A review on Trip Advisor warned that Riga’s Central Market is good but only if you like the same old stuff. Ha! Depends where you come from really, because what’s same old stuff to you, may not be same old stuff to me.

Housed in what were once Zeppelin hangars, Riga’s Central Market was opened in 1930 and covers 72,000 square metres.

You can smell the first hangar before you even enter. Not in a bad way, but in a bustling, crowded, bouquets of dried fish on the counter kind of way.

We stopped in the walkway to the next hangar to buy a couple of wooden spoons for our kitchen. Local honey and woollen socks were also on offer in this part of the market.

The next hangar was full of sweets. Latvia seems to have a love affair with pastries and, surprisingly, halva, which we found was also included in our breakfast buffet in the city.

Latvian’s are proud of their dairy production and rightly so. We saw beautiful piles of soft cheeses and curds but opted instead for some hard Dutch cheese we could bring home in our luggage.

Then it was through to the produce market. If you love vinegar like I do, then this one’s for you.

 Piles of colourful vegetables preserved in oil and vinegar were everywhere, many displayed in huge vases.

Finally we walked past piles of dried goods: pasta, tea, ketchup and rice. Not terribly interesting products in themselves but still worth taking a photo of, because having never seen this packaging before, they are not the same old stuff to me!

Riga Central Market

This post has been shared as part of the Show Your World feature on the Tiny Expats blog – you can find out more here.