ITINERARY NOTES: It’s just that we’ve forgotten the way Vilnius looks

I bought a voucher to Lithuania in the course of economic crisis and pig influenza. It’s when you are frightened to go to Spain, you can’t afford to go to Croatia and your pride does not allow you to go to Turkey. I was looking forward to swimming in a cold sea and pretending a European just in case: after all I was going to rebellious Baltics, where a former Wehrmacht soldier had been the ex-president for a couple of months only. The trip resulted into the fact that I am safe and sound, tanned and I do want to come back.

PLACES TO STAY

By the sea. I mean Palanga. The resort has been wide known from the Soviet times due to its balneological bonuses. Well, I must confess it’s far from being Ibiza: people mostly bring families here, the energetic night life presented in promo leaflets being merely reduced to light cafes in the main street Basanavičius, an amusement park, few clubs and sea photo sessions. These are mostly Russians and Lithuanians that rest here. People who are 25 and older all speak Russian, the rest of communication becomes possible due to either English or the language of gestures.

Provided your Schengen Visa is valuable you can go to Palanga on your own, I mean without a tour operator. On the 10th day of my holiday I became aware that a standard double, charged at Euro 42 by the tour operator can be booked at the price of Euro 40 if you arrange the accommodation on your own. Moreover right at the place you can negotiate to rent one of many beautiful villas with a «kambaria» (“for rent”) note on it for the same price at Euro 40. A 2* hotel presents itself a usual shabby, but clean sanatorium smelling of our country of some 20 years ago, they clean their and shift the towels on your first demand (I mean nobody intruding into the room with peremptory “I must clean here” at 7 in the morning). A 5* hotel corresponds to European standards with massages, SPA and all inclusive service.

It’s very clean in Palanga as well as in Lithuania in all. That means that you can walk barefoot in the streets. There are flowers in the balconies of one-story houses with tiled roofs. Everywhere. People remembering the events of the hard 90s half in jest tell stories about Lithuanians planting flowers on the barricades.

PLACES TO SWIM

My dear readers, beaches in Lithuania are divided into male and female ones. Lithuanian nudism is not an asexual philosophy, they merely follow the thing to get an even tan. “M” and “F” beaches are divided by the so cold “textile” beaches where you can see people in bathing costumes. The bottom is sloping, from the coast you can see people walking far in the water at knee-deep level. There’s very fine sand at the bottom, the way from the town to the sea going through a pine forest.

Right, the water is warm in July and August. When it’s windy, it can be chilly at the coast, I took a shawl. But once you are lucky with the weather I strongly advise you to lie in the sun instead of sightseeing. My Mom, who grew up in the South can not believe that I became tanned at the Baltic sea. She strongly believes that I secretly attended solarium.