Latvija
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Riga stag parties are not an entirely British affair
SourceThe historic heart of Riga on a Saturday night, and the stag parties are out in force. Here in the city where the Mayor has declared war on drunken British louts, the streets are teeming with lads out to give the groom a good send-off.
There’s one lot in red T-shirts, swigging vodka in public — an arrestable offence in Latvia — another group togged out in togas, and a third, rather smarter set dressed in black jackets.
The hen parties are out in even bigger numbers. There are girls in nurses’ uniforms, girls in miniskirts, girls in devil costumes, even girls in Marie Antoinette wigs and polka-dot ballgowns. In the space of one evening, The Times counted no fewer than ten hen parties. So the great British stag invasion continues apace — despite Mayor Nils Usakovs’s announcement that he plans to unleash a special tourist police force on the most unruly offenders?
Up to a point, Mr Mayor, because every one of the groups encountered in the first half of the evening was Latvian. The tradition of getting raucously drunk in ridiculous outfits as a prelude to holy matrimony is not, it seems, confined to the British.
However, if anyone was worried that our national reputation for enthusiastic alcohol consumption in foreign parts was at risk, they need not have been concerned. The Brits were there all right, and they were drinking with the sort of dedication that comes of beer priced at Ł1.50 a pint.
They were not too hard to identify, either, at least not the group from Hampshire, which must have been the first stag party ever to hit Riga dressed entirely in tweed: jackets, caps, plus-fours, the lot. A gang from Manchester had opted out of fancy dress, but had otherwise gone for the full stag experience. They were buying pre-lunchtime drinks at a bar, while casting an appreciative eye at the barmaid.
The Times asked one of them what entertainment they had in mind. “Just the usual,” one said. “Cheap alcohol, cheap cigarettes, sexy ladies. Hence the barmaid. Excellent!” Another one had been sampling the delights of Latvian womanhood. The lap-dance club he went to the night before met with his approval, but the massage parlour did not. “It was rubbish,” he said. “Fifty Lats (Ł75) and I fell asleep halfway through. That’s how good it was.”
For spectacular public inebriation, however, it was hard to beat Sergei’s stag party. It was 6pm, and by the way Sergei — who was dressed in a Soviet police uniform — waved his vodka bottle, it was a fair bet that it was not the first one they had got through that day. “Let’s go drink!” he shouted, as they left in search of more frolics.
One of the traditions of Latvian stag and hen parties is to raise money by selling little treats. Over the evening, in an attempt to foster friendly bilateral relations, The Times purchased a lollipop, a muffin and what the girl in the devil costume called “a balloon for happiness” — in fact, it was a condom.
By the end of the night the British were catching up with Sergei and his friends. As early as midnight — well, it had been a long day — the Hampshire groom was slumped on a go-go bar table. A couple of young Latvian women on a girls’ night out tousled his hair in an affectionate manner. They didn’t seem to mind a spot of Saturday-night drunkenness.
What the local residents do object to, however, is anyone urinating on their Freedom Monument, the memorial erected in honour of Latvian soldiers who died fighting for independence. British visitors have, regrettably, not been guiltless in this regard. “It is one of the symbols we really respect,” said Richie, a local student. “To p*** on the monument is to p*** on us.”
This time the monument escaped unscathed, which may be partly because of the police guard and partly because there are not as many British stag parties as there were a couple of years ago. The beer may be cheap, but it is nowhere as cheap as it was before the Latvian economy collapsed and inflation took hold. If Mr Usakovs is really worried about British stags and hens, all he needs is for prices to keep rising and they will stay away altogether.
That will not eradicate public drunkenness entirely, however. By 4am The Times had seen only one reveller being sick in the gutter, and he was Latvian.
The writer of the article is total un-able to make a difference between Russians in Latvia and real Latvians!! 
Majoritiy of population in Riga is Russian now and most of the tourist pubs clubs and bars are in Russian hands. No word about it in the article!! For the author all people in Latvia are Latvians ---- that is very wrong it is the same like saying all people in England are English but in reality some are Irish, Pakistan or French.
customers like that are not good and make the image of British people broken. Many Latvian hate it that party people treat the country as Thailand replacement. I hope they increase the beer prices and the spook has a end!!
Latvian-German Friendship
Originally Posted by Inese
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