As our trip has progresses our ability to estimate our expenditure appropriately still leaves a lot to be desired. We entered Lithuania once again with no currency and too much of Polish currency left over.
Lithuania is a lovely country and our first stop was the famous castle on the lake in Trakai. The picturesque town which we later discovered had once been the capital of the Lithuanian state was located on the banks of 5 scenic lakes. Amongst these lakes two castles also sit; one which can be accessed by footbridge from the town. The castle was spectacular. As we walked around it a very well dressed lady, with wet feet and ankles and her sandals in one hand stopped us to show us her yabbie (or the Lithuanian equivalent – small fresh water crayfish) that she had clearly fished out of the water.
Trakai is also home of large population of Karaimai people an ancient mixed Judaic and Hebrew sect from Bagdad who adhere to the Torah.
With Trakai under our belt we headed to the current capital Vilnius which was not far away. It was with some amusement that we pulled into our campsite. The city campsite was simply a giant carpark in a semi-industrial part of Vilnius. But hey, it had an excellent bathroom and toilet, a washing machine, it was level, and we could even play mini golf if we chose J
We found Vilnius a very easy town to be a tourist in, and were enjoying having a little extra time here. They provided a lot of information and walks in English and a lot of points of interest street signs that were also in English. Before we really got stuck in to our tourist-ing – Duncan was momentarily sidetracked by a ‘point of interest sign’ pointing in a different direction, intrigued he followed it to find a monument, and according the information the only monument to Frank Zappa in the world. Is he Lithuanian???
On our way to starting our sight seeing at the university we passed a formal military procession. It was difficult to understand what was going to happen, but it appeared as if the troops and dignitaries were waiting to receive someone. Hoping it might be someone that we recognised we hung around, but no it wasn’t. One thing that was worth the wait however was the appearance of a military division whose dress/ceremonial garb was in fact armour and chain mail. With all of the men in black suits and ear pieces watching every move it was difficult to get a good shot of this.
Starting with the Presidential Palace, we moved onto the University which is rumoured to be one of the oldest universities in Europe, and then to Pilies Gatve. Pilies Gatve was at one time the main road in and out of the town leading up to the castle, it has an eclectic collection of boutiques, souvenir shops, bars and restaurants nestled within the pastel yellow, orange and pink buildings.
Gem lived dangerously by blindly sampling some local cuisine for lunch. This turned out to be potato pancakes with pork medallions on top in a white creamy garlic sauce – meat and giant hashbrowns/rosti – how can you go wrong.
Finally in Vilnius we were starting to have some hot days. We idled through Cathedral Square surveying the towering monument to Gediminas. We located the miracle tile between the cathedral and the bell tower and stood on it to make our wishes, twirling 3x as local folklore insists to seal the deal. We climbed the hill to the castle tower. It goes without saying the all castles are on a hill, this one was located here after the King Gedminas had a dream about a wolf on top of this very hill. His pagan witch advisor suggested that this meant that he should build a castle and as such a new town in this location, and it would rise to be a great town in Lithuania. Only one tower remains of the castle, and the climb up affords a pretty (if not hot) view of the city.
Two things in Lithuania have not ceased to amaze us. The first is the sheer amount of pretty people, particularly women. The second is the propensity of the women to wear ridiculous shoes all the time! Now I am not saying that there isn’t a time and a place for a 2 or 3 inch stiletto heels, but surely climbing an unevenly cobbled hill is not one of them?!?! Oh well, different strokes as they say….
Also while in Vilnius we took time to visit the Independent Republic of Uzupis. Over the river from Vilnius is a break away republic of Uzupis, formed at one time by predominantly artists, squatters and drunks, although now it looks a lot more ‘hip’. Reading the constitution of this little area is easy enough as it is nailed to the wall in several different languages. It includes things like ‘Everyone has the right to love’; ‘Everyone has the right be be loved’ and ‘Everyone has the right to love and take care of a cat’. Uzupis is also well known for its Angel of Uzupis Statue as well as the smallest church in Lithuania.
