My wife took part in a Summer School of Psychoanalysis held in Nida in August 1997 and she asked me to accompany her. Since I have never been to Lithuania before, I was quick on saying yes. But instead of spending a week on the sands of Neringa, I decided to tour the country.
I have prepared myself by gathering information from various places. One of the most useful were certainly the Lithuanian information on the web. Thanks to them, I had better information on how to reach Vilnius from Warsaw, than a Polish friend of us that lives in Warsaw.
We arrived to Vilnius on Sunday, by train from Zagreb to Warsaw, and by bus from there. My wife left for Nida, and I spent 2 days in Vilnius. I made a short visit to Trakai. Then I went to Aukštaitija and spent there 2 days canoeing and hiking, and then moved on to Šiauliai, where I've spent 1 day, to Klaipeda, 1 day again, and to Nida where I joined my wife. The day after we left for Kaunas, where we spent two days.
People are nice, hospitable and honest (I was not cheated a single time, which is hard to believe for somebody coming from the southern Europe). They were helpful all around, and were not running away at the sight of a confused foreigner that doesn't speak the language. I did hitchhike, and that was a pleasant experience indeed.
The language was certainly the biggest problem, but smaller than I have expected. I've learned 50 words of Lietuviškai, and I can understand Russian, so I was not afraid of not managing around, but the nearly total lack of English (apart from some restaurants in Vilnius, and most of hotel reception clerks) barred me from having any more profound contact with the people. The reason I said the problem was much less grave than I have expected, is because, due to the bilinguality of the people in Lithuania, everyone is susceptible to badly pronounced words, of pidgin Lithuanian and pidgin Russian I used. That is such a difference from Spain, Italy or France, where there is no chance one would get his milk or cheese or beer, unless pronounced perfectly. It reminds me of an occasion in Romania, where I was unable to buy bread, even though I said in cca. 10 languages, including Romanian, only because of the wrong pronunciation and complete lack of knowledge of foreign languages. Such a tremendous gift Lithuania should guard, probably in time adding knowledge of English.
I found Lithuania to be very safe place for a relatively poor country, which is on the contrary to the most of the news and information I was getting from around.
I was alone, a foreigner, I persistently walked in night in the run down areas, I hitchhiked, I slept in the forest camp in Aukštaitija, I was leaving my luggage around, and nothing happened to me. Of course I have followed some rules of caution, but I found Lithuania generally safer that most of Western Europe.
Vilnius is beautiful, at least the old town. I think it has some tourist potential. Since me and my wife were coming from Poland, we made a comparison saying that Vilnius is a not yet discovered Krakow. (And Krakow we found to be in its highest, just before being swamped and destroyed by tourists like Prague).
One more thing about Vilnius. It has the most beautiful legs in the world (at least 35 countries I have visited). It is amazing. It completely banishes the Gaussian curve. All the legs are just perfect. Most of other foreigners I met in Vilnius agreed with me. Women are gorgeous all around Lithuania, but Vilnius is certainly the epicenter.
Men are on the other hand rough and tough looking, tall (good for basketball) with short haircuts. Misteriously, more than 10% of young men had their right hand bandaged, as if it were some special way of punishment being conducted by mafia.
I have also noticed that in Vilnius more Russian is heard in street than Lithuanian, and absolutely no Polish, even though the ethnic breakup is 50% Lithuanian, 20% Russian and 20% Polish. In the other places (apart from Klaipeda) Russian is not heard, even though all cities have 10% Russian population.
It was unusual to me not to find bilingual street signs in Vilnius, as if spoken language is different from the written one. I was also surprised not to hear more Polish. I speak some Polish, so I tried it in Vilnius, and it worked well. People understood it. But replied mainly in Russian. Elsewhere in Lithuania they didn't understand it.
Trakai castle I visited has a marvelous position and well kept historical exhibition, but it lacks a bit of shine, probably because the town around is not very nice. The Karaites were very inviting to me, but their museum and shrine were closed.
I did travel mainly by bus, since the trains have early morning schedules, and I am not an early person. The buses were simple to understand. It was interesting to find that the buses are used more like a mean of local transport, than intercity shuttling, which meant that the buses are a bit slow, but which enabled me to see a nice cut through the society and countryside. For example, berry pickers picked up in the forest, and dropped of in the first market town.
