8/2/06 - Klaipeda, Lithuania

Brighton - London - Abaco (Bahamas) - Nassau - London (UK) - Riga (Latvia) - Sigulda* - Jurmala* - Kuldiga - Siauliai (Lithuania) - Kaunas - Druskininkai - Vilnius - Trakai* - Juodkrante - Klaipeda
* - day trip

Highlights, Observations, Rants, etc.

• Champagne Backpacking in the Bahamas: Having survived 2 previous sailing trips in the British Virgin Islands, I couldn't resist the opportunity for a vacation from my extended vacation in the form of a week-long bachelor party for my friend David Barclay. So a while ago, I booked flights to and from London to the Bahamas (luckily using miles). We spent 5 nights on a 42' catamaran, but didn't actually end up sailing that much, as the combination of lack of wind, the boat's GPS and auto-pilot systems, and being hungover took a lot of the work out of it. After that it was 2 more nights in Atlantis, which was a blast but also really overpriced. I don't usually complain about how expensive something is, but even after a month in the UK, $7 for a 1 liter bottle of water seemed just a tad exorbitant. It was really good to spend some time with the boys for a bit, and strange to hear work- and finance-related banter again. And now, when people in hostels - generally a pretty budget crowd - ask me where I've been so far, it's funny to see the bemused/disgusted look on their face when I respond with "A month in Ireland, then a month in Scotland and England, and then I actually spent a week in the Bahamas..." But I also realized how much of a backpacker I've become, when I finally arrived at the marina after 16 odd hours of traveling from London and hopped in the shower without thinking twice. The other guys had taken one look at the bathroom and decided they didn't need a shower that desperately, and gave me a bit of a sideways glance when I came back with my towel draped over my shoulder,crowing about how much better I felt. Admittedly it was a bit grim, but compared to some of the hostels I've stayed in, it might as well have been the Ritz-Carlton. Ironically, the weather in London was actually better both when I left and when I came back, but still definitely well worth it.
  

• The Baltics (at least 2 out of 3): The original plan was to work my way across Scandanavia and down through the Baltic States en route to Germany, but after 2 months in Ireland and the UK, somewhere a little easier on the wallet seemed in order. So I gave Scandanavia a pass (albeit reluctantly) and booked a flight directly to Riga with the intention of spending a few weeks in Latvia and Lithuania. I wasn't really sure what to expect; after all, these are former Soviet republics, but they've also recently joined the EU and have wholeheartedly embraced democracy and capitalism. I've actually been really impressed. The general feel is a sort of cross between Scandanavian and Eastern European (although tilting toward the Eastern European end as you move south from Latvia into Lithuania), and the cities are both beautiful and very cosmopolitan. The landscape (flat expanses of fields intermixed with forests mostly of evergreen and birch) is relatively uninspiring, but has a certain charm in its own right and is ideal for cycling.
  Plus it's refreshingly cheap, despite the continued weakness of the dollar versus the Euro and British Pound. You can get a filling, multiple-course meal for the equivalent of $10, and a half liter of beer usually sets you back just under $2. I cut my budget back from $100 a day to $75, and still haven't really been able to spend that much. Also, outside of Riga and Vilnius (the major destinations for international visitors, as the most common route through the Baltics is just Tallinn-Riga-Vilnius) there's still a pretty ad-hoc, wild-west type approach to tourism. In Kuldiga, Latvia I climbed up to the top of a rickety church spire on a ladder for LVL .30 ($.50) and crawled around a dismantled and crumbling former Soviet missile base (which still smelled strongly enough of ammonia/diesel/nuclear waste to give me the beginnings of a wicked headache) outside of Klaipeda for LTL 4 ($1.50), neither of which I could have done in safety-conscious, litigation-happy America or Western Europe.
  Of course, there are also less pleasant reminders of nearly a half-century of Soviet (mis)rule, present most obviously in much of the blocky architecture outside the centers of cities and towns, in the crumbling facades of many still-unrenovated pre-war buildings, and in the largely agrarian smaller towns and countryside, which have been relatively unaffected by post-independence economic growth. But if you look closely, the legacy of communism can also still be seen in some of the faces of the people who lived with it. It's tough to really put a finger on, but there's something (or maybe more accurately something missing) in the eyes of many people over 30 or 35, i.e. those whose lives were formatively shaped under the Soviets. There's a sort of dullness there, maybe a lack of self somehow, that simply isn't present in the visages of younger generations.
  But generally, there's a pervasive feeling of optimism here, and rightly so. It's tough to come away from Latvia and Lithuania with a negative feeling about the EU, which despite its many shortcomings has been one of the driving and enabling factors in the transformation of Latvia and Lithuania since the early 90's. In 10 years time, when economic growth and the full benefits of accession to the EU and have really kicked in and reached a wider swath of the population, this will be a completely different region.
  For me, the only downside has been the language barrier, which, compounded by traveling alone, has made it relatively difficult to meet the locals. But I'm definitely glad I came, and despite - or maybe partially because of - the fact that the Baltics seem to be under the radar for most Americans (probably because they're too far east to be included on the standard London-Paris-Florence-Rome-Barcelona circuit) I would highly recommend a trip here.
  

