Jonaitis

In keeping with our desire to see a national park in each country, we’d mentally marked down this as the day to make a trek out to Aukstaitija National Park. However, at the last minute we chickened out of the 2-hour bus trip that would drop us several km away from the park, and decided to visit Trakai National Historic Park instead, a preserve on a peninsula that was a mere 40-minute train ride out of town. With two castles, a ton of lakes, and an obscure sect of Judaism calling it home, we figured it would be the perfect fit, and if we could manage to catch the 7:45 AM train, we might even make it back by early afternoon. We got up early and booked it to the train station, making it there with ... read more

Due to being completely wiped from the previous day, and since we had the relative luxury of being in one place for FOUR WHOLE NIGHTS, we slept in the next morning. After rolling out of bed and shaking most of the cranky out of our collective noggins, we descended onto the town of Vilnius. Like most Old Towns®, this one also has plenty of the twisty passages, all alike, that Americans seem to crave about Europe. The difference here was that not only are many of the streets open to cars, some roads through Old Town are full-fledged boulevards, with multiple lanes, reasonably fast traffic, etc. No stoplights, though. That would be sacrilege. ;) In the middle of these boulevards were large gathering areas, paved with new stone and packed with beer gardens for the various ... read more

Well, that night was unlike all other nights. Rolled-up towels do not, it turns out, make great pillows. We slept horribly and woke early, and even with a breakfast stop and a coffee stop we still managed to get on a 10 AM bus to Kaunas. We rolled into town midday and called the manager of our apartment, who came to pick us up at the bus station (!) and take us to the place. Wow! This place was one of the nicest of the journey so far -- beautiful decor, a fairly well-stocked kitchen, and no major structural problems. More importantly, its sleeping quarters passed muster. Awesome. The manager was also really friendly, and helpful too -- when we idly mentioned we were planning to take a train to Vilnius the next day, he told ... read more

We woke early today in prep for our trip to Klaipėda -- especially me, as my sore throat kept me from sleeping past 3:30. We grabbed a quick breakfast at home and made our way to the airport. Riga International is a pretty nice airport; they had a drugstore, which was important for acquiring some ibuprofen, and a post office, where we mailed a bunch of postcards, and a souvenir shop with some of the things we’d not been able to find elsewhere (a Latvia patch for me, a small bottle of Black Balzsams liqueur for Graham), and a cafe that had milkshakes, though Graham wouldn’t let me get one and made me eat mushy fries instead. Mean, mean Graham. Our AirBaltic flight to Palanga was smooth -- again, the plane was nicer and the service ... read more

After a reasonably refreshing night’s sleep, we awoke ready for a foray into our second national park, Gauja. We packed the appropriate rain gear (Rīga and the surrounding area apparently gets quite a lot of precipitation) and had a hearty breakfast of yogurt, fruit, bread, and hard-boiled quail eggs. Yes, quail eggs. We’ve seen them in a handful of supermarkets, packed in their own little containers, and just couldn’t resist buying some. Unsurprisingly, they taste like eggs, but perhaps just a little . . . smokier? Fortified with nutrients, we packed our small backpack and headed to the train station. There’s a route that heads directly east from Rīga and drops off in Sigulda, essentially at the start of our intended hike, and how could we say no to a train trip? The train itself was ... read more