That is how I reached Ignalina, and then the village of Kaltenenai in Aukaštaitija. That village was described in my guide book (Lonely Planet's The Baltic States) as having a Youth Hostel and canoe renting. I found a hostel, well, a room in a disused school, that served as a Youth Hostel to 25 foreigners that followed the guide to the village. Talking with the keeper I understood that after the Independence the school director decided to open a Youth Hostel in the empty building. It shows to me a bit of over enthusiasm of the people from ex-communist countries. Well, anyway, I've got my bed, and I rented a canoe, and had a marvelous day canoeing, and then nearly two days walking all the way to Ginuičiai, and then to the road to Uteno.
One of the most beautiful things in Lithuania is that there are still only a few cars around. I know, people need cars, and they will buy them, but it was a beautiful site to see Lithuania before it gets swamped.
Aukštaitija is certainly something to see, but would be better to visit it with a group of friends, rent canoes for a few days and roam around. Hiking was also very exciting, since the map I had was only a sketch, and paths are not marked. That feeling of being on my own, completely dependent on my instincts was one of the best feelings I had in Aukštaitija. The only negative side of the park is that people leave junk around, not lot of it, but visible.
Šiauliai I found a very gay place with live music that reminded me of twenties or thirties, playing in an open air restaurant, and people dancing. As if I descended into the book of Günther Grass.
Križiu Kalna I visited since most people on the web mention it as the must. It has reminded me of a place in Turkey where people leave pieces of cloth for wishes, or in Thailand, where people put golden sheets on Buddha sculptures. The fact of not being Christian have taken away from me any feeling of enthusiasm, and I just saw it as a proof of people's superstitions. Of course, to bulldoze it is an act of Barbarianism.
What amazes again and again is the public transport. It is punctual. Buses, even the city buses, arrive and leave on time, such an unusual site for a southerner. When driving downhill the bus drivers are braking, in order to arrive exactly on time to the next tiny village. I have already seen that in Scandinavia, Germany and Poland, but I didn't expect to find it in ex-Soviet Lithuania. Here I wondered, was the order established after the break-up, or during the Soviet rule. The second option would imply in deconstructing one of the strongest stereotypes of the Soviet Union that we were fed by the western media, that nothing functions. Nevertheless, a Lithuanian friend of mine explained to me that the punctuality was a pre-Soviet virtue.
I remember in the bus from Uteno to Šiauliai, at the station in Panevežys, the bus driver and the conductor commented about me. I was the only passenger still on board from Uteno. The average passenger took a 20km ride. That looked reasonable to me, since the bus' average speed, including stopping at numerous stops, was about 25km/h.
To try to avoid slow buses I took a train from Šiauliai to Klaipeda. That came out to be not much faster either. When I arrived in Klaipeda I have first checked a few hotels in the center, but they were filled up with German tourist. So, I had to walk all the way to the hotel at Taikos Prospektas, where I've got a room. That area is more a Russian tourist area.
I had a dinner in a place near the bridge, in front of the place where the sailing ship-bar is anchored, the one with live music, Lithuanian live music. I had great dark beer and šašlykai.
Lithuania has very good strong (really strong) beers, and since I like very much dark beer, I was having good time. Unfortunately, Lithuanians, when they see a foreigner, they try to sell him Kaltenapilis (?), which is so much similar to the international beers like Tuborg or Heineken, but which are definitively not my choice. I preferred Utenos or Porteris, the dark ones.
The food I liked. I tried to eat as much as I could find local food. Cepelinai and blynai I found very tasty, and very strong. One thing I do not understand is how women stay so slim by eating such food heavy in fat and carbohydrates. That is absolutely a mystery to me.
Saturday I spent strolling around the streets of Klaipeda. I didn't expect to find it to be so tourist, Germans looking for the ashes of Memel, keeping distance with crowds of high middle class Russian tourists, that obviously used to spend summers here, listening to the Russian ballads in the open air terraces, and swimming in the Baltic during the day. And the tolerance of Lithuanian people amazed me, such an nonexistent quality in the Balkans where I am from.
The market in Klaipeda on Saturday was an experience. The offer was great, the prices were low, but the astonishing fact was the number of sellers. The fact that 10 kilos of meat is attended by one vendor unveils the low price of labour. Potato was one fifth of the price in Croatia. I wandered could some trade be made, theoretically only. Now that Lithuania and Croatia are both on the path of joining CEFTA, they will have to sign a free trade agreement.
