Laughing thru Lithuania…

Leaving Riga on the A7, heading southeast for Vilnius...

With only a 300 km ride ahead of me today, I decided to take it easy. Leaving the Centra Hotel at 10.00am, and heading out of town and onto the highway leading to Lithuania… In the past, very little of Latvia was industrialized, and the majority of the population were kept busy in the agricultural sector, tilling the soil to produce barley, oats, potatoes and flax…

They have also been traditionally involved in the forestry and fishing industries in the Baltic Region… Much of this has changed, and now almost 70% of Latvians are to be found in the towns and cities of the country… However, with a population of less than 3 million people, you can imagine that the cities and towns are small, so within minutes of leaving Riga, I was out in the countryside…

In Latvia, bus-stops are a spartan affair... You sit, you wait, and you freeze your tits off...!! Or, if you're already freezing after your walk to the bus stop, then you sit, freeze your tits off and then wait for a passing ambulance...!!

The weather was perfect for riding… The sun shone for most of the way and there was only a light breeze blowing in from the Baltic, which faded away the further inland we rode…

After riding on average ten hours a day through Scandinavia the previous week, these shorter stints felt like a trip down to the corner café…!! There was absolutely no pressure and this had me in a good mood from the outset… There was also no need for bulky rain gear, which restricts the smaller movements you make on the bike while you are riding…

The countryside was much the same as that of Latvia, except there were even more farms lining the road here in Lithuania… Tilled and planted fields stretched for miles, with the occasional patch of indigenous bush breaking the monotony…

Vast improvements have been made in the agricultural sector, since independence from the Soviets...

Farming is a seven day a week affair, and this Saturday morning was no different to any other for the farmers and their families… I came across many women picking potatoes by hand in smaller fields alongside the road, and close to where I presumed they lived… The potatoes were being put into small cotton bags and then lugged to the edge of the field, were a cart was being stacked high with them…

As I slowed down to watch them, I wondered then, as I do now, if the world wouldn’t be a far better place, if more women spent their spare time picking potatoes, and less time on other pursuits… (And if that doesn’t get me a comment or three, then NOTHING will…!!)

Just before crossing the Latvian and Lithuanian border, I stopped to have a cup of coffee at a little roadside diner… There I met a couple from Belarus who were on their way to visit friends in Estonia… We got talking about officialdom and the difficulty in getting visas for Russia, Ukraine and Belarus…

“It took us almost six weeks to get our visa to leave our country for this visit…” he told me. “You have to wait two weeks just to get authorization for an application form…!!”

I stopped just short of the Lithuanian border for a a cup of coffee...

King Fu Chef.... Coming soon, to a theatre near you...!!

I left them after finishing my coffee, and rode the short distance to where the border was. The old border post with its extensive layout of buildings and parking areas, lay abandoned on the side of the highway… Broken windows and cracked walls, and weeds growing up among the paving stones, gave the place a desolate look…

The old Latvia / Lithuania border post stands empty and abandoned... Surely this could be converted into a school or a clinic...!!

Crossing in Lithuania, the 40th country on the GBWT...

This tiny bank was where I managed to change my Lats into Listas...

A few trucks were lined up for the inspection of their paperwork, but just as I was when I crossed into Latvia from Estonia, I was waved through by an official who didn’t even bother to get up from the chair he was sitting on..

I knew I would have to refuel before I got to Vilnius, and when I came to the first big service station complex after crossing the border, I stopped to enquire whether or not Lats or Euro would be accepted here in payment for fuel… The manager in the tiny kiosk said that only Litas were accepted here in Lithuania and directed me to another small kiosk a few metres away, and this proved to be a fully functioning bank… The Lats I had on me were quickly changed into Litas, and I rode on into the countryside…

Lithuanians seem to enjoy their wood carving… At many of the truck and picnic stops along the road, I came across huge carvings depicting scenes from the Bible, as well as many others of everyday scenes in the lives of the country’s people… Entrances to farms were often marked with these carvings, depicting the family’s names or just an abstract form of art…

Massive wooden carvings such as this one can be seen at many of the stops along the road...

Here's another of a woman looking none too happy with her current state of affairs...

