Haus Am Haff Nida

... Abenteuer"
Meine Expedition ins mehr oder minder Unbekannte begann am Mittwoch. Nach einigen Kommunikationsproblemen (Was an dem, doch recht international angehauchten Wort "studente" und "Klaipeda" so schwer zu verstehen gewesen ist, versteh ich nicht) saß ich dann doch im Bus nach Klaipeda, der grüßten Hafenstadt Litauens.
Während ich dann im Kreis lief auf der Suche nach meiner Orientierung fiel mir auf, dass ich nicht der einzige Mensch bin, der so gar keinen Plan hat wo er denn ...

... sind ein ganz gewöhnlicher, gleichsam genutzter Teil des Verkehrsnetzes, nicht davon irritieren lassen.
Wie auch immer... Jedenfalls ging die Reise durch das idyllische Land Litauens.
Grasgrüne Weiten, blaue Himmel, aufgepuffte kleine Wölkchen und den Himmel nicht so eintönig wirken zu lassen. Litauen gibt sich wirklich Mühe zu gefallen und tut das auch!
Das gute am Busfahren ist: Es steht dran wo es hingeht, Städtenamen sind international verständlich, ich steige ...

On our way to Nida we stopped to visited one of the most pilgrimage places I have ever been. It's a Hill of Crosses nearby Siauliai City. People come here, leave crosses, icons and pray - and the energy on the hill is simply amazing.

Nida is a resort town in Lithuania, located on the Curonian Spit. When we visited this ...

It took just over 3 hours to drive from Vilnius to Klaipeda with very light traffic. The drive is a little boring, but comfortable. The Magnisima Hotel is in the new (er) part of town within walking distance from the old town and with a secure parking lot in the rear. The room (#7) is very spacious and tastefully furnished. The street misses a couple of light poles, so gets a ...

I buy my bus ticket to Liepaja, Latvia for Monday. I was planning on Sunday but was told no Sunday trips and while there used to be 3 busses a day, it is now only 1. I infer that the economic downturn has hit the tourist industry pretty heavily.

Since there is no breakfast at the hostel, I stop by a grocery store for some danish and yogurt drink. I am sun burnt from yesterday. My Nivea lotion is ...

... am a beach walker. I get bored hanging in one spot. Virtually no one does this. The female only zones complicates this since I have to exit the beach and take the path to the next guys OK zone. It is a really nice beach for one that is just outside an urban area. Not enough surf for surfing or boogie boarding.

I go for a drink back in Klaipeda. As I walk down a street, I see lots of action going on in an alleyway. I go in. I found the café spot for 30+, Pasazo ...

One of the natural highlights of Lithuania is the Curonian Spit - a 100km long sand bar that forms a massive lagoon from the Lithuanian coast into Kaliningrad, Russia. The sand bar is constantly eroded by the elements and is slowly shifting inwards (up to 10m a year) and at the same time disappearing as the wind blows the sand away. In fact the villages used to keep having to move as the sand slowly buried them. It is all protected ...

... wind straight against to Jurkalne, famous for it's high coast. this twenty meters high forest ends abruptly, like cliffs, leaving ten meters of beach still between itself and the sea. Only here and there is a place where it's possible to decent. We found a good campingplace allready taken by a young family with a BMW, just to say that basicly everyone goes wildcamping in Baltics... we said hello to ...

... in the 16th century started the sands shifting, absorbing 14 villages in three centuries. Reforestation efforts were begun by the first tree-huggers in 1768 and continue today. The sands are still moving up to 5 m per year, and shrinking, raising fears that one day the spit may be washed away entirely. I spent a couple days in this fragile environment, in the charming town of Nida, 50 km down the spit. Each year, 50 ...

Today started bitterly cold. I don't think the hostel was heated :( Most of the hostels so far have been ace but with the heat in here I think I may have been better sleeping in the bus station next door (The location is fantastic though, almost in the parking lot of the bus station!). So it took me a bit to pull myself out of bed and brave outside. The town was actually quite pretty, I'd been warned that Klaipeda was a typical port town and ...