Tuesday 30 September 2008

Old 1990s ad

Surprisingly, this mural ad from early 1990s has remained all these years on quite a busy Lāčplēša street in Riga. It's not the best place for an ad as it is not that easy to spot it, maybe that explains why nothing else has been painted over it. The mural bears "Interlatvija - your loyal associate in international business" with a 6-digit telephone number (nowadays numbers have 8 digits).
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Monday 29 September 2008

Post to disappear




Soon the destruction of the old main building of postal service in Riga will be completed and a new glass building erected.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Friday 26 September 2008

Stairs to nowhere



There are a few places around K.Barona street in Riga that host stairs that do not lead to anywhere.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Thursday 25 September 2008

Chernobyl









Unlike Prypiat, Chernobyl is not abandoned except for a few houses. A few thousand people either live or work here and it looks like a normal town, but while walking the streets you can hardly spot any living being.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Prypiat













Prypiat was founded in 1970 so that workers and their familities of infamous Chernobyl Nuclear plant have a town to live, because the actual town Chernobyl is quite a small village and a few miles further away from the plant than Prypiat. Prypiat's population had been around 50,000 prior to the Chernobyl disaster. The town now is abandoned and you cross three military check points before you get in. The radiation is still a few times more the average.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Sunday 21 September 2008

LTV











The tall building on Zaķusala island in Riga hosts National Television of Latvia. It was build in 1986 and there are quite a few floors where the life since that has not changed significantly. There's is a plan to move the television to a new building in the future.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Friday 19 September 2008

Football team

While walking around backyards in a small town Durbe in West Latvia I noticed that someone has washed almost the full set of local team's football kit and taken it out to dry.
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Wednesday 10 September 2008

Doors

Old doors can still be put in use by building a small house or at least a wall. The photo taken in Āgenskalns district of Riga.
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Tuesday 9 September 2008

Helpline


This device was used to call militsia (police) in Soviet times. You would press the button and call militsia for help. Nowadays you can hardly spot any abandoned ones, though I found one on Gogoļa street in Riga
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Monday 8 September 2008

Empty farm






This place near Riga looks abandoned but actually it might be still in operation, or at least it were very little while ago. This small farm probably struggled all these years since kolkhozy and sovkhozy (collective and state farms in the USSR) were disbanded and went bankrupt recently.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus