Lithuania

Kaunas

Places to Stay

The cheapest I've been able to find online (or in guidebooks) is private rooms though an agency called Litinterp ( http://www.litinterp.com/ ) for 20 €. I guess I can live with that for a night or 2, but still it seems a lot for eastern Europe.    In Kaunas I stayed in the Hotel Metropolis, because the rate was good for a room all to myself (about $20) and it was in the city centre. However, there was a nightclub next door, and loud people in the pedestrian mall until very late at night! I think you should try the guesthouse In Your Pocket lists, (Nemunas Tour) or go with Litinterp. It does seem that Kaunas prices are a little more expensive than one would expect from Lithuania! The hostel I mentioned in Klaipeda is only 11 or 12 euros a night.

Trip Report - Stagerat

In the Baltics I’ve been to Lithuania twice, and I’ve visited Tallinn in Estonia. Tallinn is a gorgeous city,

I will tell you what I enjoyed in Lithuania and why, and let you decide if it’s what you might enjoy, but this is what I think anyone is likely to enjoy: Grutas Parkas, Ciurlionis Museum, Hill of Crosses, Palanga Amber museum, Klaipeda sculpture park, Curonian Spit.

Lithuania is not a mountainous country. At best, it has rolling hills, and the forests that I saw were pretty young. What I love most about it is the huge amount of excellent sculpture that I feel like I found everywhere. And amber! (I like amber) To get to anything in Lithuania, even major tourist sights, be prepared with the name of it in Lithuanian, or be ready to show that page in your guide. Sometimes ticket sellers speak English, but the bus drivers or train conductors won’t. But, you know some Polish and Russian, and I bet that will help you!

Vilnius has a beautiful Old Town, castle ruins on a hill overlooking the city, a massive cathedral with ornate side chapels, a cute brick-gothic church admired by Napoleon, and several museums. I didn’t visit many, but liked the amber museum. The KGB museum is terribly sad. At the market, which I think is near the bus station (In Your Pocket guide led me to it) I really enjoyed watching the little old ladies, and viewing all the Soviet goods for sale in the kiosks (which you’ve seen, since you’ve been to Russia!) I do think that some of the Old Town’s allure is its occasional Orthodox church, with onion domes and Cyrillic writing.

Near Vilnius is Trakai Castle, a lovely brick (I think) castle build on a lake island. There were extensive interesting displays of decorative goods used by the well-to-do (but not the castle-dwellers, I think) and I found it an interesting visit. I spoke to people on my second trip who found their castle visit frustrating because it was extremely crowded with school groups and bus tours. Perhaps you should visit towards the end of the day? Near the castle is the Karaite museum, which was closed when I visited, but there are distinctive wooden houses built by this tiny ethnic group around the lake, and that was a very enjoyable afternoon/sunset walk.

Druskininkai is a spa town SW of Vilnius and SE of Kaunas. I visited it on my way from Vilnius to Kaunas. Not only can you get a good cheap massage there, you can rent a bike and ride through pine woods to Grutas Parkas, a fantastic collection of Soviet-era statuary and propaganda. There are several buildings with posters and other items, and good explanations in English of how hellish life could be under the Soviets. And then there’s the collection of exotic birds, (also in Grutas Parkas) in case you want something to take your mind off all that Soviet tragedy.

Druskininkai also offers the home of Ciurlionis, Lithuania’s most famous artist/composer. I didn’t visit it, because I didn’t give myself enough time in this town. Later I realized what a fantastic artist the man was, and would like to know what I missed by not visiting his house. Druskininkai overall is a pretty, quiet town, with a nice park near the water.

Rumsiskes is the open-air folk museum. The “easiest” way to visit (without a car) is to go by bus from Kaunas. It’s still not very easy, I’m afraid. Once you find the right bus, it lets you off about a half-mile from the park, and there are no signs! If you visit, buy an explanatory book with a park map, or at least a map! It’s quite large. I like folk museums, and I love walking around in pretty countryside, so I enjoyed this place. It’s a collection of farmhouses from different regions of Lithuania. Frankly, the differences between them can be pretty minute, but I found the details of their furnishings and décor to be interesting. They often had attractive gardens, and there was some livestock around. There are also the house-watchers, usually little old ladies, who sometimes have fruit or cookies to sell. A special part of the park is a sod house, built to commemorate the exile that many Lithuanians suffered. There’s a binder of information translated into other languages, offered by the house-watcher. There’s also one of the rail-cars used for deportations, hung with art created by students learning about the subject. Some of the art is really good. There’s also a town square section, which includes the workshop of an amazing wood sculptor, and a building where you can see weaving, basket-weaving, and amber-working happen, and buy their wares for really good prices. I bought reproductions (in amber) of prehistoric amber figures dredged from the Lagoon. I only saw those reproductions offered in one other gallery, for 3 times the price—so I bought something very special, and for an excellent price!

Kaunas had a public festival in the square when I visited, and I had a great time watching kids’ groups perform. I visited the cute ceramics museum and enjoyed walking around the old town. What I liked best about Kaunas was the Ciurlionis museum. Not only his works, which are dreamy, mostly pastel, and a bit mystical—like they could be illustrations for fantasy books—but one of the other artists in the museum was really impressive, too. Opposite the museum is a tiny sculpture park, and nearby is a funicular that I didn’t visit.

Siauliai has the Hill of Crosses just out of town, which is a crazy sight! Thousands of unique crosses on a weird little bump, accented by a couple of trees. It can be visited as a day-trip from Vilnius, Kaunas or Klaipeda (maybe Palanga too). When I visited, a person could ask the driver of any bus headed north to stop at the crossroads, and walk the mile to the hill. Unfortunately, buses headed south would NOT pick up people at the stop, so I learned how to hitchhike. I no longer see directions on getting there by bus when I read about the hill, so I don’t think this was a fluke (the lady at the bus station DID try to warn me…) you can take a taxi, rent a car yourself, or join up with a group of people at a hostel (my hostel in Klaipeda could fit 3 or 4 passengers, and charged maybe $35 for a day of driving people around) Or you can take the bus there, then ask for a ride back to town from the busy parking lot of the Hill. I spent hours wandering around, so I know I couldn’t do the taxi option. Siauliai itself had one nice big church, and offers some museums, but I was there on a Sunday, when the museums were closed.