On 13 April, thirteen of us (good thing we’re not superstitious!) flew to Kaunas not only for a few days break but also to celebrate significant birthdays of two of our group. Kaunas is the second city of Lithuania and both before and after our trip I was asked ‘where’s that?’ by everyone from work colleagues to staff at the bureau de change. A bit of geography… Lithuania borders Poland, Latvia, Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and was the first Soviet republic to declare independence in 1990 and is now part of the European Union. It’s not yet a big destination on the tourist map and the tourist board even sold T-shirts stating ‘I’ve been to Lithuania… Hmm, where’s that?’
It has to be said that Kaunas is nothing like England’s second city of Birmingham. The old town has cobbled streets, a castle (actually only a turret and bridge currently under reconstruction), town hall, shops and restaurants, although not always obvious due to lack of signage and narrow doorways. The new town has a wide pedestrianised shopping street, which seemed to only include pharmacies and designer clothing shops, most of which closed early on Saturday afternoon. There was also the Akropolis shopping mall with a supermarket, shops, restaurants and cinema. Kaunas has dozens of museums but we didn’t visit many as, according to guide books, the exhibits were only labelled in Lithuanian so wouldn’t mean much to us. A few of us did visit the Medicine & Pharmacy Museum that had one plaque in each room with an English translation. It seems tradition that a curator follows you round any museum turning on and off lights as you enter and leave each room! There was also a funicular close to our hotel that, for 0.5 litas (only a few pence), takes you to the Church of the Resurrection where you can either climb the tower or take the elevator for views over the city.
One day we caught the train to the capital Vilnius. A reasonably priced pleasant 70 minute journey on a clean and modern double-decker train more reminiscent of Switzerland than Soviet Europe. There we split into two groups to see different attractions. Some of us headed out to the suburbs by public bus to visit the TV Tower and enjoy views over the city, as well as Belarus in the distance, whilst having lunch in the revolving restaurant. The restaurant name translates as ‘Milky Way’ symbolising the fact that the structure is the highest in the country. The tower hit the news headlines back in January 1991 when civilians died defending it against the Soviet military. After lunch we headed back into the city centre and took the short funicular ride up to the castle, again just a turret with a short video film and viewpoint, before visiting the poignant KGB Museum. It was hard to imagine that some of the horrors depicted in the exhibition rooms and execution chamber happened within our lifetime. Well worth the 6 litas (approx. £1.70) admission price. After a saunter around the old town we dined at Cili Pizza; a national restaurant chain serving 50cm pizzas that we just had to order for the novelty factor!
Another day we caught the public bus number 52 to the spa town of Birstonas. This is where we discovered the disadvantage to travelling in a large group. There were 13 of us and the buses were 17 seater mini-buses. More than four people were ahead of us in the queue meaning we had to wait half an hour for the next bus and push one of us to the front to buy all our tickets thus ensuring we all got a seat! Birstonas is a quiet town on the banks of a river and seemed entirely full of sanatoriums and elegant housing, the latter presumably occupied by doctors who worked at the former. The sanatoriums appeared to offer treatments for every conceivable disease including cancer, liver, kidney and respiratory disorders. We visited the Versme sanatorium which offered an hour session in their mineral water pool and spa for 10 litas (approx. £2.85). Perfect timing as we had the place to ourselves and as we got out it filled with limping or one-legged residents arriving for their therapy slot.
On our last day we ventured to the outskirts of Kaunas by bus to visit the Ninth Fort. Once again the attendants switched lights on as we entered rooms and off as we left and the temperature was much colder inside than outside. One building housed a large exhibition, in excellent English, detailing the occupation of Kaunas whilst the other building was a former prison. A sign on a wall showed where prisoners were shot and burned by Nazis in 1943-1944. Like the KGB Museum, it was a thought provoking tourist attraction.
From the Ninth Fort we headed to the nearby Mega shopping mall for a quick lunch and to watch the diver feeding the sharks and fish in the large floor-to-ceiling aquarium in the centre of the mall. Lunch was at Hesburger, the Baltic equivalent of McDonalds. Whilst trying to figure out the menu where the Lithuanian words meant nothing to us, a young local started chatting and we invited him to join us to eat. He got chance to practise his English and we got to ask him questions about his country. In two months’ time he will finish his course and begin a job teaching English and German. The starting salary is 300 euros per month rising to 500 euros with experience. Not hard to see why our local Arc car wash back in the UK is attended by Lithuanians as they probably earn more than that for a menial job. Thanks to Facebook we are keeping in touch with this local and will be able to follow his career progress.
Finally, a word about the food. Like most eastern European countries there are lots of meat, potatoes and dumplings. Vegetarians are advised to research restaurants in advance and scrutinise the limited vegetarian options as ‘pasta with seafood’ isn’t really vegetarian! We can recommend Cili Kaimas, a national chain serving Lithuanian dishes at very reasonable prices, and also Avilys, a micro-brewery restaurant in Kaunas old town where the honey beer went down very well with our group.
First published in VISA 98 (Aug 2011)
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