My immediate surroundings

It's time.. for some pictures!

So this is Rēznas Iela/ Reznas Street (the street where I live) and the nearby railway track.

The picture on the bottom left is a gambling shop that has been renovated just a few weeks ago. I find this to be somewhat ironic since the environment does not display many rich people living here. However, the following Wikipedia webpage sheds some interesting views on the appearance and investments in this district!
Related link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maskavas_For%C5%A1tate

Now, as we move towards the dormitory this is what you will see on your immediate left. 

To be honest, the graffiti works make it a bit hard for me to generate this ''feel home straight away'' feeling. Moreover, it is questionable why one would put up roadwork signs, brick up doors and apply fencing to the windows of a building. This would only be of temporarily nature in my neighbourhood and the building would be demolished quite soon. But here it seems to be part of a more long-lasting strategy. Mostly, I just ignore these sights as I move my way to enter the dormitory at the right-hand side. 

Once inside and going to the top floor, the above is what you will see. I found it to be somewhat crazy to see that there is also actually a tree growing on the rooftop of the building I just talked about...

When leaving Rēznas Iela and moving towards the City Centre, the first street you pass is Lomonosova Iela. With the picture put up above I wanted to illustrate the wide variety of buildings in this district, which was also mentioned on the Wikipedia webpage. On the 2nd picture seen from the left, you can find either ''East 4A'' or ''Easy 4A'' (don't know what it is supposed to say) been written on the wall. I have seen this same writing on many walls, maybe it is the graffiti autograph of the local gang? 

Not much further down the road is something which is shown on the map as 'Ebreju kapi', translated as Jewish Cemetery. Here you can find a stone with engraved writing, which says:

''The Old Jewish Cemetery
This is Riga's first Jewish cemetery. It was opened in 1725 and burials continued here until the late 1930s. After German forces occupied Riga in 1941, the prayer house and the mortuary were burned down. The cemetery became a mass burial site for over 1,000 Jews killed in the streets and houses of the Riga Ghetto. Following World War Two, many of the cemetery's tombstones were removed and used as building material. Others deteriorated. The wall surrounding the cemetery collapsed, and the site left uncared for fell into disrepair. In the 1960s, the site was razed and renamed ''The Park of the Communist Brigades.'' In 1992, the park was renamed ''The Old Jewish Cemetery.''''



In one of my future blog posts I will  try to write something (and post pictures) about places which are more located towards the City Centre, since these show an entirely different perspective of what Riga has to offer.