A visit to Riga would not be complete without a visit to the Latvian capital's Central Market which can be found in five old plane hangars located close to each other. Frankly, I couldn't understand the fuss over a public market. However, many, if not all travel blogs I have read talked about it a great deal. For sure, the five huge the plane hangars make the market different from every market the world over. Another difference is the huge presence of the Russians in the market. They sell all the food and almost every customer is too. Russian could be heard everywhere.

If there is one difference I would say between the US supermarkets and the Riga Central Market, it is the staggering quantity of fish sold. The market vendors must be used to all the tourists visiting. They didn't mind anyone taking pictures of the food they sold. Tourists afterall just clicked away like paparazzi hounding Hollywood celebrities.

One would really not find anything different in the meat nor produce sections of the market. Pork, beef, fruits, and vegetables are the same everywhere. The fish being sold in the market, is for the me, the most unique attraction. There were tons of them. All kinds imaginable.

Lots of foreign tourists flocked to this bakery and had their pictures taken. Even the Uzbek baker proudly showed off is freshly baked bread through the window.

I was quite hesitant to take pictures at first. But when I saw one European tourist take pictures left and right and all the vendors didn't say a word and just looked away, I did the same thing.

I have yet to see canned caviar, hundreds of them in Safeway, Lucky, and TraderJoe's shelves.

I was quite happy to see a Russian lady selling Riga postcards here. She sold a pack of ten for less than everyone else's. Now I can't even recall how much I paid. I must say, it seems everywhere in Europe now, be they in the west or in the East, postcards now cost 1 euro and upwards. Back home it is just a quarter. Can you believe the difference!

It was only on our last day in Riga did I realize that the Central Market had more stalls that sold Riga souvenirs. They were outdoors and not inside the hangars. Had we really gone around and looked closely, we could have scored some good deals. Anyway, we had already packed our bags and on our way to catch our onward bus to Vilnius when I found out about it. Well, like I always say, next time.