After running the half-marathon, and going on the tour of the city, it was necessary to find some dinner. I started with a beer and an order of Lithuanian style garlic bread.
That’s a dark bread, fried, and served with lots and lots of garlic on top. This is probably the sort of appetizer one would share with others at the table, but I was eating alone, and I’d just run 21km, and walked quite a bit. And were it not for all that exercise, I probably wouldn’t have been able to handle the potato pancakes that followed.
What you can’t see in the photo is that they are filled with meat. Delicious, but quite rich. Lithuanian food was good for the hard working farmers, who spent all day doing manual labor, and had to consume lots of calories to keep going. I quite enjoyed the Lithuanian food I sampled, but I don’t think I could eat like that on a regular basis. Fortunately, there are plenty of other non-Lithuanian options (though I didn’t try them, seeing as how I was there for such a short time.)
On the subject of food, on my last day, I enjoyed a delicious meal of sauerkraut and sausage soup, kugelis, and homemade kvass (or gira in Lithuanian).
Prior to visiting Europe, the only Lithuanian dish I’ve eaten before was kugelis. It’s basically a big pie or cake made out of grated potatoes, plus some bacon, and probably extra bacon grease as well. The one I had here seemed a bit more elaborate than what I’ve had at home, but it was indeed quite good. Have you noticed a theme? Lithuanian food seems to be heavily based on meat and potatoes. It was all quite good, but it was a very good thing that I was quite hungry before each meal, otherwise finishing would be quite a challenge.
I had another night bus going back to Poland on Monday night. So, I checked out of the hotel late Monday morning, and basically wandered around town all day.
I climbed the hill to the Upper Castle. Only a single tower remains from the castle today, but it provides an excellent view of the city below.
I continued walking around. I saw some of the places I’d visited on the previous day’s tour in greater detail. I also went through the more modern part of the city. I even found a few skyscrapers in this city of 500,000.
Though, they are not without their contrast. Just a block or two away, one can find plenty of less towering structures.
I think this gives the city a nice character. It’s a modern enough place to have some nicely designed tall buildings, but is not overpowering, and feels more real.
I’ll end with one tradition I noticed in my walking. Just about every bridge has more than a few locks attached to it. This is a common practice with couples. I’m not certain if it’s just marriage, or if it’s the equivalent of carving a heart in a tree trunk. On Saturday, there seemed to be a huge number of wedding parties, all posing for pictures in various parts of the city. I even noticed one attaching a lock to a bridge.
Overall, it was a great weekend. I went to a country, knowing full well I didn’t speak a single word of the language. And I got by without having to learn either. I’m not sure I should be proud of this fact, but at least it is a good indication of how welcoming the Lithuanians are of foreigners. The only difficulty I had was talking to the bus driver, when I was still in Poland (he spoke neither English nor Polish). He was looking for some specific part of my ticket (which I thought was just my receipt), to affix a sticker for my baggage claim. Fortunately, there were some Lithuanians in line behind me who spoke English quite fluently. We talked briefly, and they told me I had nothing to worry about in Lithuania with languages. They complained how difficult it was for them in Poland, which I can certainly understand. I imagine being a small country, Lithuanians have no choice but to become multi-lingual. At one of the restaurants I ate, I noticed my waitress switched between Lithuanian, English and Polish with no troubles at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if she spoke more than those three.
I’m glad I finally made it to one of the Baltic states. Hopefully I’ll manage to see more in the future.
I probably took too many pictures, but if you’d care to view them, take a look at my smugmug page.
