This would be the first time I’d use the Luxexpress busses and I was looking forward to the experience. This was the first of three Luxexpress busses I used. It’s also the only one of the three that didn’t offer the additional comfort class, meaning I was in a “regular” seat with someone else next to me.
The bus, both from the inside and outside felt like quality. In front of me there was a screen with some entertainment content provided, as well as a movable map. The latter is what I mostly used the screen for. I liked the concept as it meant you didn’t necessarily need to rely on Google Maps to see where you exactly are. Sadly the tracker seemed to be getting stuck at one point for the most part so it wasn’t quite as useful as it could’ve been. But it was still nice to observe the progress after doing a “manual” refresh (which really meant exiting the app and reentering it).
Another perk of the bus was free hot drinks and water. Never had a bus with those offerings. Nor was I ever on a bus with a screen at each seat. Nor was I ever on a bus with a plastic bag provided which I assumed was for the case if you might need to v-word but I suppose it could’ve also simply been a trash bag too. I think I could for sure say this was the best, most “luxurious” bus experience I had. And it wasn’t even the more comfort class on this occasion.
Regarding that water, there were water bottles available in one of the front seats. On this bus towards Vilnius, the water was Varska, an Estonian brand. When it comes to the hot drinks, I got an espresso. It was fine enough, but it’s from a machine so “make of that what you will”. However I really liked the cup design.
With signpost illustrations on the other side
So the bus ride itself. Most of it through highways I believe so not the most spectacular sceneries. But I did make sure to catch some motorsport references (Le Mans LMP2 team). It was a time for music, while still in Poland I tried to give some Polish Eurovision entries a listen among other things. Most notably the 2024 one. It provided joy as we were getting closer and closer to the Lithuania border, and I could see the skies being more and more cloudy. Around this point is also when I had my first taste of the Luxexpress coffee or in fact any in-bus coffee. A positive experience of looking at the cup design, the scenery out of the window and drinking the coffee.
There was a pause at Suwalki, just before the Lithuanian border. I went out for a bit. The sceneries at the stop were definitely nothing “postcard worthy”. But it was still a memorable moment I took a few pictures of. It was cloudy, a bit windy. Noticeably cooler than Warsaw. It felt like the light jacket could be put to use and this realization made me really happy. I really was going towards cooler places.
Soon crossed the border into a new country, Lithuania. Could observe that there was a specific design of the traffic signs. Could observe that there were still Orlen gas stations even beyond the Polish border. And I listened to the Katarsis album that I specifically saved for these moments after entering Lithuania. All this while also entering a new timezone for the first time and suddenly the time was an hour later.
Eventually reached Kaunas, the 2nd largest city. This is when rain started intensifying and it felt like I might not just need that light jacket, but also the rain poncho. At this point I downloaded the app for the Vilnius public transport and purchased a 3 day ticket. And I looked up at options for a late dinner (around 10pm). It looked like it might need to be Hesburger, but not all of them were open until 11pm. By the time we arrived to Vilnius the rain was gone.
I believe the bus stopped at two places in Vilnius. First in front of a shopping center and then at the central bus station. My apartment was actually closer to the shopping center stop so this is where I got out. And I indeed used the light jacket. When we arrived the daylight was at its last remaining stages. Unsure at first on which exact stop to wait since there were multiple ones in front of that shopping center, but I got on a city bus that would take me to a station close to the apartment. From that station it was a 10 or so minute walk to the apartment. That first taste of Lithuania was peaceful, in the sense of almost nobody (of pedestrians) being around. I got to the huge building where my apartment was inside, followed the check-in instructions and went inside. The first impressions were pretty great but I kinda rushed outside to get onto a city bus towards the center where I went to the Hesburger for a late night dinner. Sadly I got the vegan friendly burger with cheese despite remembering I declined cheese but it was what it was. I didn’t have too much of a look around the Vilnius center since the returning bus towards the apartment was departing relatively soon. But what I saw gave nice impressions. A late night mini “adventure” in a city I’ve never been too. Slightly thrilling. What added to that thrill was the realization, while waiting for the bus, of how far I’ve gone from “my” part of Europe, the fact I was really now in the Baltics, this far away. A unique, positive emotion.
