Trav's Travels: Lithuania: Much more than just a country with tie dye basketball jerseys

10/5/15

I took a morning bus from Riga to Vilnius, Lithuania. The ride went through the countryside, which was mainly agricultural and some forest. It was very foggy (the cold kind of foggy), which made the view out the window interesting. The bus again had wifi, but chose to instead listen to music and look out the window.

The first time I really knew about the existence of Lithuania was because during the '92 olympics in which our Dream Team (MJ, Magic, Bird, the round mound of rebound, david robinson, scottie pippen, karl malone, john stockton, clyde drexler, and christian laettner) debuted, Lithuania had a fairly good team (bronze medal I believe), but became famous for their tie dyed grateful dead uniforms

When I arrived in Vilnius, I quickly took off exploring. The first thing that became quickly apparent was that Lithuania appeared to be poorer than the previous two countries I had visited. Instead of brand new trams and nice buses, it had very old buses. Also, the buildings outside of the old city were very crumbly and dilapidated. Very soviet bloc looking. The other thing I noticed right away was how it felt almost tropical after being up in the Northern countries before (Bristol also felt like that when I returned) Like all the baltic states, Lithuania is very Catholic and it has one of the highest amounts of churches per area in its old city. It has a giant cathedral in the center, which is where Pope John Paul started his trip through the Balkans, so they are very proud of it. They also had lots of murals up of the new pope.

After visiting some sites along the city wall, I made my way to the Uzupis neighborhood. It's this really funky and cool artsy neighborhood. I feel like my mom's old boss Mystic Mike would really like it. Interestingly, they declared themselves a republic and area recognized as such, at least by Lithuania (don't know about the UN). But I got my passport stamped when I entered the tiny little country. They have their constitution, which is quite interesting and obviously composed by artist types, hanging up on a wall in at least 20 different languages. I'll include a picture of it. You'll have to check it out. The country's independence day is April 1st (coincidence with april fools?), they have a little government building, and a military with 12 soldiers. The art in the area was definitely unique and cool and the Republic of Uzupis was one of my favorite places in Vilnius.

I wondered around the old town for a while and looked up at all the towering churches and then climbed up to the Gediminas tower which is located on a hill above the city. It's all that remains of the big castle of Vilnius b/c the Christian crusaders razed it during the crusades. It had nice views of the city and the trees that were beginning to change to bright colors with the oncoming fall.

In the giant courtyard by the huge cathedral is a tile called the Stebuklas tile, which means miracle tile. This was the ending point of a continuous human chain of 2 million people stretching from Tallin, Estonia to through Latvia and ending in Vilnius, Lithuania in protest against Soviet occupation. I happened on August 23rd 1989, and is a very powerful reminder of what we are capable of when we come together and work towards a common goal.

Something I have enjoyed while on this trip is the history. The areas are of course seeped in history dating way way back even before the middle ages. It is interesting to read about all that, but what's most interesting to me is the modern history b/c we spent so much time in school learning about that, so it's cool to be in the places where you can really feel that it happened. All of these countries featured prominently in the world wars, the holocaust, the iron curtain of the soviets and the fight for independence. Kaunas was the city where Napoleon started his fateful attack on the soviets. I took a Berger world history class that dealt exclusively with the 1900's through the cold war and then another Berger history class entitled "Nazis and the final solution". And as anyone who's had a Berger class knows, he's extremely passionate about this time period and a great teacher, so it really stuck with me. It was amazing how you could really almost feel that lingering soviet presence but also the new life in the people there. In fact, it was THIS year that Lithuania joined the eurozone after years of wanting to be in it, and while I was there, they were in the process of switching to the Euro...so they had prices in 2 different currencies for everything.

I'd say Vilnius was my 2nd favorite city of the main 3 I visited, behind fairy-tale Tallinn

In the later afternoon I caught a train from Vilnius to Kaunas. It went through very rural areas, which was cool to see. All the houses were tiny little cottages in the woods. Like how one might envision houses in the woods in the rocky mountain west, except much smaller...cute tiny little places The rail station upon arrival in Kaunas was huge, looming, and completely soviet looking. From the train station it was 2km walk to my hostel and the streets, until the last few hundred meters were straight out of your soviet imagination. Drab. Concrete. Rotting. But my hostel was on a huge walking mall promenade full of more modern shops and was quite nice. I checked into the hostel, which was a super nice hostel and then quickly headed out as daylight was quickly fading.

I didn't get much of a chance to explore Kaunas, but it seemed like a nice small little city. It too had an old town of cobbled streets and surrounded on two sides by a river, which confluenced at the tip of old town. I went to a Lithuanian restaurant in the old town recommended by the hostel girl. And it was simply amazing!! There was so much to choose from that looked good and the prices were so cheap. You could get big beef portions for 4 or 5 dollars. There was something called the farmers feast, meant to serve 4 people for $11. I couldn't decided what to get, so I got 2 things. I got the rabbit, beef, and duck stew and then some beef-filled dumplings. But it was a hard choice. Those 2 meals plus a 1/2 liter of beer cost me 9 euros (a touch under 10 bucks). Beer is really cheap in this country. about $1.50-$2.00 in a restaurant for a 1/2 liter and less than $1 in a convenience store. And the crazy thing is that only last year it was even cheaper before they switched to the Euro. I didn't get to spend much time in Kaunas but, I liked it, and feel like it would be a good place to enjoy some of the finer things in life such as eating and drinking without breaking the bank. The hostel was super nice and it was only a bit more than 10 bucks a night.

The Lithuanian people were very nice and they definitely knew the least amount of English. In Kaunas, actually most people I tried to ask something didn't know any English. Something interesting is that in all 3 countries, the people strictly obey the Don't Walk sign even if there are no cars anywhere to be seen. Bristol is the complete opposite. I felt really bad the first couple times I crossed without waiting for the green walk sign to flash b/c I felt like I was setting a bad example. I quickly got out of my Bristol ways to wait patiently like the locals.

10/6/15

I caught the early 5am bus to the airport. Kaunas has a tiny airport. 4 gates and probably not much more than 10 flights in and out per day. The plane was filled entirely with Lithuanians. I talked to a couple and they were going back to Bristol to work after having visited family in Kaunas. I would guess this was the case for most of them. When the plane landed, all the passengers broke out into applause. Oh the cute Lithuanians!

When we arrived at passport control there is 2 lines. The EU line and the non-eu line. Since they were all Lithuanian, I was of course the only one in the non-eu line. So I thought things would go real quick since last time the immigration officers was so pleasant and jovial. Not this time! I got interviewed, suspiciously, for a solid 15 minutes by the lady. I don't know what had changed. My hair is longer and more hippy like, maybe that's it... Maybe it was suspicious that I had been in the UK for a while and then headed to the baltic for a short visit. Who knows. I also sometimes think they get suspicious of how many stamps I have in my passport and wonder what I am doing traveling around so much. Am I dealing drugs to fund my travel? Those kinds of things. But after answering all the questions smoothly and with ease, she finally let me through with a grunt.

Once passed immigration I bought a bus ticket to the city center. It's a 30 minute ride and cost me $11. Welcome back to the UK! My bus ride earlier than morning, which was an hour long, cost me 80 cents.