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Baltics trip
Day 4 - 19th May - Klaipeda, Lithuania (Part 1)
Lithuania was a country where, although the beer was cold, the Coke was sometimes warmer than the outside air. Gah.
They have "BP" here: "Baltic Petroleum".
Some ads of Vilnius we saw (perhaps too late, hurr hurr):
Wonders of Lithuania:
"Medusa
Every day live erotic show
Erotic massage
Exclusive xxx show
Escort service
Amazing and stunning water show
Non stop striptease
Limo service"
I hope "water show" doesn't refer to golden showers
"The Best Place To Start The Evening... Come And Visit the Barbie of your dreams
Erotic food meniu (sic)
... Romantic dinner with our lady"
You get the idea
Hunters' Restaurant
"WANTED!!!
REWARD: 'CITY MAP' & 'EXPLORING VILNIUS'"
After leaving the hotel, we went to the bus station to wait for the bus to Klaipeda.
Lift shaft converted to art space
Boredom
Yellow flowers you see by the road a lot in Lithuania
[Addendum: These are rapeseed, used to make canola oil.]
At Klaipeda we stayed in the only dorm room of the trip.
Horrible typos in hostel rules
A very Chinese brochure (and not just due to English problems)
"Dear guests visiting the Curonian spit... A forest fire being noticed, dial number 112. Think of it, your intellect and sound judgement can help fragile nature of the spit. Enjoy it and do not forget that your visit should be harmonious and temperate. Do not be proud of being stronger than nature and do not rejoice when you have injured it. Nature does not forgive mistakes."
"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY INFORMATION TO OUR COMPUTER FROM THE INTERNET!!!"
Hilarious.
"Night Clubs:
Eroticenbar... The name says everything"
Unfortunately we didn't go there
We then left for the Curonian spit, passing by a sculpture park.
He that lives by the sword...
Weird men statues
There is a non-negligible group of shorter men with taller girls in the Baltics.
I was considering learning choice Lithuanian phrases from the guidebook, but given that we were going to pass through 3 countries with 3 different national languages (one of which is totally different from the other 2), I didn't bother.
Bridge and port
Unsurprisingly, fewer people spoke English than in Vilnius.
Klaipeda was a short ferry ride away from the town of Smiltyne on the Curonian spit. Usually I find the chill invigorating, but the Baltic Sea was too much for me. Also, there was no warm, balmy ocean breeze moderating the weather as I'd expected (thanks, Baltic Sea).
"Welcome to Kursiu nerija national park"
They had nude beaches, coed nude beaches and women's clothing optional beaches. I was curious at what the difference was, besides wanting to see who was sturdy enough to sunbathe nude when even I was freezing, but we didn't have time.
We took a bus down to Nida, at the southern end of the Lithuanian section of the Spit.
The other 2 wanted to have smoked fish:
Shop sign
Assorted smoked fish
Smoked Perch
What must be the smallest museum in the world
There were a lot of irritating flying insects. The spiders had a field day.
Irritating flying insects
Another fish we didn't have the translated English name of
Someone ordered cider, which was not bad - like less-sweet Zappel (ie unlike other cider I've tried).
Fried bread
"Pig hand". This was listed under "beer snack". It also came with peas and bacon. It was essentially Schweinshaxe, but not the crispy variant (the skin was slimy).
We then walked to the dunes crowning the spit.
World Heritage pyramid
Coast
Quotes:
Just because you're racist doesn't mean you're wrong