Returned to the apartment, gave it a a better look. Still pretty great impressions, and more. Checked what sort of washing machine was provided and if it also might’ve had drying capabilities. Checked the TV. I actually haven’t done that in the Polish apartment, or if I did, it must’ve been such a short check it’s already out of my mind. In Hungary I didn’t bother cause the focus was different. The TV here had an internet browser. I thought this place in Vilnius might’ve been the best apartment/hotel I ever stayed in on any trip so far. Showered in the admittedly tight shower area but that might be the only downside I could think of to this place.
Which might lead me to the point about toilets and leaving the toilet paper in the bin. There was a sign to do exactly that. This was a first for me, and something that would’ve taken a bit of adjusting to. I ended up not doing it that way, but just flushing everything instead. And nothing seemingly went wrong thankfully. But I was surprised by this requirement. The same situation was in Latvia and Estonia and I didn’t follow it there either. Sorry?
Day 6
The day started with a decision on where I’m gonna go eat. And a bus ride to the vicinity of the center. The vicinity because I wanted to walk over the bridge just before the center and do the exploring by foot. The apartment was about a 20 minute bus ride from the center. One bus stop was a few minutes of walking away from the apartment building and this is where basically every day started. There were a couple of occasions when the bus lines I took on the way back stopped at other stations like the very first one I took the day earlier.
I got to that station just before a bridge. I had those night outings the night before but this is when the sightseeing/exploring “properly” began. Some of the first things I could note is the visible support for Ukraine, whether it’s on the bus LEDs or the flags on buildings, public institutions, businesses. It was heartwarming to see but also reminded that this place is quite close to the hostile countries. Then the fact most vehicles had the LT sign on their plates. Obviously they would have that in Lithuania. Usually I would only really see plates from such a country maybe in the touristic seaside towns of Cr*atia but now I was here instead which was just… A distinct feeling.
The walk towards the cafe was about 15 minutes. I came across a Lidl that was very centrally located, more centrally than I’m used to. It blended in nicely with the surroundings from the side I came across it. While peeking inside it looked like a regular Lidl but with moving staircases towards it. I believe I saw a similarly central Lidl in at least one more country before, but now I can’t quite recall in which one.
The place I chose to have breakfast in was a vegetarian one, with vegan options. In fact, to not become repetitive, assume that any time I mention food, restaurants, cafes, it was a vegan place or there was a vegan option. This was the first time I had a scrambled tofu which wasn’t homemade by me. And I had an almond cappuccino as well. Absolutely loved the interior of the place. Enjoyed the food and cappuccino. It felt like a large portion, and it was a scrambled tofu on top of a waffle, with salad greens, avocado, some sausage, tomatoes a dip. Felt filling to me.
Continued with the exploring, and just enjoying being around nice places. One thing that caught my attention is just how clean, polished some of these old city streets looked like, particularly the ones with a reddish color. One of them with marks for a bicycle lane. A few of these streets might’ve had works on them recently, I don’t know.
Had a hard time taking my eyes off that one white red/black church. Could see it from a distance at one point before getting right up to it as well. Eventually entered my first Lithuanian store which was an Iki, near a rainbow zebra crossing.
One thing that I took note of was the fact I saw Austrian products from the Billa store brand, which wasn’t something I’d expect to see here. Turns out those stores are under the same groupation thing which explains it. One thing I bought was a lentil chips with a “bacon” flavor.
As I went around beautiful buildings, including the really nice area around the Swedish embassy, the weather was looking a bit changeable. There was some light rain starting, so it turned out the plan to go eat lunch was nicely timed in terms of weather. I went to a bit of a busy place, I had to share tables with someone else. But the food was great. It was my first time trying the Lithuanian pink soup, and I got a chickpeas salad with it as well (it included seeds, tomatoes, garlic bread…). The soup really was amazing. And you get some great potatoes alongside as well. I would love to at least try to make this at home at some point eventually.
The weather got better as I went back out, at least for a while. I did more exploring including chilling in a lovely park. Until it started to rain a bit more heavily but fortunately I wasn’t very far from a bus stop. I chose then to take a mid-day break and take a bus back towards the apartment. By the time the bus arrived the rain stopped again and I continued on towards the Lidl which was under 10 minutes of walking from that stop, and the apartment building.
