Saturday, July 5, 2008

Day 227 - Klaipeda, Lithuania

After a night spent at Liva Hotel, we woke up at about 7am. We packed our things, and headed to the bus station as quick as we could. We had to skip breakfast. We were to get on the next bus to Klaipeda, in Lithuania. This would be the start to our trip.

We boarded our ECOLINES bus and bought our tickets on board. It was a pleasant 2-hour trip across Latvia and Lithuania. It was also the first time I ever crossed a country's border by land.

We first came to a stop at Palanga, where we picked up some food. Then it was onwards to Klaipeda. Once we arrived, we decided to purchase tickets back to Liepaja for tonight. The idea was to spend the day here, and return. Little did we know how long we would be out here for, though.

We strolled through the city centre, taking plenty of pictures. Agnes took most of them.




















We wanted to hire bikes, but it would have costed 600 Litas for the deposit. I didn't want to pull out any money, so I thought we'd just walk around. We found ourselves a place to eat for lunch. The food wasn't fantastic, and the service was pretty slow. From what we have experienced so far, this is a pretty slow working country.

After lunch, we decided to head over to the Curonian Spit, which was a short ferry trip across the lagoon. If we were to continue down to the sand dunes at Nida, which is the main tourist attraction of the Curonian Spit, we wouldn't make it back in time for the bus back to Liepaja. We decided that we would continue on, and not take the bus back. The tickets weren't much anyway.







So from Smiltyne, the top end of the spit, we took a bus down to Nida and enjoyed the trip. The Parnidis sand dune was situated pretty close to the Russian border of the Kaliningrad region. It's a beautiful part of the world, and we took the time to explore what we could.























After our exploration, we chilled by the bus stop to have some ice cream. Then we headed back to Klaipeda. There were some other fellow Australians on board the bus, which reminded me of home. We proceeded to the ferry crossing leaving Smiltyne, and had another look around once we got back, observing the town from the viewpoint up at Klaipeda Hotel.










Later, we had some dinner from a nice restaurant, similar to that of Cili Pica. Then we had to find ourselves a place to sleep, which got a little bit difficult. We were having trouble finding an available and well priced spot, and we were stressing out about it. Klaipeda Hotel was far too expensive, and the cheapest one in the area didn't fit in well with Agnes' needs. I managed to find a good option about 10 minutes away by road, so we thought we'd give it a try.

We took a taxi, which wasn't too expensive, and we walked into the hotel entrance. The hotel was called Ruta, and the lady there who greeted us was very friendly. There were no actual room availabilities, but there was one room that has not yet been finished. It didn't have a bed - and I insisted, and asked as politely as I could, if we could have the room. We didn't care if it was unfinished, as long as we had a place to sleep. The lady kindly accepted, and told me that there's a chance I might get a completed room if it's guests didn't show up before midnight. So she prepared the unfinished room for us anyway, and told us to wait and see. She offered us a cup of tea in the meantime, and helped us find transportation options across Lithuania.

After midnight, it turns out that the people who booked the completed room didn't show up. So that room was given to us. Great! Time to stop stressing, shower, and relax. I'll always appreciate the kindness of the receptionist.

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