"Go south Gypsy Biker...!! All the way to Turkey, where thou shall surely find the sun...!!"

I can't be certain, but I think that this area's history might be closely interwoven with that of the horse...

Vilnius was only a two hours away, but I was taking my time, enjoying the ride too much to rush it...

By now you will have noticed that I tend to while away my time in the saddle by taking snaps of road signs I find entertaining, and making up alternative meanings for them as I go along…

On many occasions I have found myself doubling back to take a photo of a roadsign which I found particulary funny…

I always look forward to comparing the road signs of countries that I have ridden through, to the ones I see in whichever new country I travel in…Colours change from white backgrounds, to yellow and blue, and sometimes green…

The manner in which people are depicted at pedestrian crossing varies enormously, and some of the designs are far more details than other…

Often, roadsigns gave me a small insight into the character of the people who I now found myself amongst… In some countries they are more than a little economical with their roadsigns, while in places like Scandinavia, I felt there were far too many signs in some places…

Sitting under a falling tree can't be a good idea...!!

For over 50 kms, heavy trucks had damaged the road surface... At least here you received ample warning... In Kenya there were no such road signs...

A lot of "nai-ing" seems to go on in Lithuania...!!

Yeah, I must agree... Pedestrians can be a pestilence...!!

The notorius Lithuanian Leaping Deer... I kept my head down as we rode through this area...!!

If I was going to get any, then this just HAD to be the place...!!

I turned left and went to see for myself... There were a few, but I suggest a name change to prevent lonely travelers from becoming unneccesarily excited...!!

Not to be outdone by the Finns, Lithuania weighs in with a few tongue-twisters of it's own...!!

With the ride sliding by without incident, I had plenty of opportunity to laugh out loud at some of the ones I saw… My twisted sense of humour was working overtime here in Lithuania…

Each district welcomes visitors with colourful markers such as this one...

People crossing with gay abandon...

I stopped for fuel and another cup of coffee at the town of Ukmerge, where a large group of Russians gathered around the bike, pointing out the flags and all the extras on the bike… None of them asked any questions of me or indicated that they wanted to strike up a conversation, so I just left them to it, leaning against the building a short distance away, all the while keeping a beady eye out for those who might have had “long fingers”…

I then noticed with a start that the clouds had closed above me and were far lower than when I had stopped half an hour ago… The temperature dropped just as suddenly, and I knew that rain was not too far off…

A big shiny welcome to Vilnius...!!

Shaking the lead out, I rode the last 64 km to Vilnius in just 25 minutes, caning the Big Fella in an attempt to avoid having to put on rain gear… The temperature dropped with every kilometre we covered, and even heavier cloud now hung darkly above us…

For a change, I made it into Vilnius without getting wet… I could not find the hotel that was first on my list as either the sign had been taken down or the hotel itself had closed… The area I was in seemed very run down, with crumbling buildings and overgrown open areas… I didn’t like the look of this at all, and rode closer to some taller buildings that I could see not too far away…

Graffiti appears on many buildings... The author of this one puts his message forward in no uncertain terms...!!

Wilma of the Europa City Hotel, smiling and laughing throughout the ordeal of checking me in...

There, in what was more an area filled with office blocks and small enterprises, I found the Europa City Hotel, a medium sized modern establishment, catering for businessman more than it did for tourists I presumed…

Wilma the young, blonde receptionist was very helpful and had a great sense of humour, giving me as many wise cracking answers as those I gave her…

We agreed on a reasonable rate, which included use of their internet services, and just a short while after unloading the bike and getting the cover onto it, the rain came down…

I had timed my arrival perfectly, even though it meant riding way above the speed limit on the run into the city…

I got the cover on the Big Fella just in time...

Today had been a fun ride, and I felt as fresh as I did when I had woken earlier this morning… I discovered that I was only a short walk away from the city’s own “old town”, which was not as extensive as that of Tallinn and Riga, and planned to visit the area the next day…

But for now, with the rain teeming down in Vilnius, a warm room indoors was the best place to be…

But it's not all fun and games you know...!! There's laundry to be done as well...!!

GBWT 2010