Aciu

And that is the extent of my Lithuania.  It means "Thank you" and is pronounced like when we are faking a sneeze (Achoo).  Anyway, my next stop in Lithuania was to the Western Coast in the town of Klaipeda.  I arrived there in the afternoon on a Sunday and after throwing my stuff in my hostel, was off to explore the town by foot.  Now, every other country in the world seems to recognize that Sunday is a day of rest, I don't understand by we in the US don't.  Most shops are closed except for the occassional restaurant or corner store and towns are generally quite.  Klaipeda was no exception.  I headed into Old Town where I enjoyed a leisurely couple of hour stroll all around the old cobbled streets with mainly families or couples who were out doing the same.  The Old Town is very compact so you can walk everywhere and the streets all snake around as they were designed before the advent of cars.  The day was a beautiful clear crisp day.  The sky was shining bright blue, there was a slight breeze and it was probably in the high 50's.  It felt like one of those cool crips autumn days that I liked when I was living in Colorado.  Now most of you know that there were not hardly any times that I enjoyed living there other than about 3 weeks in autumn and 3 weeks in spring when the weather was changing.  This day felt like one of those autumn days.  I love old towns like this where you can just wander around and enjoy them.  You really can't get lost because they are so compact.  Often you see the old buildings from the 16th or 17th century and just think that if only the walls could talk they would have several stories to tell.  As we are so far North here, it stays light out much later than at home.  We turned the light out in my hostel room the other night around 11pm and it was still light out.  That makes for very nice long days during the summer, but I am sure horribly short winter days.  I spent a couple of hours enjoying the sun light by reading a book on a bench next to the main river in town. 

Yesterday, I took a ferry from Klaipeda accross the Curonian Lagoon to the Curonian Split.  This is a very narrow strip of land that separates Lithuania from the Baltic Sea.  It is only a 10 minute ferry ride over there and the whole strip of land is very delicate and is a national park due to it's shifting sands and dunes.  It is roughly 60 kilometers long and maybe 3 kilometers wide or so.  I haven't converted this to miles so am not sure exactly what that equals in miles.  About 3/4 of the split is part of Lithuania, while the remaining 1/4 at the Southern end is part of Kalingrad, which is Russian Territory.  Once I arrived, I hoped on the bus and headed to the Southern most town on the Lithuanian side, Nida.  It took about an hour by bus and there was just gorgeous scenery on the way down.  There is exactly one main road that runs the entire length of the split so that was what we were on.  I walked around the tiny town and it truly felt like being on a movie set.  There were all of these very cute, wooden clap board type houses with blue trim.  Several had old fashioned clothes lines outside strung between trees with clothes drying.  It felt just like a lazy seaside small town that has not hardly been touched by time at all.  People were out strolling, talking, and everyone you pass gives you a smile.  The pace of life seems relaxed, leisurely, and much slower than even in Klaipeda. 

From what I read and heard, the best way to explore the split is by bike as there are several well marked bike trails running the length of it, so I decided to take myself on a bike ride from Nida up 30 kilometers to the town of Juodkrante.  I rented a bike that was only a one way rental (as I knew there would be no way I would want to bike back).  I headed out (and made sure I was going north, not south as I didn't want to accidentally end up in Kalingrad without a visa....I am all for great travel stories, but being detained in Russian territory with no visa is probably not a story I want to tell) and was on my way.  The bike ride was absolutely incredible and amazing.  The path winds along the beach at some points, through woods and covered areas, along pathes with Queen Anne's Lace growing wild up to waist high, and past sand dunes and a gorgeous beach.  For the most part, it was me and nature for the ride with the occassional biker passing me going the opposite direction.  The day was another clear, sunny beautiful day so this made for perfect weather for biking in my pants and a tank top.  The birds were singing as I went along and made for a lovely melody.  The ride took me about 3ish hours or so, give or take.  I stopped at several points to take pictures along the way.  Now, I haven't ridden a bike in officially about 8 years and I couldn't even tell you the last time I road that distance.  Toward the end, my fanny was not happy with me (which you would think wouldn't be a problem considering I have enough cushion down there), but it was definately worth it.  Although, I am slightly sore today from the ride. 

This morning, I headed out to Riga, Latvia, with a stop off in the town of Siauliai, Lithuania.  There is this hill there called the Hill of the Crosses.  It is a type of memorial about 12km outside of the city where there must be thousands of crosses there of every shape and size to remember those who have passed away and also to commemorate newlyweds as well.  It is truly a site to see.  The crosses range in size from probably 30 feet tall down to the size of a charm for the necklace.  Intermixed with them all are some status of a sorrowful Jesus and there was one of the Virgin Mary as well.  It is an awe inspiring site. 

I had just enough time to see that before I needed to be back at the bus station to catch my next bus onto Riga.  I was told at information before I left to see the hill that there were 2 more buses for the day to Riga, one at 1:45pm and the next at 4:45pm.  I was also told to buy the ticket on the bus for 40 Litas.  I was back in time to take the 1:45pm and attempted to do just that.  The bus driver asked for my ticket and I said that Information told me to buy it on the bus.  He shook his head no, said "Ticket" and pointed inside.  I assumed that meant buy ticket inside.  I said in English "Buy ticket inside.  She told me buy here."  He just shook his head no and walked away.  Ok, I thought, so inside I went back to information to ask.  Information told me the same thing as before, "No, you buy on Microbus."  I  replied, "Driver of Microbus said to buy in here."  She says "No, buy on Microbus."  Oye, ok, so back outside I went.  The driver said something else to me and then they left.  My best guess is that it was full and he had no more tickets to sell as the "Bus" is really a 15 passenger van and it looked very full.  Well, I figured at this point I needed to have a back up plan in case this same thing happened on the next bus and I got stuck here for the night.  Since I had 3 hours until the next "Microbus" arrived, I walked myself to the train station to see if this would be an option to get to Riga.  This was not, as the train system is not as extensive here as in the rest of Europe, so I walked myself back to the bus station where I waited for the next bus and proceeded to find a hostel in my guidebook just in case I was stranded for the night.  As soon as I saw the next bus arrive, I got up pretty quick as I did not want to miss it and wanted to make sure I got a seat.  Luckily I did without any problems.  It was interesting too crossing the boarder into Latvia as there was absolutely no one at the boarder.  It was like crossing a state line at home where all you see is a sign that says the new state you are in.  Very different from our hypervigilant boarders. 

I arrived here in Riga, Latvia safely tonight and luckily was able to withdraw cash to use.  What I didn't tell many people is that my bank informed me before I left that Latvia was the only country that they could not guarnatee my ATM card would work here.  Fantastic!  Their recommendation was to have cash on me just in case.  Now, I always carry $100 in American money just in case something happens and I can't access my accounts and I made sure to withdraw 300 Euro in Ireland before I left incase I couldn't get cash out here.  I figured between those two stashes of money, I could get by for 5 days without access to cash.  If I didn't need the Euros, I wasn't too concerned as Estonia is on the Euro and I will use it there.  I stuck my card in the ATM at the bus station, kept my fingers crossed and thank goodness, the cash was dispensed and I was on my way to my hostel where I safely arrived tonight.