The Lidl experience was very much the standard Lidl experience you might expect. Though I did feel as if the vegan options felt scarcer than what I could find in Cr*atia shockingly. Except for that high protein soy milk which is a thing in Lithuania. The same one could be found in Slovenia too but not Cr*atia yet. I got two high protein soy milks and a hazelnut muesli for breakfasts/dinners as well as a potato salad which I ate quickly afterwards. While enjoying the latest episode of Silent Witch(!!) on the TV. Simple moments of joy to cherish.
Headed back towards the city soon afterwards. This time towards the Užupio area. I tried to catch as many interesting details as I could. Near the entrance there was a QR code thing that I tried scanning but accessing the content seemed to require an app so eventually I gave up on that. Pretty sure I heard a tour group of Cr*atian travelers. Read the constitution of the area with as much attention as I could. It was a busy spot. Cool artworks could be seen around the area. I then found myself in what looked like a pretty wonderful calm residental area near the river with greenery around it and some stairs I was taking. All looked very well maintained.
However mentally by this point I was at a low. It started gradually through the day, maybe around the time I walked around the university actually. Because after all the failures, the mind started looking towards different options. Maybe getting into a university abroad, for some complete other field could be what’s needed to reach my goals? But then even if I’d do that, it could easily end up being for nothing. At some point my mind just went into this really unhappy place regarding jObs, cAreers, living in capitalism, doom about such topics. Great scenery all around me but sadly the mind wasn’t in the headspace you’d want for it. I headed towards the Gediminas tower with the plan to get some good views. And went through a nearby park where someone performed at a cafe and the point around the cafe was crowded. Thought maybe I would take the tower funicular but that seemed to be closed, in fact it may have closed just before I made it there. Still did go up to the tower hill. I could imagine that upwards path is quite slippery and tricky to go through in the winter. A good part of it is not stairs.
I did this at a good point because the dusk was starting to do its thing and it all made for some really nice images and views. A church (presumably) with the Ukrainian flag caught my attention, couldn’t figure out the name nor find this building on any map to see what exactly it is. Saw other buildings I came close to earlier through the day and they looked far away from this perspective.
At some point I realized I didn’t have coffees to drink in the apartment so I wanted to get some small instant coffee packs. But the best options for that in both Iki and Maxima seemed to be those small Nescafe packs and I didn’t wanna support Nestle. So that’s how I got a bag of Lithuanian cocoa. And yes this was the first time in a Maxima. While just before that in the Iki I got a box of Pergale chocolates.
From the Icelandic street bus stop I headed back towards the apartment. I did make a quick cup of that cocoa which I drank along with the previously bought muesli and soy protein drink. The day was over in terms of exploring but I did buy a train ticket for the plans of the next day.
Day 7
Today’s breakfast was gonna be very much within the city center, so I took a bus that would get me there. Entered the place within the first few minutes of it opening. Lovely interior, loved the pastel colors and the staff wearing shirts where it says “the future is vegan” on their backs. A really nice waiter taking my order. I was pretty much the only person on the inside of the place, it seems the outside was definitely more popular at that time. I was actually in a mood for a chia pudding but it turns out they only did that on weekends so I needed to pick something else and I ended up with a pink hummus plate with tortillas as well as a beetroot latte which I don’t think I’ve had a chance to try anywhere else so far. After enjoying the meal I headed towards the train station which was a walk that got me through streets I didn’t go through yet in Vilnius, which is always a good feeling.
Eventually found myself going along the street pararrell to the train station and I liked how there’s a bit of a green slope separating the street from the train tracks. And then there was also a McDonald’s with the green color in the logo. Apparantly that’s not really a novelty anymore but it was that more older style logo with the bottom part in green instead of red which I don’t think I’ve been seeing elsewhere.
The underground passage of the station felt like I was heading towards a metro. I was gonna be taking a train towards Trakai, to see the castle and the surrounding areas. The ride took about half an hour. The train itself was nice. Two levels with a few steps separating them. At first sat at a single seat towards the bottom entrance (if I remember correctly) but then I went up the stairs and there were a few seats facing the window and I chose to go on one of those. Previously I’ve only really seen such seats in the bicycle compartment of trains, and these weren’t those foldable ones, but “regular” instead. Got the ticket checked, everything was fine ofcourse. Can’t recall any notable scenery but it’s always nice to go around on a train, giving the opportunity to see buildings/nature of more “random” places in a country. This ride however didn’t go too far from Vilnius though. One thing I learned to enjoy about Lithuanian trains is the sound before the next stop announcement.
