Lithuania and Lativa would be very hard for Bill Lawry to pronounce...
It was supposed to be a long drive, over nine hours with a wait at the border of Poland and Lithuania. But it didnt seem like that, at least not to me. Tanya was not feeling 100% and was, lets say making some street pizza. The border crossing was not really a crossing at all. There was only one police car there and they were just making sure everyone slowed down to the 30km/h limit. the place was overgrown with grass, totally deserted. So, with no beaurocratic hassles to deal with we proceeded on to Vilnius. As soon as we got over the border it was evident that the country was different. Although Poland is much bigger, Lithuania seemed to be open and have lots of space. The roads went from bumpy and pothole filled to stretches of clean, open roads, and straight. One piece of road was straight for about 20km. Our arrival in Vilnius coincided with our first brush with the law. The lady in the navigation system told us to make a U-turn, which she would usually follow with "if possible" meaning only if you are allowed to. Since this time she just demanded us to make a U-turn, who are we to argue with a computer. Aparently, you cant do a u-turn at that particular spot, especially in front of a police car. It wasnt a huge problem, since the cop didnt speak English and my Lithuanian is rather lacking, I showed him the navigation system with the u-turn, he checked my rego and sent us on our way. So, next time you are pulled over, blame the woman in the navigation system and hope the cop only speaks Lithuanian and you will be right.
We arrived in Vilnius late in the evening, so the next morning we headed out and luckily for us, there was a festival going on. The main street was closed off and turned into a large market with lots of food stalls, craft stalls, concerts, sport demonstrations, an old car exhibition and about 10000 Scots wearing kilts (Scotland played Lithuania in a Euro 2012 qualifier the night before, a thrilling 0-0 draw). None of these things can I show you, since for the first time in my travels, I had something stolen, my camera. I said to Tanya that morning that I was going to download all the photos that evening, but I lost them all, bugger.
We did a day trip to a place called Trakai that was recommended by the guidebook and by another traveller in the hostel, for its great castles and lake side scenery. Well, the scenerey was ok without being spectacular, but the castle was something else. It is built on an island in the lake and looked ok from the outside, but I wouldnt go as far as "one that will make your jaw drop" that the guidebook describes. Once at the entrance, you can walk through the gates to look at the courtyard of the castle before you have to pay to see the rest. If only we had followed our instincts and left it at that, but since it was fairly cheap and we had walked 45 minutes around the lake to get there we decided to go in. We bought tickets and were ushered in a direction of viewing the castle, starting at the end and working backwards, ok.
There was a shooting range that had a sign saying 'open' like it was a privilege for it to be open. Since I had never used a crossbow before, I thought I would give it a go. The range supervisor was outfitted in full medieval regalia and after handing over my money, let me use the crossbow. The whole thing had the excitement and fanfare of opening a can of baked beans. There was no enthusiasm and no atmosphere at all, which must have been a condition of working there because it was to continue. We followed the suggested route, and by suggested I mean mandatory, to a large open tower with walkways on two levels. Entering one room, it led into another so I thought I would look at the second room and then come back. Whoa, there, that is not part of the suggested route and the old lady who was sitting in the corner didnt like it one little bit. She let me know that there was only one suggested route to take and it did not involve going backwards. Not knowing if I should laugh, be apologetic, angry or do all three, we continued on the suggested route. I tried to read the displays to learn something and get something for my entrance fee, but the exhibitions and explanations were, shall we say a little beige. The entire castle 'tour' seemed to be an afterthought. It was like they decided to charge people to come in, and THEN thought there should actually be something to look at. There were a lot of coins, mostly with the explanation
of "Coin" written next to it, there was a bedroom set up in period style described as "bedroom of the castle". After two thirds of the tour, we began to wonder if it was a piss take or if they were serious. I think that the presence of an old lady sitting on a chair in EVERY room in the castle making sure you followed the suggested route and didnt steal a 'coin' revealed that it was an attempt at seriousness. Of course the suggested route ended up at the giftshop where you could buy your very own coin. 
The border crossing into Latvia was almost as exciting as the crossing into Lithuania, only without the police car. Riga is a fun looking town that seemed to be very exiting and full of life in the evening and ull of activity, if rather mundane, during the day. I think that Riga people live to work, and work to live at night. It has a good and friendly atmosphere and is small enough that it can be explored well enough in a day and a night. It has a charm about it does Riga, with lots of cool looking buildings, funky looking statues and is supposed to have a lot of Art Deco houses, although we didnt find any.
After two nights it was time to make our way back to Lithuania and a stop in Kaunas, alas it was not to be. The hostel, in its wisdom, gave the wrong address on the hostelworld website. The address we put into the cars navigation system led us to a back street leading to nowhere. The next step was to call them using the number on the website. So, we found a phone at a petrol station, but all payphones in Lithuania need a phone card, which the petrol station doesnt sell. We found a phone outside a small supermarket, which also doesnt sell phone cards. Eventually we found a shopping mall which has a booth that does sell phone cards, but the phone number we had for the hostel was wrong, to the annoyance of the guy on the other end (I called twice just to make sure and received a click as a response the second time). Since we were only staying the one night, we made a decision and would make our way to our next stop, Warsaw and find somewhere to stay along the way. (The next time we found internet access, we found that the hostel's own website has the correct address, nothing like the one on the hostelworld website). The next installment will be Warsaw, capital of Poland.
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