Klaipeda, Lithuania

I am woefully behind.  My plan to try to do the blog while on trains and buses has not worked.  AT ALL!  Wifi on trains and buses is a great concept, for looking up your next hotel or what to do in the next city, but not for uploading photos.  Anyway, I am in a hotel with kick-ass wifi now so let's try to catch up a bit.

When last we spoke, I was still in Lithuania.  A country I very much liked in case I didn't mention that.

I left Siauliai by train the next morning.  

Not by this train but the passenger trains are not 
nearly as photogenic.

Train window photo.

A statue leading me to my next apartment

As soon as I got to my new place at around 4:30, I looked up 'free walking tours' as I do.  There was only one, at 5:15.  Google maps told me it was 30 minute walk to the meeting place.  I hit the mean streets of Klaipeda immediately.  Turns out they're not so mean. 

Just as I was getting the meeting place at 5:05, I got an email.  Walking tour cancelled.  I was the only one who signed up.  Boo!  But the leader was very nice, she sent me a bunch of links for places to visit and made me an itinerary based on my starting location.  I ignored all of them for this: The Old Town Cat of Klaipeda!  

It's an actual cat.  On google maps. 

So, off I went to find the cat.  Not hard to find once you get there.  I couldn't believe she was just... there!

Hey, are you a tourist?  And you found me!

I will come and meet you (see if you came prepared with treats)

So?  Treats?

Not even in your bag?  

I figured I couldn't hang with the cat all day, especially since she lost interest in me when she figured out I was just a treatless poser.  So, I looked at the next thing on the guide's list.  The castle.  I use the term 'castle' loosely.  It was a castle, once.  Now it is just a reconstructed tower, visible over the harbour.

But first, a stop to see the 'Black Ghost of Klaipeda'.  The guide said it was in the harbour so I assumed I was looking for a ship of some sort?  But no, it is a statue climbing out of the water and onto the dock.  Pretty cool tbh. 

Onto the castle.

I got there too late to pay to enter the museum but under the hill upon which sits the castle, I could wander around the archaeological dig a bit.  That was cool.

This is what's left up top. Just a bit of pathway.
It wasn't even high enough to get a decent view of the city.

no reason, I just like this sticker.

The next day, I had signed up for a tour of the Curonian Spit.  Also known as Nerija.  

The Lithuanian end of the spit is accessible by ferry only.  The other end of the spit is in the Russian territory of Kaliningrad which is this little bubble of coastal area, not attached to Russia, that Russia seems to have somehow held onto after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  I'll let you explore that history if you are interested.

It was an early start at a ferry terminal. Not the terminal for the ferry we took so I'm not sure why that was the meeting spot.  But whatever.  I walked there and it was fine.

There was six of us on the tour.  We took the ferry. We were in a metal box basically so no ferry photos.

First stop on the spit, Amber Bay.  History of the amber trade.  Whole scale harvesting of Amber is illegal now, at least here, but locals can still hand pick up whatever Amber they find.  

Amber harbour is used for the equinox festival now.  On the Spring equinox, local artisans build reed structures.  And then they burn them on the Autumn equinox.  Since autumn has not arrived yet, the structures were still there.

Next stop, the Hill of Witches.  This was created in the late 70s by a couple of wood workers who recruited everyone on the spit to create some statues based on nature and local lore.  It is pretty interesting.  I'm glad I had a guide for this.  He told us the myths and stories behind many of the statues.

The Guide

Our guide was pretty funny. He could not stop himself from mentioning how much he does not like tourists, even as he was driving a bunch of tourists around.  But he was so charming, it was just kind of funny.  But as much has he disliked tourists, he really hated cormorants.  They had set up a roost mid-spit and their poop was killing the trees.  And they were eating the fish!  Fishing, as you can imagine, it important here.  He begrudgingly stopped at the roost so we could see and learn to also hate the cormorants.

Boo!  Bad birds!

Apparently, the spit is teaming with wildlife, moose, boars, foxes.  Our guide is a hunter/fisher so we got to hear about the best spots.  But it was mid-day by then so we saw NO wildlife to speak of.  This poster is the only indication that there is some animals to be seen.

The Dead Dunes are a big draw on the spit.  They are 'dead' because they have stopped moving.  too much vegetation.  Oh, that reminds me.  The spit used to be just sand.  But the Germans who settled in Lithuania area hundreds of years ago (settled as in took over), decided to plant trees on the spit. It did not go so well.  But then the Soviets got serious about it and found the right kind of trees (which I do not remember) and basically, the spit became mainly forested, and fortified.  

The dunes became a nature reserve called Nagliu.  The whole spit is preserved by multiple layers of bureaucracy. UNESCO, Lithuania, local.  Our guide who grew up there and recently got married said he and his wife will have to leave the island when they have kids because they cannot afford to live there.  Houses cannot be built, and those that exist cannot be renovated. And even fixing them up can take up to 10 years just to get a permit for that.  So, the houses that do exist are out of reach for locals. But I digress.

The dunes

A lovely boardwalk to start

With lovely views

Arriving at the sea

My cute hat that reminds me of Lea ever time I wear it.

Once the boardwalk ends, it is up a hill on loose sand.  
I hate loose sand.

Then lunch at a smoked fish restaurant. We lucked into arriving as the fish was going into the smoker. I had smoked fish soup.  It was that or buy an entire smoked fish.

The harbour

We heard about these boat weather vanes a lot.  So, you get to see some.
Each little bit of decoration means something. 
Family, number and gender of kids, church, fishing rights (bay or sea or both), etc

Next activity (it was a full day!) was a boat ride to see a different set of dunes.

New dunes

This is Russia. We were close.

We got to witness a real life mini-episode of FBI International: Baltics.  There was a speeding yacht about to pass us going in the wrong direction as we were heading back into harbour.  All of a sudden, loud horns sounded and an even  speedier police boat pulled up behind the yacht.  They were getting too close too Russia.  

Our guide does not like tourists and cormorants, The boat captain does not like boarder patrol.  He kept saying they will shot their guns if anyone interrupts their UNO game.  They shoot over people's heads, but that is the fastest way for them to get back to UNO before they forget whose turn it is.  

This is how close we were to Russia.
Do not cross, and do NOT interrupt UNO.

Those little tiny sail boats are sailing school for the 
littlest kids.  So cute.  

The neutral zone before the Russian border

Then a couple of boring stops.  A sundial and the house of a famous author no one had heard of, Tomo Mann, who built a summer house on the spit but only spent three summers there before the war broke out.  It was a nice house, in a nice location but...

Sundial

This is the view from the sundial.  I can't remember the name
exactly but it is called something like to valley of the dead.
The Germans or Russians (?) killed 1000s of French 
soldiers here but the bodies have never been found. Pretty but yikes.

Mann's house.

To the beach! 

I found a piece of Amber!!  It was tiny but still.  The guide
was impressed.  I also may have picked up a bunch
of little yellow rocks which I knew were not amber but I liked.
So, now I am also carrying around rocks.  Ya know, the usual.

And that was the day.  We took the ferry back and our guide dropped us off wherever we wanted so I took advantage of a free ride to get back to my apartment.  Early day the next day, off to Riga, Latvia.