Travel, 50+, Lithuania

Leafing through the pages of personal history, I find my association with Lithuania was a bit of a FWB. In long, forwards with business. Hence, we're going with a tedious mini today.

Lithuania was recently in the news for being named one of two greatest enemies of Russia (the other one being Poland). You may look at the size and wonder. But we all know it's not the size, it's how you use it. One could argue Lithuania packs a punch. More than in one area. Back in the day, I would have never seen myself, or anyone, doing proper business over there. I would have never seen the business being good and profitable, but here we are. Just as the other Baltic nations, they did drive the phantoms out rather well. While not everyone has joined the winners, I dare claim the nation is doing quite a bit better overall.

The country had already joined modern Europe at the time of being blessed with my presence. You could still see the shadows of the Iron Curtain, mostly in behavior and the Soviet style "service" attitude. This, to simplify, meaning the customer is disturbing the worker with their desire to consume the product or service of the establishment. And with mere presence. Hence, the service ranges from quiet angry stares to rude snaps. I did have some good experiences in this respect, but most of it was very Soviet, still. The weather, however... That was nice.

Outside the grind, I enjoyed the local music scene. There were a lot of bands with great potential. As far as I'm informed, they experienced a small death for coming too early. Or maybe it was the small customer base and lack of relevant connections at the time. Might still be the case as I have not heard of any famous groups from there.

Something that is a bit famous, perhaps, is the existence of an unrecognized micronation. The Republic of Užupis. Stumbling out from a small music venue one of the few free nights, I had this great idea of walking to find it (because why not?). I was directing myself based on word of mouth and a hunch as the phone maps weren't that much of a thing back then. This led to one of the most chilling experiences of my travels. Some steps in, I found myself in an area where windows have eyes and the walls have ears. Everything was ominous, the streets were bent, there was an imaginary fog rising, only Will-o'-the-Wisp was (mis)guiding my way. The feelings of eyes begun to turn into actual eyes with heads attached. Faces full of silent threat towards the stranger. I have no idea where I ended up, but it sure wasn't where I was going. Or maybe it was? Maybe it was the army of 11 the R of U used to have back then. (Nah.) As luck would have it, my short term memory worked well enough to track my way back before I ended up stomped in a bog with a knife in my back. The slowly turning quiet rage heads and faceless eyes behind the swiftly closing curtains followed me all the way, both ways, and to the stories today. (Brr! It genuinely felt like the movie Hostel.)

The Judgment:
As you might guess, it's been some years as I visited. Still, despite the time that has passed, Lithuania has pretty much the same places of interest (eg Trakai, Curonian Spit, the capital, Kaunas). I checked the prices and found the place affordable today. It would interest me to visit as a proper tourist one day. I mean... as long as the Soviet style customer service is gone. Don't miss that one one bit. With the experience that I had, I'll have the mallet fall with: nice and not too hot summer weather, affordable destination (around lower middle-price in Europe), a surprisingly large number of interesting places for the size of the country and...

Would I go again? Yes, if it happens to be on my route one day.