Bazarro World

Day 205
By breakfast time I was pretty much all packed up. There were loads of buses to Vilnius so I wasn't on a time schedule. I decided to pull myself away from Animal Planet and actually get some blogging done while I had free internet. I am really mad at myself for getting so far behind with the blog. This needs to stop, not the blog, being behind.

By the grace of the travel gods I made it to the bus station on my first try and only had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus. I watched Walk the Line to entertain myself on the just over an hour trip. I found my hostel with no problems and changed my booking from 3 nights to 2. My next destination was way further away than I had thought.

As it was rather late in the day and the guy at the front desk had said he would take out whoever wanted to go I decided to spend the evening deciding on a plan for the next night, making dinner and blogging. I also spent some time chatting with the other people in the hostel.

There was a group of Belorussian guys in the room off of the common room. I could hear them yelling and screaming at one another. At one point they were so loud that the hostel called the cops on them. After they arrived there was more silence. I was in and out of the common room so I don't know if the cops were still around when this happened. I was writing when I heard a noise behind me. One of the guys was out of the room, he had a huge bump on his head and there was blood everywhere. I had never seen so much blood. Apparently, the night before, he had tried to feel up another woman in the bar. I didn't want to be alone with him but to leave I had to walk by him. He didn't even notice me. There was just so much blood it was unbelievable. It wasn't long before an ambulance came and took him away.

The guy at the hostel was really ready for a drink when his shift ended. He took me and a Swedish couple in their late 50's to a jazz club. The music was live and it was pretty good. The Swedes were pretty drunk though and the man was a bit offensive. I was pretty happy when they decided they were took drunk and left. The hostel guy and I moved tables to join some of his friends. They were quite friendly, but we didn't stay long. Hostel guy was telling me that I should stay at his sisters the following night and I was trying to figure out his motives. Hostel guy was nice enough to walk me back before heading home himself.

This had been an extremely odd evening and I fell into bed exhausted.

Playing Hooky

Day 204
Breakfast was at 9 and I had no problems getting myself ready by then. I love a free breakfast, I ate as much as I could fit inside of myself.

My plan for the day was to visit the Ninth Fort. This is where the Nazi's slaughtered about 50,000 people and a former KGB prison. There is meant to be a memorial there and a museum.

Now, when I get on a bus and I don't know when to get off I tend to just ask the people around me. This time when I asked I was completely ignored. People would just turn their heads. I never knew that I was so threatening. Eventually the bus stopped and everyone got off. I was at the end of the line. After about a 15 minute walk I found the next bus station and waited for the bus. Again I asked for help and no one replied. It was also pouring rain at this point and I decided to just give up.

I got off the bus and tried to figure out how to get to the mall. I figured I'd go and see a movie. Once again I went past it and no one helped. On the way back I passed it as well. I was getting so frustrated. I have never had so many problems getting places. I have never had so many people simply ignore me. I usually get poor-little-foreign-girl-all-alone looks, not disgust. In the region guide that I picked up at the tourist office the mayor wrote that “the citizens of Kaunas are very friendly and tolerant towards the foreign-borns.” I have clearly ended up in a different city.

When I had passed the mall again I got off the bus. I was going to just try it again, but I was on a one way street and needed to look for another bus stop. Somehow I ended up on the main shopping street. There was a Hesburger here and I decided to go. At least I could get some food that I liked! I had issues ordering and somehow ended up with two burgers. They guy behind me had problems ordering as well. His name was Gary and he was from Australia.

Gary and I ate lunch together and then decided to hide from the rain by playing pool and drinking a few beers. I was terrible, but it was nice to chat with someone and get my frustrations out. The gods of travel (or the travel angels as Elaine had put it in Paris) really do come through when you need them the most.

When the rain had stopped we decided to check out the old town that I had visited the day before. In the region guide it says that you will know that you are in the old town from the distinctive 16^th century phone booths. Wow, Lithuania sure was advanced.

After some more chatting and wandering we parted ways. I headed back to my hotel thinking I would spend the evening blogging. Instead Heartbreakers and the 40 Year Old Virgin was on tv. I couldn't pass it up and fell asleep before I could get any work done.

A Fresh Start

Day 203
I got up at 6, I wanted the heck out of this town. By 10 am I was in Kaunas. I figured that Lithuania and I just got off on the wrong foot, it was time for a fresh start and a new city.

Lithuania, however, didn't feel this way. I knew what bus to take to get to my hotel but not when to get off. Usually I just ask people and they tell me when to get off. This time my questions were ignored and it got to the point that I knew I had passed it.

I got on the next bus in the right direction. Luckily there was a woman who was friendly and she told me when to get off. I'm actually staying in a hotel here, there aren't any hostels in Kaunas. I was pretty excited to find out that I had a tv with loads of channels in English. After resting for a bit I headed to the city center.

The first thing I found was the St. Michael the Archangel church. From a distance it looked amazing, up close though, I could see that it really needed a lot of work.

Wandering a bit more I found a very strange sculpture garden and the Devil Museum. Pictures were not allowed but I managed to sneak a few. There were over 2,000 devil images here. The devil is prevalent in Lithuanian folklore and various stories were scattered among the horned figures. My favorite story was of the man who was asked by the devil to do a favor. The man said yes as long as the devil would fill his had with money. The man then took the hat, put a hole in it and put it on top of his chimney. Soon his house was full of money and the hat was still not full. Tobacco is thought to be an invention of the devil and calling alcohol fire water is a devil reference. In folklore witches are the devils wife. The most interesting object showed Stalin and Hitler as devils.

After strolling down the main street and grabbing a cup of tea I headed to the Museum of Pharmacy and Medical History. I was a bit surprised to get a guided tour. The guy didn't speak much English, but he was nice. While explaining how a water distiller worked he told me that the first president of Lithuania was from Leipzig. I really didn't understand and tried to get him to explain, but my questions just confused him. I let it pass. He then told me that the president of Lithuania was from Luxembourg. This is when I realized that he wasn't saying president, but rather present.

The museum was small and filled with creepy skulls and outdated medical supplies. The last room was a recreated pharmacy from about 1900. My guide opened up the cash register and showed me Stalin era Soviet money as well as Nazi money. I don't really know what that was doing in a pharmacy museum, but it did make sense that it was being kept in the cash register.

When I was done I took a stroll around Santakos park and checked out the remains of a castle. It was starting to get dark at this point and I decided to head back to the hotel. On the way I stopped at the grocery store for dinner. There was a stand that I thought made smoothies and I went to get one. The woman told me that she made juice. I couldn't read anything so I just asked for her favorite. I ended up with carrot juice.

Back at the hotel I watched Field of Dreams and Globetrekker before falling asleep around midnight.