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Event - I deliberately left my external flash at home so that I wouldn't feel the temptation to go shoot pictures in any local Latvian nightclubs. This was supposed to be vacation after all and I take enough nightclub pictures back home as it is. But when I learned my generous host Frank could arrange for me to visit the best and biggest nightclubs in Riga for free, I just HAD to check them out. And well... I couldn't do that without a camera could I.

The first thing I immediately loved about Latvian nightclubs was that they were not trying to kill my ears with blasting the music too loud. I can't enter a single Estonian nightclub without stuffing my ears with earplugs - I really don't want to lose my hearing. In Latvia though the music is loud of course, but it is perfectly tolerable. I wish they could turn it down a bit in Estonia too. The second thing I noticed is that the girls in Latvian nightclubs seem less self-conscious than in Estonia. They dance whenever and wherever they feel like it, whereas the girls in Estonia seem to confine their dancing mainly to the dancefloor. Also the guys seem friendlier. I was constantly being offered drinks, people I didn't know shook my hand and one guy gave me money for nothing and just said "hey have fun!". Gotta love that:)

First up is "Club Essential" - a predominantly Latvian club and also the most popular club in Riga (as I was told by numerous well-informed locals). I must say I truly enjoyed the atmosphere there and the reputation is well deserved. Second up (halfway through the gallery) is "Club La Rocca" - a predominantly Russian club and supposedly the largest club in the Baltic States. Whereas I didn't notice any Latvian dominance in "Essential", it was probably even more British than Latvian - Riga is completely swamped with British bachelors and they are absolutely EVERYWHERE - then "La Rocca" was completely Russian as far as I could gather and even the omnipresent British bachelors were nowhere to be seen. Also "La Rocca" was the first club EVER to actually say "no" at first when I called them in advance and said I wanted to bring my camera. It was only after long and strenuous negotiations with the owners of the club that I was able to come to an agreement with them. Consequently I had to settle with being accompanied by the official photographer of the club who would in turn make sure I did not take pictures of anything that I wasn't supposed to. The owners were mainly concerned that I might point my camera at some of their more shady clients, which I would never do anyway, but apparently "La Rocca" is the favourite partying spot for the underworld of Riga and thus the owners had to be extra cautious. But all's well that ends well - I feel privileged and thankful for having been able to take a few shots inside "La Rocca", since the overall policy of the club is to completely disallow any cameras of any kind with no exceptions to representatives of the press or providers of free advertising or publicity.