Nice scenery of the lake as soon as you get off the station in Trakai. The Trakai station is small but has spaces to sit, ticket machines, an open free toilet I used when I got off. And then continued towards the direction of the castle. There wasn’t much room for an error at least in the areas near the train station.
I enjoyed the lake view. A boat came by. The person on it was offering a ride directly to the castle which I declined. The few other people nearby did the same. I continued forward and quickly came across a Rimi store. I was planning to stop at a store in order to get some snacks and drinks so I went in. First time in that particular store. I liked it. A thing I wasn’t expecting to find were roasted seaweed snacks, something I usually only came across in specialized Asian stores. So I bought that. I also bought what looked like soy snacks. Good thing I didn’t actually open them through the trip because only later I realized I didn’t actually buy soy snacks but what looks like it’s essentially just TVP (vegan meat alternative). And I bought a Rimi cola. Which tasted fine enough.
After the store stop I headed onto a really nice path basically along the lake, with some benches around too. It was getting overcasty and I loved the mood conveyed by the lake scenery accompanied by the skies. I enjoyed this mood while snacking on my roasted seaweed. It felt a bit Tavo Akys, and it’s only fitting that around this area I happened to find a scratch card with the word “tavo” on it. This is also the point when I answered a text message from my father but no need to go deeper into that.
Soon enough it did start to rain but it wasn’t significant enough to drastically impact anything.
The path was near the lake but I eventually reached a part where there were also a couple of nice, what looked to be old buildings. What contributed to the enjoyment of walking along this path is that there was really not a lot of people around.
The area where busses were parking had a paid but not the most clean toilet. The colorful houses in the nearby street though were pretty nice and gave me a very northern vibe. Eventually I could see my first view of the castle. Once I got to the shore, one of the first things I thought was that the castle felt smaller than it appeared on pictures. The closer you went towards the area before the first bridge, the more crowded it was.
Bridge #1 was nice enough to cross through but not really a highlight. It takes you to the small piece of land before another bridge that then leads you in front of the castle. The second bridge was therefore the more interesting one to go through. A good number of people heading in both directions. I had no clue there would be some sort of renovation work of the castle happening, and that became clear with one of the towers being a work zone. Even the bridge #2 itself usually seems to be different than the version I had the chance to see. But it was all still available to see and nice to go around nonethless.
I went towards the courtyard which you could get a glimpse of. Great views of the towers from there. Ukrainian flag up on the middle tower inner side. I had a few minutes of taking it all in at a spot that is the farthest you could access without a ticket, before heading out.
Then I just walked around the castle and island. Other than the castle, had a few minutes of taking in views of the lake. I believe that’s when someone asked me to take a picture of them which I did. Had more minutes of taking in views but in the middle of bridge #2. Crossing back from that bridge I saw a few stairs on that tiny in-between island, so I went on those. It was a path going the same way as the “main” one, but a much less crowded way of going towards the same place, which was bridge #1.
Then I proceeded to go on a path leading to a smaller nearby fortress. There was another bridge nearby, which led to a street/road with some nice houses. I wasn’t sure where I was going with this, but I figured getting to a shore would provide some nice views. Quickly I came across yet another bridge, after which there was some sort of parking and very close to it I could see the lake. This parking even had an unexpected toilet and I did find some nice views of the castle and lake along the way. And there was basically nobody else around, a big contrast to the areas around the castle.
This was the point from which I started to head back towards the train station. Along the way sat at a bench in front of those nice colorful houses. Nearby them there was an Illy coffee machine that I considered using but ended up not to. For the way back I chose to walk along the “main” streets, the ones I didn’t take on the way to the castle because I was on those paths along the lake instead. The main streets gave more of a glimpse into the mundane life of this place, with schools and administrative buildings and stuff. One thing I wanted to do before the day ended was to get bandages for my (sadly) developed blister (only on one foot). So I went to the drugstore. After a while I managed to find what I needed. Returned to the train station and waited for the train.
