Destination: Latvia

Tourists in Heat

Tourists in Heat iStockPhoto

Ten tips for how to stay cool while traveling in an increasingly hot planet. (#2: Choose countries with cold soup.)

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British Tourists: Still ‘Pissing About’ in Latvia

And Riga’s mayor, Nils Usakovs, has had enough. Usakovs spilled to the Guardian about his frustration with the British stag parties that arrive via low-cost carrier, get good and drunk and, more often than not it seems, take a moment to urinate on the city’s Freedom Monument before flying home. “We have a stigma about British tourists,” said the mayor’s spokeswoman. “They are probably not the ones we want to see.”

Yet somehow, Americans are the ones stuck with the “ugly” label?


Odd Jobs: Interview with a Prison-Hotel Guard

Odd Jobs: Interview with a Prison-Hotel Guard Photo courtesy of Einars Meiris

David Farley meets a Latvian whose job literally includes abusing the guests

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Latvia to Fight ‘Baltic Bangkok’ Image

Cheap flights and men on “stag nights” have threatened to turn Riga, Latvia into a destination most noted for pubs, clubs, strip bars and a growing sex industry—a “Baltic Bangkok,” if you will. It’s easy shorthand and perhaps too simple of a way to characterize Riga—or Bangkok, or any city for that matter—but some people in Latvia fear the name and image will stick. Hence, the current “Stop Sex Terrorism” campaign, which, according to Reuters, aims to steer local women away from one-night stands and to educate them about the dangers of interacting with tourists.

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