Vila Diemedis Palanga

... Oder kennt ihr viele Ostamerikaner, Halbjude mit plonischem Einschlag, Halbitalienermix, abgeschlossenes Philosophiestudium, Autor, Schwerstinteressiert am 30 Jährigen Krieg, der einfach mal so sein Gespartes nimmt und damit durch Osteuropa trampt? Also ich nich. Und wenn ich mal einen treffe, wird er ausgequetscht! Sollte dann auch 3 Tage Zeit haben ;)<br>Der Typ is crazy! <br>Naja, wir haben uns dann die Unterkunft geteilt und zusammen die kurische Nehrung unsicher gemacht.<br><br>

... 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. <br>

... are covered by people seeking shelter and possibly privacy. <br><br>Wimbledon and the 1000 year Lithuanian celebration are that night so I head back. The receptionist does not know of any sports bar. I go in search. No luck. Any TVs are on the independence celebration. I ended up missing a match that concluded with Federer winning 16 games to 14 in the final set.<br><br>I head over to the dock where ...

... the US but is starting to really hurt. Not good when I have to carry 75 pounds of stuff. <br><br>Only 1 hostel in Klaipeda. It borders the bus station. Rooms seem to be clean. I an in a 12 person with 2 or 3 beds taken at the moment. Not many reasonably priced choices and the reduced impact to my back from a close place wraps it up. It is only a place to sleep. <br><br>I am off immediately to lose my family resemblance to Casper. How white can I get? A 20 minute walk ...

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 ...

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

... of the "Ice cream lady of Nerja" that scared the **** out of me was to be found, however (thankfully!). The sun came out as we strolled through the beautiful botanical gardens. Who would've thought Lithuania would be as nice as this? A friendly guy started chatting with us - he was in the park with his mother and was asking us where we were from, and if we liked his country. Truth be told, he was a little ...

... off to Nida. Along both sides of the whole road was think forest so all you could see were trees and little dolls hanging from the roof of the bus windshield bobbing about. We walked through Nida and along a bit of the coast before cutting into the woods to get to the top of the dunes. It seemed to have warmed right up and layers were actually coming off which this morning seemed like an impossible thought. We carried on through the woods ...

... was very peaceful and relaxing. Checking on our accommodation, it was ready, and to our surprise - it was a delightful little converted cottage, decked out with a small kitchen, bathroom and dining area downstairs, with the bedroom upstairs in the attic. Although small, it was very cute and cosy and had a nice feel about it. It was charming! We decided to keep walking down the street, and realising that we had almost walked out of the town limits, decided to catch a bus down to ...