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Latvia Tourist Information and Tips



Work

Not impossible (especially if you are an EU citizen), but you have to find a company which will be willing to pay a 35 LVL fee per month, work permit up to 170 LVL (once) and an additional fee for checking your documents of education 47.20 LVL (once). Salary should not be less than 246 LVL per month.

Job advertisements in Latvian daily newspapers like Diena Tuesday or Saturday edition, some of those ads are in English, German, Russian or French.

Stay safe

It is generally safe to travel around on your own, although some petty crime exists. A thing to watch out for is bicycle theft, and it is advisable not to leave valuable things in your car. Mind the forest roads, collisions with wildlife animals can easily occur.

When visiting bars and restaurants in Riga, make sure you know the price before you order and follow your spending, so no cheating is possible. Beware of scammers who strike up conversations out of the blue and invite you to visit their favorite club or bar; this is often a favorite way for the mafia how to rob the foreigners, and the police are unlikely to help if you get scammed. The Police of Latvia] has a website with advice for travelers.

Emergency phone number : Fire/Police/Ambulance 112.

If bitten by a dog, wild animal or a snake, seek medical attention immediately. Snakes are not venomous in Latvia, except for the European Adder which is a possible death threat if no treatment is received within the next few hours after the bite. A dog or cat bite can carry the risk of rabies. Mosquitoes carry no disease and are only an annoyance in the summer months. A forest tick bite carries the risk of Lyme disease or encephalitis.

Stay healthy

There is no problem turning to any doctor or hospital to seek medical help, just by paying an outside patient fee. However, it can prove difficult to obtain medical assistance in many rural areas, as the service can be slow and unresponsive; therefore, it may be a good idea to bring your own first aid kit. There are virtually no air ambulance helicopters in the country, except for the army, so when exploring sparsely-inhabited, remote areas on your own, it's important to be well-prepared for emergency situations. If your get to doctor, he/she will probably only speak Latvian and Russian.

Few drugs are available without prescription; bring your own medicine if you require it.

If you need to seek medical attention of a doctor be prepared to pay a fee under the table , in Latvia, it is estimated that 1 in 4 doctors take "private donations" to see patients. The current president of Latvia, Valdis Zatlers, previously a doctor in Riga, was found to be accepting these monetary exchanges from his patients, and was flagged by Transparency International , an anti-corruption organization.

Tap water should be boiled before drinking; purchasing bottled water is an alternative.

Respect

One should be cautious when mentioning Latvia in the context of the USSR to ethnic Latvians. Latvia became a USSR province after World War II, and praise of the Soviet (or Russian) regimes is unlikely to be understood or appreciated by Latvians, especially young ones.

It is very common to give up your seat for an elderly passenger on the public transport in Latvia. It is also considered polite to let women board a train or bus first.

There are many waste containers and trash cans on the sidewalks and near most stores. Littering is considered a very bad manner and may be fined.

 

Source: Wikitravel.org