At the dock of the right side of the Dania mouth there was an American military ship opened for sightseeing. The hypocrisy of the Americans is sometimes amazing. "Yes, we build war ship so kids in Klaipeda could play on them."
In the evening I took a ferry to Smiltyine, and then a microbus to Nida. The sand dunes of Neringa were great sight. I felt as in Sahara. I would never expect such a sight in Baltics, no matter what any tourist guide says. But the dunes are real.
The beach was overcrowded for my taste (though nothing like Mediterranean), but clean and beautiful. The sea was warmer then I expected having already bathed in Baltics in Sweden and Finland. So we took a night bath, with the myriad of stars above us.
Nida is obviously the center of exclusive tourism, and is meant to be kept closed for the masses. No camping allowed. I remember the gleam in the eyes of a woman I explained in Aukštaitia that my wife is in Nida for a seminar. She made a sigh, and said that yes, in Aukštaitiai it is not so nice as in Nida.
The other moment that has shown the exclusivity of Nida happened to my wife. When they arrived to Nida, they had to wait for a whole day, since president Brazauskas decided to spend a few days in Nida with his entourage, so he took their rooms. At the end, all were settled, but the episode can be explained only either by the exclusivity of Nida, where the presidents come for vacations, or by Swedish type of life of Lithuanian politicians. Tito, the president of Yugoslavia had his own archipelago, which was inherited and is now used by Croatian president Tudjman.
From Nida we took a hydrofoil to Kaunas, one of the most beautiful remains of the Communist times. The hydrofoil went up the Nemunas river, following beautiful landscape, with only 10 passengers. Such an inefficient thing would be long scraped in the West and one of the most beautiful passages I had Lithuania would be unreachable.
We arrived to Kaunas on Sunday, and the first sight was unpleasant. Drunk people around, and some aggression. We thought of leaving in the morning. But then, when I went to change money early in the morning I've got a very pleasant view of Kaunas' Laišve Gatve, and decided to stay one more day. We had a pleasant day walking around, just being tourists.
What is amazing for us from the south is the amount of green areas in towns. Lithuanian towns are so green, that an unpolished, or even destroyed street, just behind the main street, goes unnoticed.
The next day when we wanted to leave Lithuania, we have discovered that we have misunderstood the timetable and that we have missed the train to Suwalki. So, we decided to leave in the evening by bus. That left us a whole day free, and we went to Kaunas' zoo. We like zoos very much, and whenever we have time in a foreign town we visit them. Also we visited the Devils museum, that was recommended to us by my wife's Russian colleagues. It was interesting, but we found it asexual. Not a single devil was playing with sex. Since me and my wife are both very much sex loving creatures, and would expect that in a Devils museum, we wondered what is the Lithuanian attitude towards sex?
We left by a nearly empty bus to Poland, together with some Polish backpackers, and some vodka smugglers. Even the bus was specially constructed and had special holes in each seat for a bottle of vodka.
We have of course spend all litas before leaving Kaunas, and then, just before the border, there was an ecological tax to be paid. Not a high amount, but a very unpleasant problem when you do not have 4 litas, or no small money in other currencies, which were anywhere exchanged here at exorbitant rates. I remember that from Bulgaria, where every 50 km there was an "ecological tax" to be paid.
There is one more negative impression from Lithuania. Sleeping is extremely expensive. Even the private rooms charge 30DEM for a night at least, which is ridiculous, since the monthly salary is only 190$ per month. Sleeping is generally much more expensive than in Spain or Portugal.
That fact will be an important brake on the development of tourism in Lithuania. Which is a pity, since it is a beautiful and hospitable country.
There are lot of similarities between Croatia and Lithuania. Both are small, between big neighbors that always approached its territory, both are Catholic and both had some medieval successes (Lithuania much more and later, though). Both are nationalistic, having fought for the independence by all means during last 150 years, maybe loosing much on other fronts. Both are basketball giants. The main difference is that Lithuanians celebrate their victories (Žalgiris, Šiauliai) while Croats celebrate their defeats.
The historical fact that I was amazed the most with is that Lithuanians were the last tribe in Europe to succumb to Christianization. The hands of Perkunas (Perun in Croatian) are still visible, although the Catholic church is trying to cover as much as possible.
And Sunday in Vilnius was a bit of an unreal. No cars, and all the people went to churches. Even those lovely girls with such short miniskirts that they would not be allowed to enter any church in Mediterranean.
If you have any comments mail to me: Neven
Duić
.
Last modified August 19, 1997.