Tag Archives for " Riga "

Getting An Apartment In Riga

We arrived in Riga from Turkey on the afternoon of Wednesday 2nd September.  We took a bus form the airport and made our way to “Old Riga”.  The picture below gives a bit of a glimpse as well as Kris with a mustache, a hangover from Turkey I think.

Kris In Old Riga
On Thursday we began talking to real estate agents about getting an apartment in Riga for a couple of months.  We could see from the internet that there were 3 or 4 which could be of interest.

Katy, who seems to know and have some influence over everyone in Riga spoke to an agent who promised to call us the next morning.  After waiting until lunch time without a call we began to realise that agents in Riga are not that good at keeping promises.  We would find this confirmed with another agent.

Katy & Friends

That is Katy, third from the left.  Anyway, Kris called her and she did have an apartment which she described as two room. We were to learn this does not mean two bedrooms, it means it sleeps two but one of the beds is a fold out lounge in the lounge room. This was not really what we wanted but at least they were willing to rent it for only 2 months. The cost was $350 Lats.  Because of the recommendation from Katy we would not have to kick in a security deposit.  Things were looking good.

We went for a walk down to “Old Riga” and happened to see a large real estate agency so we wandered in and asked about rentals.  They had some but the agent did not speak English so his mate, Maurice,  would call us later.  Next day, Friday we got tired of waiting and called Maurice.  He said he had to check on a few things and would call us back in 5 minutes…

After an hour we called back to learn that he had a couple of apartments which were two bedroom and only 400 euros per month.  Unfortunately the landlords were out of town and we would not be able to see them until monday.  It seems the agents do not have keys.

Maurice would call us on Monday…

So after awhile we called him and eventually met him and the non english speaking agent outside the building we now live in.

The building is on a cobbled street parallel with the main street and only 2 blocks away.  The building was completed in 1914 and is 5 floors high.  It has an old style elevator in the centre of the wide stair case.

The apartment has wooden floors, three bedrooms, lounge, dining, kitchen, laundry and toilet off the main hall.

Everything is close by which is good because we walk everywhere.  Scroll down to see the apartment PLUS a gratuitous picture I put in of myself and some girls we had dinner with recently

Apartment Hallway

Hallway in the apartment

Apartment Kitchen

Apartment lounge

Lounge room

Don Looking Like He Swallowed The Canary

True story!  We had dinner with these gals in old Riga.