Here are my first impressions of Riga, Latvia:
I feel like I'm 10 years late to the party. This place is fully developed with a well-laid tourist infrastructure. I was surprised how capitalist it was with flashy store-fronts and marketing. There is nothing unexplored here, and it will be impossible to avoid following the trails of thousands of other tourist men. Right now the only foreigners are Erasmus students (mostly from Spain), but in summer I hear it can get uncomfortably packed with British and Italian dudes.
It's definitely harder. By the second night I knew I was in for a grind. I simply wasn't connecting. I felt humbled after being a rock star in Poland, and experienced a drop in confidence. Latvian girls are generally friendly and polite, especially during the day, but building any sort of connection is tough since they aren't talkative.
Girls are attractive, but... The top end is very impressive. I'm talking about magazine models with perfect faces, but if you take them out of the equation then I'm reluctant to hype them up. On average, Latvian girls have fine faces but there are too many thickies walking around (they're much fatter than Polish girls). It's a little hard to judge because during the day you see a lot of pretty girls, then at night you get these chubby yokel girls from the suburbs that greatly dilute the hotties in the club. If I came from USA or Denmark, I would probably be amazed, but coming from Poland I'm not impressed.
Frat scene. The guys are decent looking and have some style. It's not uncommon to see them suited up. They drink A LOT and aren't scared to approach, though they heavily rely on the dance floor. In Poland the girls would openly complain about their guys, but not here. Latvian girls definitely like their men. Leading to...
Foreign men sustain a negative hit in value. If you look the same as a Latvian guy, the girl will pick him over you, which wasn't the case in Poland. Subtract 2 points off your looks to get a feel for what you're dealing with.
Racist against blacks. A taxi driver told me that Obama is a monkey and a girl said she'd "never in my life" sleep with a black guy. I'd advise my black friends from home not to visit Latvia before a place like Poland, which is much more open to brothers.
Busted dudes test. It fares poorly. I'm not seeing pretty girls with ugly dudes. It's usually equal or the girl is slightly better looking.
Fewer looks. While I don't need girls to check me out, it's usually an encouraging sign. But here I'm getting very few looks.
Beware the Russian element. I can see guys getting surprised with bar scams or attacks from dudes, even though on the surface it doesn't seem like that type of place. For example, I was in a large, empty square talking to two girls at night, right next to the McDonalds. All was calm and peaceful. Then someone drove a shoulder in my back that almost knocked me to the ground. I turned around and saw four meatheads walking away. They did it just for the hell of it. The girls said they were probably Russian. As for Latvian dudes, they seem chill and friendly. It will be easy to avoid Russians since nightlife is mostly segregated with Russians going to their clubs and Latvians going to theirs.
Proud to be Latvian. In Poland, girls were self-loathing about their country. They complained about it and told me how much they wanted to go to America. I was like a bridge to their dreams. In Latvia I'm not getting this vibe at all. They love their country and also have a strong dislike for Russians, even though they speak Russian. On the bright side, Americans are more novel than any European guy. A couple people have said that America is "so far" and that they don't meet many. They're most familiar with Brits, Italians, and Spaniards, with the Brits having caused by far the most damage to our chances of getting the warmest responses. A girl told me the story of British dudes who were
caught urinating on the the city's Freedom Monument, which is considered "an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty of Latvia."
Flag captured. From Wednesday through Friday I was trying a lot of different things to get a feel for the best game to use on the girls (day and night), keeping it close to what worked in Poland. I got massacred, getting only two numbers out of around 30 approaches. Saturday I came up with a plan from those approaches then went to the club that I felt was so far the best. Instead of having to put that plan into action, I met a chatty and outgoing Latvian girl who lives in Britain. She got my standard American game, not nice guy Polish game. Funny part of the night was when I accused her of being a UK sex tourist, since the roles were reversed. I'd consider her an English groupie (Western expat / fan of the English language), so that means I still have work to do to figure Latvian girls out.
First impression conclusion: Riga has pretty girls and fun nightlife, but there are no easy pickens and you will have to hustle more than Poland to get a decent flag. Before I got my flag in Poland, most of the responses I got were quite warm, but in Riga I essentially got nothing until getting lucky on my fourth night out. What I'm experiencing here is most similar to Iceland than any other country I've been to.