Tag: Lithuania

Sunday 13 September

Marathon day!

We got up in time to see the events before the marathon took off at 9am.  There was the marathon and the half marathon that took off at 9am and there were thousands competing.  It was great to be there like we were a part of it.  They paraded the flags of all the nationalities taking part and they read out all the countries and there was a NZ flag for Scot – we believe he was the only one from the other side of the world because there wasn’t an Aussie flag.  After the marathon started we walked up Gedimino ave for a coffee and when we were finished some of the runners were coming down this part of the course so we started cheering them on.  After having competed ourselves, there is nothing nicer than people cheering you on especially if you are feeling like you are struggling, so we did a lot of this but others just stood and stared at the runners.

We went down to the square then to watch the winners come through.  The first guy was a Kenyan who ran the marathon in 2 hours 25 minutes – which was 40 minutes faster than the first female over the line and about 10 minutes ahead of the second male, absolutely amazing and he didn’t even look puffed.  We went back to the van for a bite for lunch and then went back to watch the start of the 10km run of which there were thousands competing as well.  We took back our NZ flag with us and it was quite hilarious because whilst waiting for the 10km race to run there were lots of photographers taking pot shots of the crowd and runners etc.  When they saw our flag they started taking photos of us standing at the barrier.  Then one of them came over and said are you really from New Zealand or is your flag a Joke.   So funny – they really didn’t believe anyone would be there from the other side of the world.

Then Scots run came up – the 4.2km run and again there were thousands running in it which was just great to see.  They gave everyone participating a medal at the end which was so cool as a momento.  I know Scot could have run more but I didn’t want him to push it as he has had problems with his archilies from running previously and he hasn’t been training.  I cheered on from the side line whilst fighting to keep my front line spot on the barrier.

Scot’s feeling during the run – when he started to feel a bit of pain, that his was voluntary whereas the pain of the Lithuanians during the occupation was anything but and this spurred him on.  Also thinking that only 5 months ago he had had part of his body removed and how awesome to be able to be participating in something like this.

They gave away free beer ( non alcoholic) at the finish which Scot snavelled a few.  Once all the events were completed we went and had dinner out before heading back to the van.  We tried to read as it was quite early but our power was nearly dead so it was too difficult.  It will be a buggar on the road tomorrow as we will have no power in our batteries to keep the fridge cool and you can’t drive with the gas on.  Our loo also is almost full so tomorrow we must find a camp ground.

Friday 11 September

Vilnius was only 30kms away from Trakai so we arrived there about lunchtime.  We parked in a car park that was a few minutes walk to the old town.  The car park allowed motorhomes to park for 24hrs at a time but had no facilities.  Rob and Sue had told us about it.  It was a great place, even though it was quite isolated, no one much came into the car park and it had security cameras all around and the police patrolled the roadway in each night (don’t know why – and they didn’t either when I asked).

We walked into the town and started to walk around some of the tourist sights.  We passed a few weddings about to start and one church we went into they were about to start the ceremony so we left feeling like we were intruding a bit.  It is obviously a very popular place for weddings and Friday was a popular day.  We got harassed by a few beggars – these guys though were funny as they had legs bandaged up and we thought possibly fake makeup on to look like injuries and they often faked bad walking postures for the sympathy effect.   They were ok though as they just left when we shook our heads.  We sat at the information place to try and get emails, but it’s difficult to sit for very long at these places so after a short time we left.  We went to an area called Uzupis which is an arty farty area.  We stopped for a drink and a cheese platter at a hotel there – for our wedding anniversary – and they refused to tell us their WIFI code even though they had given it to some others who were sitting close by, so we left.  Uzupis has it’s own constitution and rules and pleads to be it’s own republic, not sure how that works though.

We went to find a cat café but it wasn’t there which was a shame as it was a bit out of the old town and we wasted some precious time. We were a bit tired so after we had a walk through the lovely gardens near the cathedral square and a short walk up Gedimino avenue we went back to the van before dark (which is getting earlier every day unfortunately) and Scot cooked dinner.

