Sunday 8th July until Wednesday 11 July 2012
Arrived in Lithuania, found a campsite that is quiet and has good sized sites. Ewout is happy to be able to add a new country to his list.
One of the more bizarre sights that we have seen is the Gruto Parkas, a “theme park” filled with relics from the Soviet era of Lithuanian history. Relics from all over Lithuania have been collected and displayed in a lovely park setting as a reminder of the oppression and influence this era had on their country. It is supposed to reflect the negative content of soviet ideology and how it’s influence have affected their society. Walking through the forest you never know when a Stalin or Lenin statue will appear and when you read about the deeds of many of the people you wonder about the motives behind their actions.
After walking through this rather grim park we drove onto Vilnius and found a campsite near the city centre. This ended up being a rather temporary looking campsite, but adequate for our needs. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, Ewout had a sleep as he wasn’t feeling well with a stomach ache.
Wednesday.
We decided to ride our bikes into the city as it was only 4kms from the campsite. It was a lovely sunny day and we looked forward to exploring this UNESCO World heritage site. What we didn’t count on was the cobblestones which were large round river boulders that didn’t agree with our bike tyres or our bottoms and the lack of suitable bike ways. We nevertheless managed to get around sometimes walking, pushing our bikes on the walkways or riding on the footpaths. We found the city to be a bit awkward to get around as there seemed to be a lot of work going on here too. When we got into the middle of town it was full of tourists and we had to negotiate the bus loads of mainly Spanish people who took over all the road and footpath and didn’t leave any room to get around them. We saw what we needed to and then decided we would head back to campsite and see if we could leave without paying another night as it was still early.
No problem about leaving so after a quick lunch we drove on north towards our next destination. We found a campsite on the way next to a lake, this was very well hidden and we found only 1 other caravan there. There were huts and bungalows with people in them but I think this was a local site and we had stumbled on it by chance. After negotiating with a man to open the gate, Ewout eventually worked out the conditions and cost even though they didn’t speak the same language.
That night it rained again, (so far is has mostly rained at night) but we woke up to another lovely sunny day and we were ready to hit the road again. Our next destination was not far and we enjoyed driving through the lovely countryside, seeing the forests and farmlands. I have been amazed how lush it all is, wildflowers everywhere, small vegetable plots flourishing and crops abundant. Another unusual sight is the people on the side of the roads with jars of blueberries, strawberries and yellow mushrooms waiting for people to stop and buy them. It makes a change from the girls on the sides of roads in some places (mainly the truck routes) that are waiting for a different kind of customer.
The next place we wanted to see is The Hill of Crosses, Kryzių Kalnas, located 12 kilometers north of the small city of Siauliai (pronounced shoo-lay) is the Lithuanian national pilgrimage center. Standing upon a small hill are many hundreds of thousands of crosses that represent Christian devotion and a memorial to Lithuanian national identity.
This really had to be seen to be believed and we were amazed how many crosses there were, piles of them, hanging on every available spot and more being placed there by new visitors as we watched.
So it was off again to leave Lithuania and our next country Latvia.
