Lithuania blog …

And …. relax!! In this Lithuania blog we describe how after the experiences we had in Latvia, it was a hearty relief to be back in the land of normal – Lithuania! Sorry if that offends any Latvians, but that was our experience – you can read more about it in our Latvian blog and our page on Latvia.

We have to say that Lithuania is absolutely one of our top places that we’ve been to … who knew?! It really is lovely, in particular Kaunas – just fantastic! The people are super friendly and really welcoming, and the tend to go out of their way to try to help you – again, such a marked change from our experiences in Latvia!

The largest country in Europe

You can really tell that Lithuania used to be the largest country in Europe. The people really seem to have retained a great deal of self confidence and pride in their past. The country is also clearly quite wealthy.

One example of this is the road into Lithuania from Latvia that we took. On the Latvia side the road at Apši is full of pot-holes and quite a difficult journey, whereas literally as soon as you cross the border in Lithuania, the roads are newly laid with tarmac, and smooth as silk!

Another is the number of supercars that there are in Palanga – just really surprising! This guy with the red car below wanted to be cool, so he parked next to us! The thing is – you think we’re joking, but we’re literally not – he’d never seen a UK Golf GTI in Lithuania! We offered to swap of course 😉

You can also see that many of the houses in the countryside have really been looked after week over the years – the people really do appear to be house-proud!

We relaxed so much in Kaunas – I guess we needed to recharge our batteries after month or so of non-stop travelling! We decided not to travel around so much and to just soak in the atmosphere and have a chat to some people. Because of this, we ended up seeing fewer places. Here’s som that we visited – all were lovely by the way.

Klaipėda

We mainly went to Klaipėda because we wanted to see the spit that linked Lithuania with Kaliningrad. Although Klaipėda is a lovely place with lots of multicultural restaurants, a bit of an old town and has lovely people, our goal was a bit of a let down. All there is is a wooded spit separated by the port. I’m not sure what we expected – but it wasn’t that!

There’s also the remains of an old castle there, although even the remains are pretty much gone. It looked like they were attempting to rebuild the original towers?

Palanga – stunning beach

What a lovely place Palanga is – again so relaxed! Even in the driving rain it was cool! Despite all the wealth there, there were huge crowds all willing to enjoy themselves despite the weather. The houses looked cool, the restaurants looked inviting – who needs the Med? – well I guess the weather IS more guaranteed sunny in the Med – but anyway!

On our way there we came across a guy who collected old style Russian cars from back in the Soviet era. There were loads of them, and all were gathering dust.

Kaunas

We stayed for three days in Kaunas, we loved it so much. It was really enjoyable and familiar – maybe that’s why we liked it so much – the familiarity – understandable foods, castles, shops, lovely reasonably priced accommodation, lots of English speakers.

All that said, it is lovely, and anyone reading this really should think about going there, if only for a city break! After all, there are multiple towns and cities all around that are great to visit, including the capital itself – Vilnius!

Vilnius

We visited Vilnius when we were staying in Kaunas, as it’s only an hour or so away, and accommodation in the capital didn’t seem as good value or as centrally located as in Kaunas. It’s a really simple place to get around – the old town is relatively small but really pretty.

Parking was pretty simple – go super slow around the edge of the roads until you spot a place, try not to annoy absolutely everyone on the way – pay by app and you’re away. We used UniPark – about €2.50 per hour – cheap by Leeds standards!

There’s loads to do and see in Vilnius – as you’d expect from a capital city. Loads of people speak English, everyone was super friendly – as was our experience throughout the country.