The next day we walked up to the top of the hill beside the car park where there was a castle and some ruins and got a great view over Vilnius.  They have kept a lot of greenery and it makes it look like a very small city indeed.  They have a lot of parkland which featured fountains, very pretty flower gardens and wide pathways.  We watched in the cathedral square as they were putting up a whole lot of tents and wondered what was happening.  We discovered there was a marathon on in Vilnius tomorrow and because of this we made the decision to stay an extra day.  I convinced Scot he would be fine to do a short run and how awesome to be involved in something on this side of the world along with something like 20,000 other people, so he went and registered to seal his fate.

We then walked along Gedimino avenue to find a second cat café which we knew was still operating but they hadn’t opened for the morning when we arrived so we went down the road for a coffee.  Just as we were crossing the road I spotted the Japanese man we had spoken to in Trakai, so we went up and spoke to him and invited him to have a coffee with us since he was on his own.  He thought we were hassling him until he recognised us with surprise but declined as he was heading to the airport to go home.

We headed back to the cat café when it was open.  They have 13 cats here but have a licence for 15.  They don’t rehome them, this is their full time home and they are simply there for people to come and have a pat of them whilst having a cuppa or a meal.  The cats are generally friendly but I felt they just get too much attention and they really wanted to just be left to their own devices.  It was cool though.  There are many such cafes right around the world particularly in places like Tokyo or New York where it is difficult for people to have their own cats.

We then went in search of the campsite we thought was nearby here because our van was running out of power and we also were close to needing the loo emptied, but we couldn’t find it.  We did however find multiple weddings happening.  One church we walked past had 3 brides virtually lining up to get married.  When one came out of the church, the next one and their guests filed into the church and the next one moved up in line to wait.  Even though Scot was dying to tell them it was a great day to get married as it was our Wedding Anniversary but he didn’t.  I doubt they would have spoken English anyway.

Next we went into the KGB Museum also called the Museum of Genocide Victims.  It was in the actual building that the Nazis and the KGB used when each of them occupied Lithuania.  The base of the building has the names engraved of those they know were murdered in this building.  They brought people here who were deemed to be collaborators, resistance members, political agitators or those who helped the resistance.  Any who had been previously in power when they took over as political figures were considered a threat as well as many others for various reasons – but since when did the Nazi’s or the KGB need reasons?

We wandered around reading about the plight of Lithuania and how dreadful l they were treated from the time of the Russian occupation before and after WWII and during the Nazi occupation. They had various photos along with spiel in each of the rooms and one particularly graphic room had photographs of murdered people as they had lain when killed.  Very graphic and quite upsetting. The basement of this building had been used to house the people that either occupier had arrested and in one small cell they could have up to 24 people – really just enough room to sit with cramped legs.  From the moment I walked down the stairs I could feel this oppressive energy like I have never felt in my life.  They murdered too many people to even mention the numbers here in these cells and you could feel it.  I can barely describe what I felt in the cells as we walked along looking, until I walked into one particular one.  There was nothing different about this cell compared to others but as I went inside I thought I was going to vomit.  The feeling I got was so strong and felt so dreadful, like a huge weight, I had to get out and thankfully there were exercise yards opposite where I could get some fresh air.  I don’t know if others can feel the same thing, but as I said I have never felt anything like this, but I guess when you have thousands of people murdered in these confines it must leave some spiritual energy behind.  When we went into the torture chamber – I was surprised they didn’t have any torture implements or anything.  They were just showing a video re-enacting how some of the murders were done.  But like that one other cell, although there was little in this room, I couldn’t handle the feeling and I had to leave.  I couldn’t look at the rest of the museum as I felt so sick from the oppressive energy so we left.  I would go back to that museum in a heartbeat as it has taught us so much of what happened in this part of the world that we never knew about.

