Blogs from Klaipeda, Lithuania, Europe

Thursday was a 5 hour bus journey crossing the Lithuanian border and a two night stay at the Litinterp Klaipeda Guesthouse. The journey was broken with a short stop at the Hill of Crosses at Siauliai, a pilgrim site in defiance of anti-religious Soviet rule. Upon arrival we wandered to the old town on the waterfront with it's old brick warehouse buildings converted into appartments or small businesses. While Klaipeda is historically the oldest town in Lithuania, devastating fires & modern war has meant the city no longer has any of the iconic buildings that we have encountered in all our stops up to now and instead is now mainly a gateway to the Curonian Spit. Friday was a perfect bike riding day & an excursion to the Curonian Spit, a long and narrow sand dune ... read more

Klaipeda - Nidda 125 km Wetterbericht: zuerst: kR, sk, Mittag: sR + sk, Nachmittag: kR + sk (5-7°C) Als erstes brauchte ich Geld, die lokale Währung. Überall standen die Preise in Euro und in litauischem Irgendwas, aber sicher haben die noch keinen Euro, oder? Ich überprüfe bei einem Währungsrechner im Internet - es gibt einen tagesaktuellen Kurs von Euro zu litauischem Irgendwas. Also ein Loch in der Wand muss her. Die Rezeptionsfee schickte mich zu “dem großen Platz, da ist das Casino, da gibt’s ATM.”. Nur war der große Platz nicht wirklich auffindbar. Ich kreuzte durch Klaipeda, sah auch gleich alle Sehenswürdigkeiten, aber weder Casino noch Bank noch ATM. An einer Ampel erfuhr ich dann, dass es in einem Einkaufszentrum einen ATM geben soll. Das ist wahrscheinlich völlig richtig, aber gegenüber war auch eine Bank. Beim ... read more

At 5:30 Saturday morning we set out for our outdoor adventure! Our group of 11 very different people made for quite an interesting weekend. In total we kayaked 22 kilometers (about 14 miles) within 8 hours, taking occasional breaks to talk, eat & enjoy the sights. We traveled down Minijos river in Klaipeda - a beautiful area with cleaner and fresher air then the 3 of us city girls were use to. Surprisingly, kayaking was the easy part of the trip. Our camping experience was a little more challenging. As soon as we reached land it started raining, the outhouse consisted of a smelly hole in the ground and our summer sweatshirts weren't quite warm enough. But with good company, delicious sandwiches and lots and lots of blankets, we managed to have a great time! The ... 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

Today was a bit of a travel day. But the good news was that the travel day only started at 11:45 so we had most of the morning free. MK, Jen and I decided to head off to the Coffee House for breakfast, where I had the most delicious bowl of porridge. The only hitch in the plan was the fact that we had to walk past 3 of the stores to find one that was open. Apparently they all only open at 9am - not sure what all the office workers who want coffee before work do. After our delicious breakfast we headed off to walk around the old town for a little while. This turned out to be a slightly expensive morning as I bought a lovely amber necklace and matching set of earrings ... read more