Vecekrug Hotel Klaipeda

... vom Blitz erschlagenen Sonnenuhr.
Am Strand, wo ich ausgiebig im Wasser rumspaddeln konnte, weil Mössjö el Bücherwurm sich in dieselbigen vergrub oder Bildungsschläfchen hielt und damit praktischerweise auf unsere Sachen aufgepasst hat.
Auch das Thomas Mann Haus haben wir nicht ausgelassen, obwohl es den Besuch nur der Vollständigkeit halber wert war. OK. Und wegen der Aussicht!

Die Verwirrung am Abschiedstag war groß. Ich musste zurück nach Vilnius über Kaunas. Er wollte ...

... 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 ...

... town there were no tourists, no people as it was off season. We felt like we had whole town only for us...and the beaches!
There are also interesting places to see nearby, including some of the highest sand dunes in Europe, fisherman's ethnographic museum, gallery-museum of amber, neo-Gothic church (built in 1888).

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 ...

... 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.

... 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 ...

... beer - it looked and tasted similar to the previous one I had, with the exception of a slice of lemon floating in the glass. The waitress was pretty *****y to us. Don't know what her problem was. The food looked pretty good here - perhaps we should have eaten dinner here instead! The jazz band was also good. A scary-looking biker gang walked in just before we were about to leave. The jazz club was a good way to end the night.

... and when we get back to Klaipeda even though we look and probably smell awful none of us can be bothered to return to the hostel to clean up and we go for supper as we are. Unsurprisingly we also determine that we have done enough to warrant a beer or two and go back to the jazz bar. The band is surprisingly even worse the previous one and this time as apparent regulars we stay beyond closing. As we make to leave we get into conversation with a ...

... We wandered around the old part of town, and preparations for the festivities. The city was expecting 800,000 visitors. The town was full of tents with food, drink and souvenirs. The city itself was sadly not all that. There were a couple of older buildings and nice streets but generally not nearly as impressive as we hoped when we drove that distance. As a point of reference, the 9th highlight of the city ...

Our bus to Klaipeda was still a few hours drive, but it passed some beautiful countryside. What we had seen today of the Lithuanian countryside, was more of what we had been expecting from Eastern Europe - a simpler lifestyle - a lot of farmland, and much poorer than their western counterparts. It was evening before we arrived, quite tired, and seeing signs to the hostel that we originally wanted to stay, nearby to the bus station, we decided to have a look ...