockets, though!)