We walked around more of the town and then went back over to Uzupis to look for the other campground where we may park up the next night.  The campsite was a shit hole and was fine for the hostel people who were staying there, but not a pleasant place to park the van so we decided we wouldn’t waste our money here, we would have to deal with the lack of power in the van as best we could.  The refrigerator was being powered on gas so it was fine, it was just the reading lights we would lose only too soon.  We walked back around the town and it was starting to get dark.  It was actually nice for a change to be in a city when it was dark and see it in a different light.  We felt very comfortable in this city and never once felt threatened.  We stopped at an Italian restaurant to have a pizza and beer/wine before heading back to the van.  Scot needed his sleep for his big run the next day!  As we got back to the car park we could hear a band playing and lots of people walking up the hill to where the 3 crosses were.  We asked someone coming down what was going on and they said it was a rock/music festival.  The coppers we had asked at the entrance to the street had no idea.  We decided we didn’t need to walk all the way to the top and went to bed.

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.

Tuesday 8 September

We get up in the morning and because there is a small amount of wifi in the reception area, I have time to quickly load up a blog before we leave, but that is all.  We need to try and get another hinge for our van door so we head into town to find a camping store we are told about by the camping ground manager.  It takes us ages to find where the store is as the tablet shows it in a slightly different area and thankfully we find a guy at a hardware store who speaks the smallest amount of English to show us where we need to go.  Anyway luck is not with us and we think we will have to head into Germany to find another hinge and have someone put it on as it is riveted and we have no tools.

We head out of Klaipeda back the way we came yesterday because we want to travel to Kaunas via Siauliai where there is an amazing hill of crosses to see.  We have overestimated the roads in Lithuania – they aren’t as bad at Latvia at this stage, but they aren’t a lot better either.  We head out of Kretinga and across towards Siauliai.  We have wasted most of the morning looking for van stuff, so it is getting a little late in the day.  We do decide to have a coffee I think – it’s difficult to remember sometimes when you write a few days late what you did.  We haven’t had wifi or electricity for 5 days now and today is no different as I write this.  We are told here there is wifi, but the bandwidth is so bad it won’t even refresh my maps so not worth doing anything.

Anyway we eventually get to Siauliai and find the Hill of Crosses.  It is the most bizarre thing to see – this little hill in the middle of the flat and there are probably hundreds of thousands of crosses – possibly even millions scattered around the area.  I am not sure exactly how it started but I know that in the 1980’s the Russians used to bulldoze the crosses out of the way and the civilians would sneak back during the night and start to resurrect them all back up again.  Now, although the place is used to commemorate the spirit of the Lithuanian people who were killed by the Nazis and Russians, there are many crosses from people all over the world wanting to remember people they have lost.    The crosses all have to be wooden and 99% of them are.  There are also lots of rosary beads and Virgin Mary and Jesus statues plus other commemorative religious artefacts people have put there.  You can walk amongst the crosses as there are paths winding all through them.  It is a very strange feeling being there, quite surreal actually and quite difficult to describe.  Scot was awed by the number of crosses that at the beginning just seemed like a hill in front of us, but when you walked amongst it was amazing how many people contributed.  Busloads of tourists come out each day from Vilnius to see this and many add to the crosses.  Scot would describe it just like a pilgrimage.  The only thing I thought a bit funny was the one and only sign that said ‘no flames’.  It would take a second for someone to destroy the entire hill with effectively a single match.  It would not surprise me if one day this happened – if someone took offense to the site from a different religion.  I had to put all the pictures I took in as you just can’t imagine how many crosses there are here, my photos really don’t even show how many there are.

We left the Hill of Crosses and since it was 5pm decided not to continue to Kaunas, but stay in a campsite close by.  We found one just outside the town that was deserted and looked like it was closed but as we pulled in a lady appeared carrying a large punnet of raspberries.  We paid her some money to stay as well as take the freshly picked punnet of raspberries off her hands.  They had a washing machine and dryer so we decided to do the washing and also do a spring clean of the van inside and out.  We don’t often get the opportunity to do it so have to when we are able to – as Scot really wanted to sit in the sun and read his book, sometimes this has to take second place to chores.  The people here have a large country garden that they seem to share the responsibility for.  In the morning one of the older guys was into the garden closest to us digging out the old raspberry bushes.  From what we have seen the Lithuanians love their gardens and their soil looks very rich.