 |
| Trakai, Lithuania |
The quest for my international bus ticket from Poland to
Lithuania took me around the city of Gizycko like a little marble in a pinball
game. Though the city is quite small, my
ticket acquisition was nothing short of an act of divine intervention. I approached the train station on a whim on
my last day in Gizycko to determine my options for departure from the nearly
perfect lakeside town, and after a short game of charades and a half an hour
walk I had secured my ticket.
The bus was going to leave at 00:20 from a bus stop down the
street, or at least that is what I think the woman who sold it to me was
indicating by her aggressive gestures. I
spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the pier and soaking up the
sun while watching the sailboats and wind surfers.
With my bags packed I headed for the bus stop around
midnight - nothing official, just a small bench and a questionable amount of
empty beer bottles next to one of the notoriously animated and confusing road
signs. I spotted a drunk lingering near
the bench. Tunnel vision: new friend on the horizon.
 |
| Old Town in Vilnius |
I lumbered up to him with all of my belongings, and shoved
my ticket in his face. He took it and
grunted some positive sounding noises while pointing at the ground and then his
wrist. Perfect, I thought, now I
just have to wait a few minutes for the bus. I am grateful for my lack of dignity at this
point in my travels; it comes in quite handy at times.
A few more minutes in the dimly lit street with my new
friend and another woman appeared. She
was talking animatedly with a man who seemed to be her son. She was holding what appeared to be a small
Christmas tree and a purse – what else are you supposed to pack for
international travels?
Christmas Tree Woman became my bus mate, and as indicated by
my intoxicated buddy, the bus arrived promptly at three taps on the wrist, or
in sober lingo: 00:20.
 |
| The Baltic Way |
Christmas Tree Woman was seated near the window and
immediately spoke to me in Polish with a smile on her face. I assume she was asking where I was going or
what I was doing without my holiday decorations in July.
“Umm, sorry. English
only” I said feeling strangely embarrassed despite the fact that I have been
doing this for weeks. I felt bad that I was
unable to communicate with such a seemingly sweet and enthusiastic woman.
“Ah, my English no good.
I try. You work in Vilnius?”
“Oh! No, it’s wonderful!
No, I don’t.”
“Well, then you live there, no?”
“No, I am just visiting.”
Immediately scrunching her face she practically spat at me “What? You visit Lithuania? I don’t see.
Why to Vilnius?”
“I just wanted to visit and see the country.” Right?
I began to ask myself. I think
that’s why I got onto that bus…? Did I
need another reason?
She took one more moment to evaluate me, and then suddenly
decided she was tired of my bullshit answers and snuggled up to the window
without so much as a ‘Good night’.
Great,
this looks promising.
 |
| Wolves are the mascot of Vilnius |
As soon as I arrived in Vilnius at 5:30 AM, I was disappointed to have
to say goodbye to my Christmas Tree Woman after we had gotten off to such a
great start. I found and reserved a
hostel room via the wifi nearby and headed towards its location, which was
about a ten-minute walk from the bus station.
On my way down the street, I noticed some girls dressed in
nice outfits from the night before mixed in with people obviously on their way
to work – what a great time to evaluate the city!
 |
| Adorable cafes in Vilnius |
I arrived and had to wait outside until 8 AM for the owner
to arrive, and was then finally was welcomed into the hostel, and couldn’t have
been happier. I was beyond exhausted
from barely sleeping in the bus, and was given my bunk and I proceeded to sleep
for about 6 hours. When I awoke, I began
chatting with Anna, a Russian from Moscow who had just arrived earlier that morning.
Anna and I decided to have coffee and then plan out our
route for exploring Vilnius since we were both traveling solo. Luckily, she was a historian and had more
than enough information about the city and country at large. She had reviewed the options for exploration
before she arrived (Can anyone imagine doing something so organized!?), and
after about an hour we set out.
The wonderful summertime fact about the Baltic and
Scandinavian states is that you don’t have to cram everything in before 5 or 6
PM. You have bright sunlight until
around 9 PM, and dusk until 10 or 11 PM.
It is the perfect situation for visiting a new city – no rushing to see
everything, no sketchy walking around in the dark, and the general population
is celebrating the fact that its not winter.
It’s perfect.
 |
| Around the Old Town in Vilnius |
As we left our hostel, the questions between new travel
friends began. This is one of my
favorite activities with people from countries that I haven’t interacted with
before; Russia is one of those countries for me. I had so many questions, and so did she. It’s rare that an American and Russian are
just walking around and chatting in Lithuania.
One of the first questions from Anna was the increasingly
popular one I had heard hours before - “Why did you come here? It’s not really an American vacation spot, is
it?”
No, Anna, in my experience it really is not at the top of
our list. I knew only one person who had
been here, and she was someone who moved to the USA to leave the country years
ago.
 |
| From above the city in Vilnius |
I explained that my flight to Stockholm was from Riga
because I wanted to explore the Baltic States for a few days before moving on
to Sweden. I asked her the same
question, and for her the response was that “to Russians, it is Europe without
the price tag of France or Germany”.
During our first day together, we visited the famous Old
Town and saw Saint Peter’s & Saint Paul’s Cathedral, as well as spent a few
hours learning the national history in the Upper Castle in Vilnius. At the end of our time at the Castle, we
hiked to the top of the picturesque Gediminas' Tower, which is a great lookout over
the city, before exploring the local cuisine.
 |
| Traditional cepelinai |
The cepelinai, or didžkukuliai, were delicious, but incredibly
filling. I ordered “one” (which actually
includes two), and I struggled to get through the first one. Thank God I was able to force my second one
on Anna. We tasted the local beer as
well, which was good, but not quite up to Belgian standards in my opinion.
By this
point it was about 7 PM and getting “late”, but because of the sunlight
available to us our day had only began. We
explored the Užupis neighborhood, which had some quaint as well as
entertaining aspects; my favorite was the unique Constitution.
The
following day we visisted Trakai, one of the only castles completely surrounded
by water in Eastern Europe; it is located about 30 minutes from the city of
Vilnius. We spent the morning exploring the
actual castle. The surrounding lakes and
landscapes were incredibly peaceful, and Anna took advantage of the great
weather for swimming – I hadn’t packed my bathing suit so I relaxed on the
shore watching the sailboats saunter across the water.
 |
| One of the small docks in Trakai |
Afterwards
we wandered through a handful of the adorable lakeside boutiques, and had a
very interesting discussion with a local woman around the age of 30. She asked where we were from and our
responses caused an immediate face of surprise - “You two are friends? But
why?”
I was
starting to tire of this constant need for me to explain my Lithuanian choices
to locals. I simply replied, “Just
because our presidents aren’t getting along doesn’t impact our option to become
friends, does it?” I again doubted my
choices and myself – Lithuania will do that to you.
She
quickly gasped, “That’s a beautiful choice” and then forced us to explain how
we had met and our entire 24-hour friendship in detail. She said she had never seen an American and a
Russian friendship before.
I
thought it was a blessing to have a day of exploring with someone who could
shed so much light on the history and culture around me, as well as someone I
enjoyed conversing with. It had never
once crossed my mind that because of our countries of origin that I should stay
away from her or simply explore Lithuania alone.
I know
this sounds insane, but I thought that was a sadly honest evaluation of the
world and the friendships that have the potential to workout or not. I’m glad we both chose to spend time together
and get to know more about one another’s cultures and personalities, and I’m
sure that we will keep in touch.
The
following morning I was leaving for Kaunas, and said goodbye to Anna, but was
beyond grateful for our friendship and the time we got to spend together.
 |
| Traditional 3 window houses in Trakai |
0 comments:
Post a Comment