Little Bretzel travels to Lithuania – Kaunas

by bretzelitos

Little Bretzels trip to Lithuania

Fourth stop: Kaunas

So far traveled: 1610 KM

We arrived two days ago in the city of birth of Muni – in the city of Kaunas which is located in the center of Lithuania. We took again a long distance bus from Trakai to Kaunas. The buses here come most of the time as second-hand buses out of Germany. You can find easily at nearly every bus german stickers or even still advertisement out of Germany. The bus which we took had more than 500.000 km on the clock and looked also that way. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and the bus driver forgot to close the roof window for the first half an hour into our ride. So we had the rainy weather also in the inside.

After two hours drive through the landscape of Lithuania, we arrived in Kaunas. The first “challenge” was to find out which bus we have to take to get to Munis grandma. After asking at a typical newspaper shop which are most of the time located on the pavements next to the greater streets here in Kaunas, we had enough information to take the correct bus. It was one of these old electric buses which are connected to overhead wires which we know out of Vilnius.

The further day was not really special. We had a typical Lithuanian welcome at here grandma’s place with some home-made alcoholic drinks and some smaller dishes. That was very kind and I appreciated it a lot. Afterwards we went into the forest which is located close to the residential area which is built out of precast concrete slabs. In the forest is a natural water source and we took some water back home. We finished the day by watching some series.

Yesterday we went into the city center of Kaunas and did a small sightseeing tour through the city. We went over the greater shopping street into a new shopping center where you were able to find every shop you need. They have even an ice skating location and a bowling center in there. We had lunch in one of the many restaurants which are located in the shopping center. I had some fried Cepelinai which have been great.

After our lunch we went into the old city center of Kaunas. The old city center is truly beautiful and you find old colourful house, a lot of bars and restaurants, the old cathedral as well as some beautiful churches. I am quite impressed by the amount of churches here in the larger cities of Lithuania. Lithuania is certainly a very religious country and the culture is strongly connected to the Catholicism. You are also able to find some orthodox churches here in the cities.

Directly next to the old city center flows the river Neris into the river Memel. We had a look at the confluence of the two rivers which is surrounded by a great park. During our walk through the park another thunderstorm moved over the city center and brought a lot of rain. We found shelter in a church next to the castle of Kaunas. Coincidental was the church, which is rather old and is falling apart unfortunately, open for a baptism of a young boy and we have been eye whiteness of a typical catholic Lithuanian baptism ceremony. As soon the rain stopped, we walked back into the old city center and had a beer in one of the many bars.

Since it was already around 19:00 in the evening, we decided to find the next bus back to the apartment of Munis grandma.

Today we will explore a bit more the region around Kaunas. Of course, I will write about it!

Underneath you can find some pictures of the day in Kaunas: