6 November to 11 November 2023
After the ferry ride we then took a bus to a town in the middle called Juodkrante. Initially we thought we had made a mistake as there was nothing there, but had a couple of hours now until the next bus. So we started walking along the beach which had many sculptures and looking at the views. I was going to head us out on a trail that took you to a structure called the sound catcher, but we got distracted by a trail called the “Hill of Witches”. We decided to take a look and spent the next hour on a trail through the dense forest filled with autumn colours and fallen leaves looking at weird wooden sculptures with a witches theme. Apparently their are over 70 of them. They were really well done and peppered all along the trail. This would have been an awesome plan for Halloween at night. We got to the end of the trail with only about 10 minutes to spare before the bus.
We took the bus to the town at the end, Nida, (just before the Russian border), and after a coffee and ice cream break headed of to find some sites. We went looking for a sundial, but never found it, we did find “The armchair of Neringa”. A big wooden chair of the legendary giant Neringa who is said to have created the Curonian Spit. We sat on it and took selfies of course. We then went on a hunt for Nida’s Lighthouse which took us through lovely bush. This was found and then became the race to get back and catch the 5 pm bus or we were going to be home verrryyy late. This one was 3 hours from the last one. We made it, then caught the ferry (free to go back). Was a great adventurous and fun day of exploration in which the weather held largely at bay.
The next day saw the good weather gods desert us . Was a shocking wet day. It did not deter us and we headed out about 10am into old town to look for some of those cute statues that are dotted all over old town. We found the Mermaid, Fisherman, The Kiss (yesterday), the Black Ghost, A Childhood Dream and The Little Mouse, just to name a few. There are like 40 of them. After wandering around old town for quite awhile we decided to go to Statue Park. Not as cutesy, but the more normal type of abstract stone stuff. Unfortunately the skies let rip and we were really getting soaked, barely protected by our wet weather gear. We used the excuse to make cake time as the gf shops were straight down from the park. On the way it even started to hail. So after cake and coffee from the Natural Market we decided to head back to the hotel to recuperate.
We took this opportunity to use the Sauna and then relax in our room until going to the Natural Market for dinner. We grabbed cakes as well from the gf bakery next door for our bus trip tomorrow.
After Klaipeda we caught a bus to Vilnius and started with a free walking tour of old town (Lithuanian guide Violet). This went for over 2 hours and showed us many of the main historical buildings with commentary of the history. We found out that Lithuanians are one of the most religious countries in Europe at about 70% catholic. Weird considering that Estonia just a country away was one of the most non religious with about 70% atheist.
She also took us to the ‘Republic’ of Uzupis. Covering less than 1 sq km and started as an April Fools Day joke over 20 years ago. Independence is celebrated on April Fools day every year when you can get free beer from the spout in the main square. It is a city of artists and from its humble beginnings as a poor area it has become expensive real estate. It has its own constitution and many monuments to tolerance, free thinking, art and general Tom foolery. It was a fun place. It is required to smile here, which made it a lot different from the rest of Lithuania where you can get in trouble for smiling. In fact the guide told us of one tourist that had to apologise to a waitress for smiling at her.
Curonian Spit
Statue Park
Vilnius
Uzupis
