Categories: travels
Date: 17 August 2007 09:28:24
*[I'm hoping that at least one of my readers knows where this quote is from]
When I was a teenager, one of my favourite books was "On the the Road" by Jack Kerouac. Unfortunately being a teen in the 90's U.K. was not conducive to epic road trips. The problem being that if you travel for more than about 8 hours in any direction in Britain you have a tendency to fall into the sea. I think one of the reasons I'm making this trip is that cheap air tickets to the Baltics, the end of the Cold War and the thawing of diplomatic relations with China suddenly make trans-continental travel across Europe and Asia a totally feasible concept. I can suddenly fulfill my teenage dreams (except J.K. wasn't renowned for his advocacy of public transport systems as he preferred ripping up the road in his convertible)
So anyway. I'm now in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and I'm hoping from here I should with out much of a hitch make it across the border to Russia in the next couple of days. Vilnius is a much more happening place than Kaunas on a bank holiday was. More people seem to speak English too. I'm staying in a Japanese style style capsule hostel so I have a wooden box the same size as a mortuary slab to sleep in. Oh and the guy in the box next door is The Loudest Snorer In The World. And the sink doesn't work. Still the lighting in the dorm is made out of funky coloured L.E.D.s.
On a grimmer note, I went to the Vilnius Genocide/KGB Musuem yesterday. As the name suggests the former KGB headquaters here have been turned into a memorial for the people killed by the KGB when Russia invaded and annexed Lithuania (from around 1945 to 1991). Lithuania is unfortunately placed in the heart of Europe and has historically been invaded by Swedes, Germans, Poles and the former USSR. The museum was quite eye opening, especially to a man such as myself to whom the KGB were merely the comedy villians to James Bond's superspy. It goes without saying that some of the museum was kept intact from the KGB days as a reminder of what happened there, this includes the sound-proofed torture chamber and the execution room.
On a lighter note to that, this morning I located the Frank Zappa monument. It appears that the late Mr Zappa had a huge fan base in the Baltic region and they erected a statue in his honour in the centre of town. I should be meeting a friend-of-a-friend who lives here tonight so hopefully I'll get to know some of the locals.
Only 9,900 miles to go before I reach the Pacific (at this rate it's going to take me three months)