Omg! I literally ran up to my bus from Kaunas to Riga (Latvia) as he was backing out of the bus stall. Whew! I knew the bus was at 150 but somehow was thinking 155. What a difference 5 minutes can make when you’re running for a bus. Of course I read the email asking you to get there 15 mins early after the bus ride. 

Thankfully I realized my mistake as I was making the 20 minute walk from a filling lunch so I ran some on a full stomach. Not overly pleasant but better than missing my bus. Meantime the weather everywhere I am going to or have been has turned to absolute shit. Really cold. Really wet. Can’t decide if it’s snow or rain and both are bad and pretty bone chilling. Today I wore pretty much all my heaviest stuff and though I warmed up fine with walking (or running), I did a tour with Melissa and just standing and listening to the guide got cold. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I took the easy 1.5H train ride (8EU) — 100 km/63 mi — from Vilnius to Kaunas. It’s the second largest city in Lithuania and 4th largest in the Baltics. In the “interwar” period it was actually the temporary capital of Lithuania because Vilnius had been invaded by Poland. 

As usual when I arrive in a new town I try to find the TI to get maps and ideas. Despite it being a “smaller” town, I was a good 25 mins to the TI and that was another 20 to their Old Town. I’m not used to being so “far” from things when the public transportation isn’t everywhere (like Amsterdam). That said, I’m a good walker although the weather literally put a damper on things. In any case, I went through a large park and ended up on a lovely pedestrian street that was having a massive street fair. I thought perhaps it was every Sunday but the TI woman said it was just that weekend — their annual spring fair. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t very spring-like but they persisted and it was cool to see the fair. 

Having spent most of my Lithuanian time in Vilnius’ Old Town, I felt I ought to go to the Kaunas Old Town but the TI woman suggested I first walk via Putvinskio rather than stay on Laisves (lindens — a pedestrian street that was hosting the fair). The non-pedestrian street has a lot of street art. Now to jump ahead — my new BFF (😊) Melissa was still in Vilnius and had a plan to see the hill of crosses via bus tour. It’s supposed to be quite touching and worthwhile but it’s a trek from Vilnius and better if you have a car. Not having one and being an atheist to boot, I had decided early on to skip it. 

Melissa contacted me Sunday night to ask how my trip was going — I sent her my Kaunas photos and she’d also talked to her tour guide and decided to skip the crosses. So she ended up training to Kaunas early Monday and even arranged a private tour for us, mostly of that new architecture I enjoyed. 

I think that being from Chicago I prefer modern. I mean I loved Rome and Greece — and Egypt and China — but that’s totally different. They’re ancient. These 1400-1800 heyday countries aren’t that impressive to me. And these are mostly 1600-1800, so HELLO? Anyway I liked seeing the street art and I admit I was very impressed with myself because many of the things I noticed the day before were the things the guide pointed out. 

The above area, which the guide called yard gallery (you can google), was all in an old rundown courtyard. The story was that an artist moved to Kaunas over a decade ago—and noticed that people were not communicating with another. He started to look into the background of the area and found that there was a large Jewish population who had been rounded up and deported. There’s a wall that displays photos and stories of people who had lived there before. And subsequent walls told the stories of people who lived there since, including holocaust survivors. Anyway it’s a cool area. I was disappointed to see that the cars in the courtyard when I was there were 3 BMWs, a Mercedes, VW and a few Japanese cars. And relatively new. So gentrification hits everywhere!

With the guide, we rode the funicular to see a different Catholic church — Christ’s Resurrection Church. It’s really modern and in Soviet days it was turned into a radio factory (?). Today it’s back to a church and there’s a huge terrace with view at the top. Of course somehow they recently changed the hours and we were too early to go walk on the roof. The church was oddly ascetic for a Catholic Church. Apparently it’s very popular these days for weddings.

Further from the modern area, before Melissa got there, I had walked through the Old Town…

And to the castle (reconstructed — it had been destroyed, I think in WWII though the museum was closed and I’m not sure)…

And through a park to where there was the confluence of two rivers…

The weather SUCKED but even so there were what I assumed to be a few Lithuanian families braving the weather to bike and tour the area near the rivers. There’s a ton of islands and stuff opposite the rivers and honestly I found it all interesting but I’m also obsessed with bodies of water. 

Anyway I walked back through the market area in the new town and felt the need to buy a smoked fish which I then carried around Everywhere.

Actually now I think of it, I bought that fish BEFORE the castle and park. I really carried that fish for awhile! Perhaps not my smartest move but it smelled really good!? And btw tasted good. Smoked trout. Though I actually texted the airbnb person to apologize that I might’ve left the apartment smelling fishy!

Apparently singing is a huge thing in the Baltics and there was actually a “juniors” show with singing and dancing. I was too cold to stay long but they were cute.

I walked back a different way and saw a bridge to another island (didn’t cross) and ended up in a huge mall (akropolis) that seemed more crowded than the street market? With fancy stores that looked familiar but with names I’ve never heard of. I was trying to use it as a warm, dry walk-through and sorta succeeded except I kept exiting at various parking levels!

In any case, on my day 2 there, I was delighted to spend time with Melissa again. We split our last traditional Lithuanian lunch — more cabbages and potatoes and for me, a mystery meat soup. And hugged goodbye for the third time! Aside from almost missing my bus, it was a great ending to my time in Lithuania.