Blogs from Kaunas, Lithuania, Europe

I was slow off the mark this morning. I was enjoying the warmth and my coffee too much. I’d had a bit of a fail when trying to plan what to do today as all museums in Kaunas (maybe Lithuania in general) were all closed on a Monday. This was slightly annoying as I was looking forward to spending some time indoors to escape the cold. I set off and took a different route from yesterday to reach the Old Town area. This route was more straight forward and through the town. I walked past a couple of pieces of street art on the way so stopped to photograph those. The first was a mural on the side of a building on Kestutis Street of Leja Goldberg, a poet and scholar, which was accompained by text ... read more

petite erreur dans le blog précédent si cela n'a pas été corrigé car déjà publié : Trakai et Vilnius se trouvent bien en Lituanie et pas en Pologne !!! Nous voici donc à Kaunas... J'arrive à situer le camping à JJ les yeux fermés !!! il ne s'en souvient plus mais pas grave car je le mènerai bien à l'arrêt du trolley bus qui nous mènera en ville... Là grande surprise car nous nous trouvons directement dans le bain d'une fête que j'appellerais folklorique... la fête de la tradition. C'est ainsi que les gens chantent, dansent, etc... dans leurs plus beaux habits nationaux... de petits stands vous offrent les produits du pays. Je vous laisse revivre avec nous cette fête car les visages souriants (enfin !) de ces gens faisaient plaisir à voir...... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! As I mentioned yesterday I would spend this day following the traces of a genuine hero that I expect all to few know about, the name of that hero is Chiune Sugihara. For you that haven't heard of him before, he was a Japanese diplomat that was sent to Lithuania in 1939. When Hitler rose to power and invaded Poland a lot of Jews realised where the winds where blowing and fled to Lithuania, set on fleeing through Russia to the Dutch colonies where they would be safe. There was only one problem, to get an exit VISA from Russia they were required to have a transit VISA for Japan since Japan occupied Manchuria at the time. Hundreds of Jewish refugees showed up at the Japanese embassy, desperate to receive a VISA. ... read more

De 1920 à 1940, Kaunas fut capitale de la Lituanie indépendante, alors que Vilnius était en Pologne. Elle fut annexée par l’Union soviétique, en vertu du pacte germano-soviétique de 1939, puis occupée par les nazis entre 1941 et 1944 qui l’abandonnèrent à l’arrivée de l’url=https://fr.wiki... read more

The next stop after Siauliai was Kaunas, some four hours by bus. I planned to visit Kaunas during the previous autumn visit, but changed my mind, and that was a correct decision, as I saw this time. I slept a good night at the hostel, checked out, and left my luggage at the bus station storeroom. It is located in a different building than the station itself. When I first read about Kaunas, I did not consider it very promising, because the Russian Wikipedia article about it is rather short. However, expectations were much exceeded. First, I saw the imposing Sv. Mykolo Arkangelo Church, reminding me of Beograd’s Hram Sv. Save (similarity in style and form, probably). I then immediately proceeded to the 1.6 km long Laisves Aleja where trees grow, pedestrians walk, benches are installed ... read more