After returning to Vilnius I headed towards the old town to find the place where I was gonna have dinner. It took a wrong turn or two ofcourse, but I got there. Then I entered with shoes on which I was (very kindly) told not to do since it’s an Indian style place. I sat outside. Got a Kombucha. Chose to have another one of those amazing beetroot soups since they had it on the menu. And “fish and chips”, which was breaded tofu wrapped in seaweed. Along with potatoes and more vegetables. I loved it all.
The restaurant happened to be quite close to Užupio. And I felt much better this time so I chose to head back there and have another exploring session. This time I also focused more on trying to catch as many art pieces as I could. And then I also went through that wonderful green area again. Seriously what a nice and relaxing place to walk around. Around there I spotted a restaurant place called “Le Mans” and a Porsche garage thing and couldn’t not wonder what’s that all about. Later I found out there’s some sort of private Porsche collection inside, which could be visited with a pre-arrangement.
Did some more walking around and enjoying of the old town. Sort of had a race against time and the bus stops. I saw that there’d be 10 minutes or something of waiting at a bus stop before the next bus I needed, so I chose to just walk to the next station instead, to see if I could make it and “explore” some further. I rushed a bit, probably without need because I believe the bus was a bit late anyway. Which, let’s be fully honest, often has been the case through my usage of them.
While at the restaurant eating dinner, I already bought train tickets for the next day’s plans. It was gonna be a bit of an early start the next morning.
Day 8
So it was a relatively early start for what was gonna be an adventurous day. It would involve decently long trains, local busses, exploration of more “random” places. The first objective was to get to Šiauliai from Vilnius, for which I took a train that was over 2 hours long.
I saw that the wagons I was going through were all those 6 person or so couchette compartments converted to seating, so I kinda assumed it’s the same through the whole train and just picked one of them which was empty at the time. It soon started filling up more and more however.
It’s not my preferred seat option at a train but I would get through it. Luckily I took a seat near the window as well. Settled into the train ride and the music. By this point, the Silent Witch OP and ED would often play in my head, but I realized I surprisingly didn’t download those to the music collection I gathered on the device for the purposes of being able to listen to songs no matter the internet situation. This was the moment when I righted that wrong, and I believe it was the first time I listened to the full versions of both of these songs. They provided soothing, joy-inducing, fitting, satisfying vibes. I loved listening to the Silent Witch OP and ED as I looked outside the not incredible but nice enough Lithuanian train scenery in what was still a relatively early morning.
Eventually someone entered with a child. And there seemed to be a bit of confusion. The train staff asking the other people inside something in Lithuanian, till they asked me too. I ofcourse had to apologize cause I didn’t understand. Turns out they asked what seat is my ticket and I needed to leave this carriage to go to my actual seat. Oops. I suppose I wasn’t thinking there’d be emphasis on the correct seats in this train. It makes sense there was, looking back, because it was a decently long journey, and Šiauliai wasn’t the final destination the train went to. But in any case, it was probably for the better that I got “removed”. Because my actual seat was in a carriage with the more “regular” seats and it was more peaceful. Plus the carriage felt more comfortable to be in, air wise. I did lose out on the window view though unfortunately. The person next to me seemed to be a basketball fan since they were looking at videos about the topic. Stereotypical Lithuanian things?
Headed out in Šiauliai and I was really happy with the realization that it was kinda cool. Suitable for the light jacket. Overcasty. Perhaps the optimal mk weather? One of the first things I did at the train station was read the text below the statue of Stasys Nosys and admire his story. I also headed around the station to find the toilet as I now assumed every Lithuanian train station has a free toilet (great to have, and this one did too). I also used the Illy coffee machine inside the train station and drank the espresso as I made my way from the train station to the bus station. There wasn’t a lot of time before a bus I was planning to take so I couldn’t take too long, but I did make sure to take in the moments, and didn’t have to rush *too* much. And I did enjoy that walk. Lovely weather, some lovely buildings too.
Exploring a new place I knew basically nothing about. Heading towards more unknowns with what was gonna be a local bus to kinda in the middle of nowhere. All to get to a place that is quite unique, but maybe going through all the “trouble” to see it wouldn’t be worth it for many people? A very mk moment in a way. I did have a thought about how this type of scenario would be when the Zatsu Tabi MC would happily proclaim something like “this is my type of travel”. Or did I misremember an unexisting scene? If so, just pretend it happened in the anime.
