Well kept secret is this villa on Darba (Work) street 2. Can't find any info on it, only the fact that it serves as office of Economics Counsellor of China. Well, knowing how hardworking Chinese people are, it's quite a logical choice to open this office on Work street :).

As you can see, God has chosen Riga churches as his communication targets. :)

These windows belongs to a building in Turgeņeva street. If you wonder what people are doing in these offices, then I can inform you that this building is inhabited mostly by companies related to Latvian railways industries, like "Passengers train", some transit company etc.

Now you can see where exactly it is in Riga.

Today temperatures went down to zero again, the fresh snow has covered all Riga and the smell of winter is in the air. I appreciate it over the melting slush we had last week.

Now you can see where exactly it is in Riga.

Castle and sea in moulding of one of Lāčplēša street buildings. Riga can give a great enjoyment for a detail-seeker in architecture.

This morning was sunny in Riga although now the day has turned into grey and rainy slush. Anyway, until now we had 17 fully sunny days in Riga this year, which is unusally much.

Dairy pavillion of Riga Central Market is just one of 5 such huge pavillions, and each of them hosts different kind of food production (bread, meat, fish, fruits & vegetables and dairy).

In Latvia, we have a saying: "To not see a forest behind the trees" which means something like "too much concentrate on details and to lose the whole perspective".

This is pine forest in North-Eastern Riga, yes - we have forests in Riga and quite large areas are occupied by them actually.

Swans and ducks are two different birds but jogs along very friendly. People should learn from them.

Today we have a referendum about the second state's language and it has created quite an emotional turbulence between Latvians and Russians.

After quite a hard work week like this one was to me, I'm planning today visit cinema and relax by watching the thriller movie "Man on a ledge". Yesterday I spotted this man, well, not exactly on a ledge, but on a roof of one of Purvciems 5-floor commieblocks.

Maskavas forštate or Moscow suburb associates with run-down and dangerous area mostly, but probably that's a stereotype that should be revised? There are also some very neat-looking places, like this one.

Riga canal and Bastejkalns park in winter mode.

It's in the very centre of Riga but I hadn't noticed this interesting firewall painting. It's rare where they are visible, because mostly such places are covered by huge advertisement posters.

This place in London seemed so characteristic to the city, so British... Mostly because of those lovely cars.

Economics Faculty of Latvian University building reflecting on Riga canal waters.

The coldness is back. This morning sunrise through my loggia window.

I chosed this photo as my best of last 7 days. Some other photo bloggers have done the same here.

Several days ago I showed you Dailes theatre, now it's time for another Soviet architecture success - Riga Stradiņa university complex which was built in 1987. This is one of best Latvia universities because of it's export-abilities. Quite many students there are from far away foreign countries. You can study there medicine, sociology, journalism, etc. Besides, this is also my new workplace - quite a challenging task ahead next week.

Aerial view over Vecmīlgrāvis - residential and industrial district in northern part of Riga. It's heavily related on ship & port business.

Barona street in winter's morning.

This view is taken in Bauska town, on the peninsula between 3 rivers, a view towards point where Mūsa and Mēmele flows together and creates Lielupe (and Lielupe delta you can see in this picture). It's not from this winter, we still haven't seen crystal frosted trees this winter, although the weather seems appropriate for them to appear - it's very cold, sunny and also moist air.

Dailes Theatre is one of Riga's largest theaters. This evening I was there to see theatre "Amadeus" - a story about Mozart and Salieri, it was quite an epic experience, a truly good job by the theatre.
Dailes Theatre building was built in 1977, Soviet times and it's exterior and interior reflects modernism of that times.

Coldness is holding Latvia in a very firm grip now. Last night several parts of Latvia went down below minus 30. Currently in Riga is below minus 20. The effect becomes much worse because of wind and the air humidity, so currently it's really better to stay inside. But we have 7th sunny day in a row, and I love it! At least a bit of a Real Winter should be experienced.

Latvia National Library building construction process is slowly heading to finish. This picture shows it this week. You can take a look to the picture I posted before a year, how it looked back then.

I won't try to be original in this theme day, and here you see another lovely cats. It is one of the things which I can spot from my window - there are private houses down below, at the opposite of street and this cat is living there and using this as his elevator to get out of the room and back.

And I can't resist to show also my new kitten, he is only 3 months old now and have so huuge amount of energy that Duracell could use he in their advertisements - would be better than those animated hares.



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