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Published: September 23rd 2007
The last (half) day in Poland! Apparently, our tent was hidden well enough as nobody found us (or was bothered with us being where we were). As usual, we start the day off with some coffee, where I almost manage to set fire to the forest floor because I spill some cooking spirit.
We get on our way towards Lithuania. As if someone was trying to keep us from reaching the border, the headwind picks up and makes cycling a real pain. Traffic is perfect though, not even the Nr. 16 route people warned me of manages to come up with much in the way of traffic. Generally, everything seems like it's asleep. It is Sunday morning after all, and we're in a pretty religious part of Europe.
On the other side: Lithuania. A new country (though it looks no different) and - most importantly - a completely different language. While I was just about to get used to a shortage of vowels, now I'm flooded by them. Lazdijai, Veisiejai, Leipalingis are just a few of the places we'll be passing through, on our way to Druskininkai, as we've decided to follow the Belarussian border to Medininkai. Of course,
The road to Lithuania
Notice the family of storks on the left.the border didn't offer much in the way of a multilingual bookshop, so I'm left with absolutely no knowledge of Lithuanian.
If there is a country that's simply not made for cycling, the South-East Lithuania must be it. The roads are straight as can be (except in the vertical, where there are long-stretched hills), with no trees to save us from the strong headwind, all the way to Druskininkai. Hans continues to crawl along at 10 km/h, while I can't wait to get this torture over with and am looking forward to the hotel room we promised ourselves in Druskininkai. Finally, we reach our Destination and find a room in a small B&B for affordable Lt 100. A quick shower and cleaning some clothes before we take a stroll through the "town", but don't find too much of a town. The place is a strange mixture of Pipi Longstocking-style wodden houses, next to massive concrete beauty temples. Druskininkai is Lithuania's most popular recreational area with lots of spas. Also, the town is strangely devoid of restaurants - there are maybe three or four. We find one that looks like it might serve some local dishes (but doesn't really) and
A typical road
Straight, straight, straight, and hilly. You can't see it, but imagine headwind with that. have some dinner there. On the way back to the B&B it starts thundering and a quick thunderstorm passes over Druskininkai. Before I head off to bed, I stop by the reception area to ask the girl there (who speaks some English) for some basic Lithuanian terms to make myself a small dictionary for the next few days.
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