Klaipeda...

Just a quick stop in Klaipeda on our way to Nida. Our bus didn't get in until 9:30 at night and looking at the map, we realized that the bus station was a ways from old town and that our hotel was out of old town the opposite direction (for those keeping track, this is the third out of the past 4 places where we have managed to arrange that). Oh well....it's good exercise and keeps us from being tempted to try and squeeze more in our packs. With some help from some friendly Lithuanians (who already seem to be more outgoing than the Latvians or Estonians), we did make our way to the Hotel Aribe, which turned out to be a very nice little hotel. For a reasonable price, we got a small, nice room with toilet/shower and tv, with towels folded like flowers on the bed, very friendly staff (though little english speaking), and a nice breakfast, which thrilled me by adding some cooked to order food to the usual toast, meat, cheese choices. We would certainly recommend it to anybody who was travelling to Nida and needed to spend the night on the way.

I was also recovering from casualty number two of the trip. With a couple hours to burn in Riga in between the bus from Sigulda and the bus to Klaipeda, we were doing some errands like checking email, buying groceries, and searching for some english language books to read. We were running to make a light and I missed a particularly sticking up cobblestone and took a header. Luckily many years of being clumsy (and two broken wrists) have taught me to roll rather than try and break my fall with my hands, so I escaped with only some scrapes and bruises and wounded pride. (And no Lincoln, no pictures of that either. )

The next morning in Klaipeda we walked 30 minutes to find a Eurolines (the bus company) office to try and get tickets from Vilnius, Lithuania to Krakow, Poland. The bus only runs 3 times/week and we were afriad that if we waited until we arrived in Vilnius it would be full. I'll write a whole separate entry soon about bus travel in Eastern Europe. It's been an experience.

Klaipeda seems like a nice town to wander a little in, but we were on a mission. After having to find the new temporary location for the ferry across the harbor (because the usual harbor were full of yachts particpipating in this), we did the 7 minute crossing to the Spit and got on the bus to Nida.

More on that in a couple of days......

becca