Palanga Hotel

... aus, wenn ich einen Beweis habe, dass ich hier richtig bin!!!<br>Gut, in Klaipeda angekommen (soetwas wie das deutsche Hamburg, größte Handels- und Hafenstadt, industriell pulsierende Metropole des größten der drei baltischen Staaten), habe ich erstmal nach meiner Orientierung gesucht. Ich wollte ja zum Fährhafen. Zack, die Landkarte abfotografiert und wollte eigentlich schon weiter, da wurde ein Mensch mit riesigem Rucksack von nem Litauer angesprochen. Den hilflos wedelnden ...

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 ...

... the waterfront, stopping occasionally. At one point, I notice a lot of nude people. As I observer more closely, it is all women. I had passed onto the border of the women only zone. I quickly turn around. There is a sign at the entrance in Lithuanian. No pictorial sign like I had seen before. Oops.<br><br>Lots of wind kept people against the sand dunes. There is a network of sand areas inside the dunes ...

There is a 6:35 and a 7 AM bus to Klaipeda, a beach town on the Baltic Sea. I wake up at 5:30, before my alarm. I rush to make the earlier bus but I am told to go on the later one. English is not widely spoken. The ticket person knew numbers. The bus is a nice one, double decker and I am on top. 3.5 hours. <br><br>As I walked to the bus station, I passed a bar. Several people were there having their breakfast beer.<br><br>My back has been acting up. Had some issues before ...

And now to one of the most bizarre things we've gone to see on this trip. In 1960 the Russians, who occupied Lithuania at the time, built a nuclear weapon facility in the middle of a forest. It took 10,000 people to build it over 2 years, all done in secret. Much of it had to be done by hand because of the noise factor - in fact it was so secret the local population didn't ...

... communicated. It wasn't the cleanest house and the shared bathroom was upstairs through the kitchen and down the hall. I wanted to get to the beach so I took it since single rooms are often tough to find. After the cool rain of Vilnius I was glad to at least see peeks of sunshine in Palanga. It was still a bit nippy and quite windy as I walked through town. There were plenty of people out and about but most were wearing heavy coats rather than swimwear. I walked out on the ...

... 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..........

... eit interessant land som eg aldri har vore i før. Av dei baltiske landa har det lenge vore rekna for å vera det rikaste, men eg må vedgå at eg er litt usikker på korleis dette er no som Estland har opplevd ein økonomisk vekst dei siste åra. I marknadsøkonomihelvetet er det også vanskeleg å måla slike ting, då det er lett å manipulera tala, slik at rikdomen til landet seier lite om korleis vanlege folk har ...

... the beach on the other side. We had to alter the course slightly when Ben (who could thankfully read Russian) saw a sign and realized we were 700m from Kalingrad, Russia. Whoops, don't know how close you can get to the Russian border, in a forest, without getting hassle and didn't want to find out! Spent some time walking around the dunes, which were very impressive, and then checked out the beach on the other side of the Spit before heading ...

... sagten. XXXXX Arrival just in time to discotown Palanga for enjoying the (wellknown) nightlife. It was nessesairy to check in to the 1st hotel on my trip as they have 3 orphaned campgrounds. But it just started to rain while cold temperatures so it's a good decition. I don't know whas should be nice to drive along the coast as it's nothing mind.