Bus station not spectacular, in fact the station is understated a bit since it’s basically surrounded by stores. A positive thing are the displays on each of the platforms, showing the lines on the platform, which made it possible to relatively easily find the right platform. Wasn’t too long till I was on the bus as well. The cheap ticket bought online was all fine. Was seated and waiting to get underway. Noticed a fellow solo traveller, some Asian travellers, some couple in front talking in English and one of them drank a familiar small Alpro protein pack. I suppose we were all here for the same purpose, and we will go off on the same “middle of nowhere” stop. Any uncertain feelings were eased due to that cause it felt unlikely I’d end up in a situation when I’m the only one who’d wanna go off there and the bus driver would forget unless I pressed the stop button or clearly got up or something. And if I wouldn’t know where to then go afterwards I could have a look at where others are going. And it appeared less likely I’d be doing the return bus alone too, lessening any possibilities of screwing it up somehow.
I guess experiences of Cro*tian local busses made me feel like a Lithuanian local bus could be more of an “unknown” or “uncertain” thing than it actually was. It was all good, all the stops were being “respected”. It probably did help that this was a huge tourist spot. More of a popular spot than I estimated it to be. A little bit before the target stop there was a road sign/ad indicating the vicinity of the spot. Oh and the spot I was heading to is the Hill of Crosses.
The bus arrived to the targeted spot and indeed, I was definitely not the only one going off. Then everyone proceeded in the same direction. There wasn’t much space to make an error and there was a sign pointing to the direction one needs to go. You go in that direction and you then basically just follow the road until you get to parkings and things making it clear you reached the spot.
Saw the Asian couple taking photos of the landscape on the side. Later on I was doing the same. The sky was making for a nice scene, and it was spot on with the mood considering the type of place we were walking to. Put on the headphones and listened to Tavo Akys as I continued the walk. Eventually reached the entrance, or rather information center and places to buy souvenirs. As well as crosses to put on the hill. The latter was part of the plan. I didn’t wanna leave anything to chance, I wanted to manifest something and “solidify” it here. I found two crosses about the size I wanted (although there was a limited choice), and then wrote down something on them. What did I write? It’s about something I’ve been trying to accomplish through the entire year (and been failing). And something else I don’t quite have the individual power to influence.
That landscape
Headed towards the hill and as I got closer, I once again played Tavo Akys. The mood in the sky, the scenery and spot I was approaching. Doing so in Lithuania. Is there anything more Tavo Akys, specifically its bridge, than all of this combined was?
I was at the spot. Ofcourse, it’s a very unique and impressive scene to witness, but to “make the most” of visiting this place, one should probably go around the crosses and read the different texts on the many different crosses.
It was kinda like going around a graveyard, but with international “memoires” and tributes. There were for sure crosses for people who died, but there were also crosses *simply* marking the presence of individuals, you could find different flag symbols or indicators, writings in different languages. There were loads of custom made crosses marking specific events or even (what looked like) improvised crosses such as one that was made of skiis. I found one spot which seemed to be decently positioned without standing out and with hopefully a decent chance to survive a thunderstorm. I put my crosses there. There were Czech flag crosses nearby for reference.
There were two returning busses to Šiauliai that made the most sense for my timelines, and I ended up taking the later one. There was really a lot of crosses you could go around, and at some point it did get a bit too much. There’s also a nearby church that I went towards, from where there’s also a different view of the hill. The church itself wasn’t anything special and I didn’t spent too long around there. It seemed relatively new though.
I feel like the place got busier the longer I was there. I wasn’t sure I was expecting this to be such a popular spot. A steady flow of people in both directions, including tourist busses. As I was approaching the bus stop there were only a few additional people waiting there however. I believe there were those same Asian people as before as well as one other pair of people I recognized from the morning bus. The more popular option for this spot definitely seems to be private transport however.
It definitely got warmer through the visit, not really the light jacket weather anymore. Everything was fine on the bus back. I actually bought a ticket for an earlier bus but obviously haven’t used it, however I had no problems while showing the ticket for the earlier time.
I was back in Šiauliai with a few hours of time to explore and have something to eat. I started by finding the place to eat in, and there was only really one option and it was located pretty much in the center. Found the restaurant, sat outside and ordered the only plant based meal option (a falafel plate).
