The reason most people come
No entrance exam
Your school results decide it. Nothing to sit, nowhere to travel, no exam-day nerves — which makes getting your subjects and documents right the whole game.
The food
Rye, smoke, berries and the Baltic
Latvian food is built for the climate: rye, pork, potatoes, peas, cabbage, mushrooms, smoked fish, dairy and berries. Rupjmaize, the dense dark rye bread, has near-national-symbol status. Then there is pelēkie zirņi ar speķi (grey peas with bacon), aukstā zupa, the bright pink cold beetroot soup of Latvian summer, sklandrausis, rasols and the famous Riga smoked sprats.
Riga Central Market — five vast former Zeppelin hangars — is where you actually see it: fish halls, pickles, berries, dairy and produce, and considerably cheaper than the supermarkets. Cooking runs about €180–280 a month; a cheap lunch is €7–10, coffee around €3.30 and a beer about €5.
For Muslim students: halal meat can be sourced in Riga and there are Muslim-oriented restaurants and groceries, mostly clustered near the Islamic Cultural Centre. But this is a country where Muslims are about 1% of the population, so treat it as something you learn where to find rather than something on every street. ⚠️ Ask before assuming any restaurant is certified.
Vegetarians manage easily in modern Riga. Traditional Latvian cooking, though, runs on meat, fish, butter and sour cream.