On our last night at the campsite we met with Mike and Theresa a couple of Aussies from Queensland who for the retirement had bought a camper in England and were spending their time touring around to places within Europe that they had never been (and they had been a few places). They graciously hosted us under their porch while we ate sugared cherries, shared some wine and swapped books, stories, hints and tips for our respective paths.
When it did come time to leave Vilnius, it was not a great day. After checking all the levels etc the day before we had noticed a small leak of oil from the front diff. Initially unconcerned Duncan thought that this might have resulted from him not tightening the bolts tight enough after he drained and refilled the diff oil before we left. However after tightening them the slow leak continued.
After Dunc made his toast and boiled some water for a coffee on this fateful morning, the cooker stopped working. This was devastating in many respects. Firstly we were reliant on having a cooker, and were fairly reliant on having a dual fuel one so we didn’t have to carry different gas canisters and/or regulators etc for the often incompatible gas requirements of the varying countries. The second concern was the Gemma didn’t get her much anticipated toast – this could spell disaster.
After several hours of taking the cooker apart in true bush mechanic style we diagnosed the problem and attempted to fix it. It worked temporarily, long enough for Gem to have toast (one crisis averted), however on further tests it only worked with much fiddly persuasion.
Frustrated and perhaps a little cranky we were packing everything away ready to leave and while closing the tent up got some canvas in the zip well and truly stuck. With Gemma on the roof rack trying to tackle it and Duncan standing on the running board there was no indication of getting the canvas free and the zip unstuck. Frustration continued to bubble insidiously and soon enough after a violent tug on the zip the metal tag on it snapped. This left us with the knowledge that should we be able to free the canvas we have nothing to pull the zip with!!!! A seemingly easy solution of course was to cut the cover off and replace it as we were carrying a spare. We were reluctant to do this as we had brought the extra cover with us as the quality of the first one was dubious and we didn’t think it would last the 5 months. Our original idea had been to use the old cover for as long as it would last and then swap them over. It seemed the decision was taken out of our hands and finally we were forced to admit defeat, cut off the old cover and replace the new one (which seems like it may be a bit better, so here’s hoping)
So 4 hours late we departed, tempers a little frayed. Having lost so much time meant that our original itinerary needed to be revised. Instead of heading out for the coast we changed our minds and headed north to Sialuliai, where we stopped. We needed to find some free internet, which we did and started some research on where we might get another Coleman cooker – it seemed no where in Lithuania but we may have some more luck in Latvia or Estonia. We called Coleman for some advice or information on nearest suppliers and were told that they could not help us with that information – I find that very hard to believe – gits!
So we left Siauliai with a plan, and feeling a little more relaxed we headed to the Hill of Crosses, just north of Siauliai. We both were more impressed than we had expected to be. It is a destination frequented by those on the spectrum between the religious on pilgrimage or atheist tourists with a fascination of the behaviour of those belonging to organised religion. I am not sure that we fitted into either extreme but somewhere down the middle. It was an odd location. Originally created by those Lithuanians who were forbidden to mourn the deaths of rebel soldiers fighting against occupation it symbolised a defiance against oppression. People made crosses, snuck through fields at night to plant them in the hill. They even broke through ‘barricades’ when it was quarantined by the Russians (in an effort to stop more crosses being planted). Now however and perhaps I am being cynical but it seems more like another commercial opportunity with cheap mass produced crosses being sold at the souvenir shop so that you can write your name on it and add it to the hill, requiring none of the forethought and meaning that the act of planting a cross on the hill once represented. However it was still worth the stop.
So as the sun was beginning to lower, we continued to head north. We were heading in the general direction of Kolka which was 3 hours away on the north western tip of Latvia. Feeling that trying to get there before dark was improbable we had planned to camp somewhere along the way. We passed one sign for a campsite and couldn’t find it, and before we knew it we had crossed another border and had arrived in Latvia.
Our first stop was Jelgava, although of small tourist importance, it was quite a pretty town and we thought we stop.
After Jelgava we carried onto the capital Riga. Riga City Camping a little hard to find due a labyrinth of slip roads and one way streets we were very grateful for sat nav. Riga City Camping is another ‘campsite’ in a car park, this one for a swimming pool.