A recce for campsites found us finding the only one in Kaunas. How does one begin to describe it. A former 1970’s soviet parking lot, filled with empty mobile homes, a stretched humvee, and 3 lonely campers. It didn’t look like anyone had braved the above ground pool in a long time. Still it was clean and for one night so we headed east towards Vilnius and stayed in Trakai. The next morning we explored the castle ruins of Trakai reached by foot bridge and briefly explore Vilnius. What we hadn’t realised was the reason the streets to a big city were so quiet was its was national public holiday and nothing was open. We wandered around but didn’t quite believe we got the normal ‘feel’ for the place.
A return to Kaunas, tent up, showered and dinner cooked still plenty of time to be there early to collect Nicole and give her a big hug at the arrivals gate. After an unexpected phone call from Nicole, announcing she had arrived on our clocks an hour early we drove swiftfully to the nearest airport. On route we discovered that for the first time since France there had been a change of clocks, neither of us had picked it up. So she wasn’t early at all we were officially an hour late and as it turned out at the wrong airport. A quick look through the lonely planets and we realised our mistake, big apologies on the phone to Nicole and 45min later after waiting for us, our 2 person van trip became 3.
Latvian and Lithuanian adventures.
Our first border crossing from Lithuanian to Latvia all together and we get 1km after the non existent border control to be pulled over by the traffic police. Wanting to check all our documents and the vans documents the police officer was great, making his “funny jokes” that what a lucky man Lee was having 2 girlfriends, its times like those you just smile and nod, a “what ever you say officer” moment. All cleared we continued on our way.
A 3 ½ hour drive saw us pull into Riga, Latvia’s capital city and wander the cobbled streets after setting up at the campsite. We found the markets which are now housed
In old WWII zeppelin hangers. Some strange blackened meats and the normal fruit and veg and bits and bobs were in offer. However, we still cannot work out what to do with a large pigs head. We headed to the 26th floor skybar for a quick cocktail on the way home before heading back to campsite. It had been a while since Nicole had last camped but this site had good showers and other facilities. Worst was likely still to come. Lee finally decided to jump into a women’s salon to get a haircut for the first time since leaving England, a little rose oil spray later and he looked and smelt all fresh. The night was fantastic in terms of food, we all enjoyed our first BBQ, Auntie Deb’s BBQ chicken skewers (Latvian Style) and sausages.
We headed to Sigulda the following day and had a candlelight self guided tour of Cesis castle and had a go at some old school archery. The castle seems to be untouched by litigation claims as you are still allowed to climb the completely blacked out tower staircase and down a long ladder to the dungeon.
We headed back south on Sunday before taking a right and heading round to the Baltic coast. A slight let down due to the coast road being behind a 30m section of pines most of the way. Still we stopped and had a walk over to see the Baltic coast, Lee and Lisa’s first time seeing the ocean since France. All a bit tired we found a really nice campsite on the Baltic side on a marina, had a few hours to chill out, watch the sunset over the Baltic and have chocolate bananas on the fire yum yum.
The following day it was down to the ????Corunium???? spit and the sand dune national park. We took the ferry over from Klaipedia and the headed towards the southern most point of the Latvian part of the spit to a town called Nida. An ice cream stop and some amber shopping saw us heading back along the spit as the southern half is in Russian territory and without visa’s entry is not permitting to the motherland. After a long day in the sun we headed to a campsite nearby which although was rated as a 0 star resort ended up being the nicest campsite we have stayed in so far on the entire trip. We tried to get a decent nights sleep before the full days driving ahead of us back down to Warsaw the following day.
A long and relatively uneventful trip down to Warsaw apart from the worst driving antics yet and a few fuel and snack stops to use up the last of the Lithuanian cash. Today sees us back in Warsaw after a nice evening meal out courtesy of Nicole and a much longer trip back to the van after missing the tram stop, then trying to get a night bus back and eventually having to get a taxi at half past midnight. Another lesson learnt. Always write down the address of your campsite, at least a few nearby tram stops and do not expect a bus stop and a tram stop with exactly the same name to be closer than 4km when in Warsaw!
A guest feature: Nicoles section…..
This is such an amazing experience. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be going to Latvia or Lithuania, let alone doing it in a van- road trip style. I decided before I left Australia that I would approach this experience of campgrounds and sleeping in a van with an open mind. At first I found it a struggle getting back to basics but am now thourghly enjoying being able to go to places that tourists don’t normally go. It’s quite an experience grocery shopping and not being able to read what’s on any of the packets, and we can’t ask anyone because it seems not too many people know much English here. We have had so many laughs and what the? moments and have been eaten alive by mosquitoes but Lisa and Lee have been great hosts and have welcomed me into their Euro trip with open arms. This is surely an experience I will never forget.
P.S The van is amazing.
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