Kuldiga, Liejapa, Klaipeda, Vilnius
After Kolka the plan was to make our way to Lithuania. Going back to Riga did not make much sense, and we heard that there was a bus out of Liepaja to Klaipeda. So we decided to go in that direction while stopping to see what interesting towns were on our way. We took a bus to Kuldiga, and once there checked out the bus schedule. Turned out that there was one bus per day going in the direction of Liepaja, and since what we deemed interesting in Kuldiga could be covered in less than a day we figured we’d take the bus the same day. Since we left Kolka around 6:30, we still had the whole day ahead of us.
As many towns on our way Kuldiga also had an old town. We followed the usual routine – found the tourist office, got a local map, and followed the route to the points of interest. We continue to be impressed with the cleanliness of the towns. The buildings may be old and some of them have not been reconstructed since the 1600s, but the parks, lawns, little nooks on the street are all planned, manicured, perfectly green and always pleasant. It seems like entire towns are made for walking. Since locals don’t like to pick up dogs’ poop, dogs here are not allowed to poop on the manicured lawns (see pictures.)
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| 2011.08.16 Kuldiga |
After spending half a day walking around we went back to the bus station to catch our next bus to Liepaja. At this point we did not know where we’d spend the night, however after the night in a tent we wanted to be in a warm room, and have a hot shower in the same building. So as soon as we arrived to Liepaja we set out to find an internet connection to look for our next accommodation. Liepaja had little to offer us in terms of sightseeing, and we decided to push forward to Klaipeda the same night. Once we found internet connection we tried the usual sites to get the hostel, or a cheap hotel, and failed to find anything available. So we started calling places (via Skype), and finally found one available. It turned out to be a very nice hotel, which was a welcome change from the tent. It did however cost 55 euro, which is the most expensive accommodation we had to date.
The next day we walked around Klaipeda. It’s a port town with a small museum in the remains of a castle covering Klaipeda’s history, and a small old town. Most of it was destroyed during WWII. The main square houses a Drama Theater where in 1939 Hitler stood on the balcony and announced incorporation of Memel (county) into Germany.
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| 2011.08.17 Klaipeda |
Next stop was Vilnius. Originally we were going to skip it, but after seeing Uncle Igor’s pictures from the early 80s (yes, they were older than Julie) we decided to see how much the town changed. Since the time of the pictures, it changed quite a bit. You can primarily see the change in the commercialization of everything (which is not surprising). There is now a ton of little souvenir shops, cafes, restaurants, bars. And in a very European style, all of the eating is set up on the street. However, in comparison to the other two capitals that we already visited (Riga and Tallinn), Vilnius still felt Soviet. It was relatively dirty. There was no attempt to restore the Old Town. The hundreds of churches (yes, there are hundreds) looked very sad and gray. Don’t get me wrong, the town is still beautiful and has an amazing history. But in comparison to Tallinn it felt like it needed some care. We only spent one day in Vilnius and due to the inconvenient bus schedule moved on to Poland the next morning. This is one city that we should have devoted more time to in order to understand it.
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| 2011.08.18 Vilnius |
Final note on Lithuania: To date, it was the only country that greeted us with constant sunshine. Thank you for that. (We really start to appreciate this as train is moving through thunder and lightning in Poland).
Hugs to all the readers!
The KAs


