Kerpe Palanga

... Amis sind ja so furchtbar! Offensichtlichere Floskeln gibs ja wohl GAR NICHT! Aber ich bin ja nicht unhöflich: "Where are you from?" - "US. Nice Shirt." - "Thanks."
Gut, dachte ich mir. Was für eine bekloppte Unterhaltung. Er musste möglichst cool wirken, als erfahrener Backpacker, Martina hatte Mühe ihre Augen wieder zuzukriegen, ich glaub er hats gemerkt, aber ich habe an seinen Lippen förmlich gehangen. War ja nun aber auch interessant was der Gute so zu erzählen hatte ...

... dark at night when walking back, but didnt feel unsafe to me. From the hotel to old town takes around 15 minutes on foot. Most of the way is a shopping street. The old town it self is small and not very exciting, but has some nice restaurants and bars. I had dinner somewhere outside in the city centre, which was very cheap. This being a Sunday evening, it was pretty quiet.

... celebrations are being held. It is hard to find. I and many others go down some dead ends before finding the path. It is packed with thousands of people. A naval ship is decked out. Huge monitors show the performers who sing, dance and talk. The culmination is the national anthem, supposedly synced with spots all over the world. Very cool to participate in something so monumental for the Lithuanian people.

... the ferry. I grab a Kabab and a beer in the 5 minutes I have before the ferry. 60 people join me. The fare is $1.20 round trip. It is a short, 15 minute ride to the Curonian Spit. From the port at Smiltyne, it a 10 minute walk to the beach through some beautiful forested areas. As the forest disappears, the dunes appear. Then, the Baltic Seal.

As I approach the ocean, the path splits. To the right, all the young, beautiful women. To the left, the couples with kids ...

... the positioning of the missiles had to be changed several times. All this lay hidden until 1976 when satellite imaging technology got better and the Russians were busted by the Americans, who saw the four slide back mounds. The Russians then secreted out the warheads back into Russia (not the kind of things you can hide in a car boot either!). Even so, it was never ...

... I met two guys at the beach the next day who thought they knew of a cheap place I could stay for an extra week. I wanted to extend my visit but not stay where I was currently staying since it wasn't very good. I went with them to dinner one night where they had a Lithuanian specialty that was some kind of ground meat (they thought it was pig) inside a boiled potato with sour cream sauce. I had a taste and it was OK but I'd rather have Mini-Wheats instead. The next morning I ...

... race competition which looked as if anyone could enter we thought about entering winnie but didnt want to put all the fancy cars to shame. Claire was gutted by the time we had set up camp and got back into town it was all over so no pics ahhhhh bet your all really sad. The best of it all was they closed a public highway for all these petrol heads as if they would do that in England no chance..........

... dei har åtte kasus, så det kan henda eg ikkje klarer å bøya alt riktig. Den baltiske språkfamilien er interessant, særleg for oss som likar å kalla oss slavistar. Det er klåre etymologiske samband mellom dei slaviske og baltiske språka. Ei rad døme kan trekkjast opp for å påvisa desse likskapane og ulikskapane mellom kentum- og satem-språk, men eg skal ikkje det no (for å vera heilt ærleg, sit spr ...

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 ...

... the Lithuanian sea is really beautiful, clean, extremely cold and surrounded by forest. Palanga itself is nothing really special, just the classic summer place for families during the day and for party animals at night. Unfortunately Falk, my dear friend and travel comapanion, today left to Germany...very sad but at the same time quite ok since we will meet in few weeks in UK.