The food was nice. By the time I was finished a bit of a downpour arrived which lasted for several minutes. I felt good about sitting under a cover at these moments and the waiter not giving me my bill yet. Soon enough the rain did ease to much more walkable levels.
I walked around and found nice buildings. Including a park which seemed to be relatively recently renovated, judging by the new-looking ground. I ended up in a separate large green park, nearby the lake and the apartment. It was a charming walking experience. There seemed to be some stage set up towards what looked like the middle of the park, so I didn’t quite go around there. And someone seemed to be having a wedding photoshoot. I was going through these areas in order to get to one of the few places I planned to see. The fox sculpture next to the lake. I was intrigued by the fox from the pictures and it’s just a really cool sculpture. A very nice place to mark the end of the Šiauliai adventure.
This is where the exploring ended and it marked the point when I started heading towards the train station. Kind of thought I might not make it on time but it ended up being fine and I didn’t need to rush *too* much. One of the possible ideas for the Šiauliai adventure was visiting the bicycle(!!) museum that is in the city, but I didn’t have enough time for that. I feel like usually if I’m tight on time, sightseeing is the main priority, along with food.
I was seated on the train. This time on my assigned seat. Reflecting on a fun, eventful day. In the latter stages someone sat next to me and asked in Lithuanian if they can use the charger below the seats. At first I thought they simply meant if they can sit next to me lol. This touches on a bit of an issue because by this point I had to be really modest with my phone usage because the battery was nearing the end and I had no charger. But even in the worst case scenario, I was on the way to Vilnius, I scanned my ticket, I’ll be able to get back to my apartment without a phone by now. It would’ve been a problem if ticket inspectors came to the city busses though and my battery was gone and I couldn’t show my daily ticket from the app. In the end the battery did survive till the return but I really did have to make sure I don’t use the phone a lot and instead focus on my surroundings. Which in itself wasn’t a bad thing though.
I really did enjoy those Lithuanian “next stop” sounds. And I enjoyed the service in the train. You could purchase snacks/drinks and I’ve seen people do that. Towards the end they were going around collecting trash. Idk it just felt like there was effort put into trains instead of it being something no one gives a shit about (*coughs in Cr*atia*) and that was lovely to see. Well done Lithuania.
Returned to the apartment and it started hitting that this would be the end of the part of the journey that is in Lithuania. It also started hitting that it’s now already a week since it all started, and almost a week since the F1 experience. I started getting nostalgic already, but could luckily lean into the realization that there’s still a lot of adventures yet to come, in 3 different countries too. But my heart clearly enjoyed the time in Lithuania, the time in that apartment, the time in Vilnius, the daytrip to Trakai, the adventures in and around Šiauliai. It was sad to see it come to an end.
Day 9
The bus for Riga was departing from 12pm. Therefore there was definitely still time in the morning to eat the rest of the food I bought a few days ago. And ofcourse pack and get ready for the check-out. I did my usual clothes folding in order to maximize space in my very limited bags. I gradually packed my stuff. While playing Sentimentai and Luktelk on the ad infested YouTube app of the smart TV.
It was Saturday. Silent Witch airs on Fridays. I was awake early enough to be able to comfortably eat breakfast and enjoy the latest episode of Silent Witch, once again on the same TV. Ofcourse I saved a unique “reaction” image from the episode as a way to mark the occasion.
By now I learned that Stotis was the Lithuanian word for station, and the city bus towards Stotis would be taking me directly to the bus station. My most commonly used line from the station in front of the apartment ended at the bus station, but this was the first time I would stay in the bus through the whole time. And it was the first time I scanned my card at the payment devices because my day ticket expired late last evening (after my returning bus), and buying a new day ticket didn’t make sense for the single ride I’ll need today.
It was also my first time through the Vilnius bus station. I didn’t take time looking around but I did notice a vending machine for contact lenses which was a first for me. I also don’t remember if it happened for the first time in Vilnius or in Riga, but I may have also seen that pizza vending machine that I remember seeing on the internet years ago. What I also saw was that there were still bus services to Minsk, and I was kinda surprised by it still being a thing.
I stood in front of the platform and waited for the Luxexpress that would be taking me towards Latvia.
