Wednesday 9 September
We headed out of Siauliai in the morning after a pitch black night at the campsite as it’s sole occupants. We headed for Kaunas where I had a campsite picked out. The weather had turned a little ordinary. We drove via Panevezys and then down to Kaunas. When we arrived at the campsite, you had to enter a paid parking area before you could go into the campground. We drove through the boom gate and then sat and looked at the camp and wondered if we really wanted to stay. The day was miserable and I didn’t feel like seeing a big city and nor did Scot. After half an hour – we made and ate lunch in the car park while we decided that we didn’t want to stay there after all. I had read that Trakai was meant to be the most beautiful spot in Lithuania (We think that is what the American students that we had met in Tallinn had visited and recommended we see) and so we had to get them to open the gate without paying the carpark fee and we took off for Trakai. This little town is about 30kms from Vilnius so it took us another hour or so to reach it.
Trakai is on Lake Galve and is a very pretty area. We found a campsite close to the town – again we were the only ones there – and settled in for the night. A camp ‘cat’ came over to greet us and then proceeded to follow us around the campsite as we explored. The whole camp was deserted and we went and sat on the steps leading from the restaurant down to the lake front where there were numerous sun loungers all sitting unused for the autumn and winter. The restaurant was also closed as well the supposed ‘spa’ with treatments etc. This place would have been stunning in the Russian days and we thought it had seen better days. It was such a shame as It has so much potential. Scot went and got a beer and cider and chips whilst I patted the cat and we sat on the stairs watching out over the lakes happenings. We had 4 hot air balloons go past us and many yachts. We could see Trakai in the distance with the castle standing out quite clearly. It was a beautiful serene view and one we wished we could be part of – particularly sailing in one of the yachts on the lake or Scot has a balloon ride on his bucket list so that would also have been appropriate.
With our anniversary on Friday we came up with the idea that maybe we could stay in a nice hotel on the Thursday night as a treat. So we headed up to the reception area to get wifi access to check out the hotels and guest houses in Trakai. We came across this lovely hotel that said they had massage specials that comprised of 15 minute steam bath, 15minute body scrub, 45 minute massage and 15 minute tea relax at the end. All this was for 40Euro each and they also touted an amazing Turkish bath room we could hire and sit in and relax for an hour or two for 20 euro. We got so excited, an afternoon of pampering followed by a night in a normal bed and room and they had a car park for the van. So the next morning we drove into Trakai and sought out our perfect retreat. We went to park in a local car park when a local called out to us to come park in his yard all day for the same money which we did (he didn’t speak English – this was all done with hand signals which I actually got wrong).
We went into the hotel and suddenly realised that the pictures on the internet were likely about 20+ years old and the place had dated badly and was not what we had expected. They spoke very bad English which I was surprised about since this was the major tourist destination in Lithuania aside from the capital Vilnius. They said the steam room/Turkish bath was booked out and I thought they said the hotel was booked out as well, until another lady came in and we established there was a room available and they could organise someone to do a massage if required. We said we would be back after check in time of 2pm. After some discussion and thought we realised that this seemingly lovely hotel was in very bad shape and if we stayed there we would have been bitterly disappointed and cranky that we wasted so much money so we never went back. It would have been like déjà vu of the dreadful honeymoon resort we stayed at in the Maldives! We decided to walk around the town and check out any other potential places, but one look at the majority of the buildings told us that no one here had any money to spend on anything and it was not the place to get a comfortable hotel room for the night. We stopped at a little traditional cuisine café and had Kibinas (I think this is how it’s spelt) for lunch. They were a little ordinary, but we accepted that they are most likely very nice, but this was a tourist trap and maybe the quality wasn’t quite what it should be. A ginger cat adopted me in the café and I had the pleasure of him sitting on my knee for quite some time. The town is overrun with cats actually. They are everywhere you look. I am guessing that people can’t afford to have their cats fixed so they breed prolifically. We spoke to a Japanese man from New York in the café who was upset about the poor service in the place and we had a brief chat before we paid the bill and headed off.
We went back to the van as I had realised I had underpaid the man for staying in his yard and we wanted to park there for the night so had to check if it was ok. As we arrived back at the van I spotted Sue and Robs Jabiru van over the road (We had met them in Riga – NZ couple) so I headed over to say Hi – what a small world really). They parked up in the next door yard beside us. We then headed over to the castle to have a look as it is really quite a lovely looking building. We didn’t pay to go through though as they were charging too much I thought and we have seen some amazing castles so far. It was very peaceful there and after the castle we took a walk along the lake front where we hadn’t walked before. We came across a lovely restaurant and guest house which were quite new and maybe might have been ok to stay if we had have found it earlier. We sat and had a drink and a cheese platter before heading back towards the castle. We bumped back into Rob and Sue who invited us to join them in their van for an easy tea of chicken and salad. That was really lovely – it isn’t something we get to do very often. As I have mentioned before we are heading in the same general direction so we may even bump into each other again in another country on the way which would be really lovely. Sue and Rob gave us a parking location we can stay in, in Vilnius that is right near the city and is only a few euro a night which is great as the campground in the city actually closed for the winter today.
Friday 11 September
Happy Anniversary my husband whispered in my ear when we woke this morning in our van parked up in someone’s yard in the middle of Trakai – but overlooking the lake so the view was quite lovely to wake up to and was of mist drifting over the top of the water with clear blue skies above.
We had breakfast and said goodbye to Rob and Sue whom we will keep in touch with via email as we both travel south. We gave the man whose yard we were in 5 euro as we hadn’t paid anyone any money so far. He was trying to drain the water that had built up in the middle of his yard due to a clogged drain.
We were off to Vilnius and we figured that if we got there early enough we would have a good deal of time to check out the city for half a day at least.