• Turning Back the Clock: As much as I've raved about the Baltics, I do have one serious complaint: if you want to relive the 1990's musically (and not in a good way), come to Lithuania. I can't begin to list the number of cheesy ballads I've heard here for the first time in at least 6-7 years; we're talking Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, and Meatloaf (yes, Meatloaf). The absolute clincher was going to one of the poshest clubs in Vilnius. Admittedly, the flyer advertised "pop music", which should have been a pretty strong hint in its own right, but right after we walked in, the DJ played YMCA, followed in short order by such classics (using the term very loosely) as Mambo #5, I Will Survive, and Salt N' Peppa's Shoop. The locals were eating it up, and then last night, as if to provide final confirmation of this surreal musical taste, after an hour or so of mainstream techno-pop at a bar/club in Klaipeda, the exact same befuddled look must have come over my face when "Please Forgive Me" by Brian Adams started blaring through the speakers. The dance floor (admittedly not that crowded to begin with) cleared, with the exception of a few mid-20's couples who stayed to slow dance in that awkward, slowly turning, middle-school sort of way. Talk about a serious flashback back to 7th grade, especially after noticing the Lithuanian guy dancing nearest to where I was sitting was doing the whole how-low-on-this-girl's-ass-do-I-put-my-hands-and-still-get-away-with-it thing. All I could do was look at the English guy sitting next to me, and laugh hysterically.
  

Random Tidbits

• While boozing in Riga with some Aussies, came across a new nickname for those of us from the good old US of A that I'd never heard from before. Based on rhyming slang (if you're not at all familiar, watch Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, incidentally a great movie, for an introduction), apparently Down Under we're known as Seppos. Seppos??? Seppo is a shortening of Septic Tank, which in turn rhymes with Yank. I was assured it's not derogatory, but not completely sure I buy it...
• Phrase book complaints - so I picked up a Baltic phrase book before leaving London, in order to ensure I'd be able to at least try to make myself understood in Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian in the event I found myself somewhere where no one spoke English or German. This actually hasn't happened, but it has proved to be a nice comfort blanket, and at least I get a warm fuzzy feeling by butchering the pronunciation of 'hello', 'thank you', 'check please', 'I'd like a ticket to...', etc. before repeating myself in English and being better understood that way anyway. But in the 90-odd pages devoted to each language, which cover everything from basic grammar to asking for directions to buying food to going to the doctor, absolutely nowhere does it tell the reader how to say 'another beer, please'. Space for this vital phrase was apparently taken up by 'I'm mute' (I kid you not - according to my trusty book, in Lithuanian it's pronounced ahsh na-bi-lees), which has to be the most useless entry that can possibly exist in a phrase book.
• I spent an hour or so earlier today (mostly procrastinating from writing this blog entry) poring through some old emails from college. The combination of putting off doing real work and being accustomed to writing on a regular basis fueled some pretty creative and random emails, and had me positively roaring in the middle of this tiny hostel in Klaipeda. Too much good stuff to reference here, but I'll include two of my favorite postscripts of all time: "PS - It's a very humbling feeling when you ask a child who just punched someone, 'What the hell are you doing?' and they reply to you 'aaaahhhhhh you said the "H" word.' And you have nothing to say but 'Well, when you fight it makes me angry and I say words like that.' None of us ever thought we would say shit like that when we were young, but I assure you, it just comes naturally."(Mike Bowen) and "P.S. Dave Dunn says it's a nice day outside and everyone needs to chill the fuck out" (Ryan Little)

Photos

Next Stops

• Germany (incl. Stralsund, Rostock, Berlin, & Augsburg), then south - most likely through central Austria and Slovenia to Italy