Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Baltics trip
Day 5 - 20th May - Klaipeda, Lithuania
(Part 1)

We went back to the Curonian Spit for the morning, and in the late afternoon we had an interesting trip planned.


"Hellmobil"


Significant-looking freestanding masonry

[Addendum: According to Wikipedia:

"Monument of United Lithuania (Lithuania Minor and Lithuania Major), Klaipėda Lithuania. The inscription in Lithuanian: "We are one nation, one land, one Lithuania" (Ieva Simonaitytė)."

Also:

"A granite column stands for the cultural heritage of Lithuania Minor and the broken right side symbolizes former Lithuanian lands in the Kaliningrad Oblast as being outside the main body"]

We went to the town of Juodkrante this time.


Reeds


Man-shaped hole in rock I was forced into


Swans through reeds


House straight out of Scooby Doo


Car that'd been parked so long it had cobwebs

The first stop was the Witches' Hill, with many sculptures of folk demons and the like dating from the last quarter of the 20th century on.


Kids who were there too


Carved pillars


Castle


Bench






Lithuanian kids taking silly shot




More kids

We then went to explore some beaches.


"Family beach, Male beach, Female beach, Nude beach, Sea"


2 chinup bars in the forest



Then we hit the beach.


Anticipating a scene like in Eurotrip, nw.t and I ran to the top of this mound, only to see:


An empty beach




Tourist horde in the background


Empty on the other side


Horde


Tourist hordes



We did see one couple sunbathing nude, albeit in a depression in a sand mound and so sheltered from the wind.


Me




At one point we got lost, but luckily we made it out in time for our trip later that day

[HWMNBN: officer [YC] tried to lead us out
and [I had] fears we'd end up as blair witch 3 - Stupid Tourists In The Spit]


On the ferry back, we had the privilege of watching Spongebob Squarepants - in Lithuanian. Dubbed in monotone. Over the original soundtrack's (which at least was turned down so it wasn't very audible)


"Folk Pagan Black Metal Festivals: Ancient Rites"


Gira... inside a locked fridge at a kiosk (the woman at the stand had to press a button to unlock the fridge door). Notice the large crack which probably came about when someone tried to get at the drinks inside. This is also why the alcoholic drinks were in a separate fridge inside the kiosk


The 2 things we had at the kiosk. We have no idea what they were.

We went back to the hostel to await our transport, and discovered:


"GHJ PRIVATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The management's private alcohol stash under the sink, despite house rules about no alcohol being allowed inside. "Do as we say, not as we do"

[HWMNBN: btw.. yo do know that "private alcohol stash" is all empty bottles right?
"neve leave money on the table"]


The well-maintained kettle we'd been using to boil water in. I cleaned it as best I could after taking this shot.
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