Lithuania

As we drove through the towns of Lithuania it became clear where Poland's vowels had gone. We made our way to Siauliai (no good for Scrabble like all those Polish places), a moderate sized town on the road to Latvia.

When we arrived everybody looked grim-faced, but we found a very helpful tourist information kiosk, a lovely hostel, and by the time we were out foraging for dinner everybody seemed happy. The difference between the home-from-work crowd and the going-to-the-pub crowd!

We found a nice pub with traditional Lithuanian food so Ben could complete the customary drinking challenge:


Lithuania were playing Croatia at the European Basketball Champs, which provided a bit of noise about the place. They evidently won from the car horns through the night. Always nice when the locals do well...

The next morning we visited the Hill of Crosses. Lithuanians have been putting crosses on this small mound since the 14th century. Many are memorials to people deported to Siberia. The Russians bulldozed it at some point but the Lithuanians snuck past guards and barbed wire and planted more. It´s now more than 100m wide and 100m deep with crosses.