Categories: travels
Date: 15 August 2007 19:23:05
So behind me (somewhere) is the Atlantic Ocean and in front of me (somewhere) is the Pacific Ocean. I need to cross the intervening vastness by spend as little cash as possible. I've currently got as far as Kaunas, in Lithuania. Unfortunately it is Orthodox bank holiday (it's the Feast of the Assumption I think?) here so almost everything is closed. I had a look around the Castle which took all of 20 minutes then went to look at a couple of the churches and an antique shop selling Ikons, war memorabilia and what looked suspiciously like Leon Trotskis glasses. Kaunas is a wierd mix of European influence (Trolley cars, primary colours everywhere and pavement cafes) but coupled with the sort of Soviet architecture you normally only see in Andrei Tarkovski movies. Indeed the bank holiday meant there was no one on the streets, which was faintly disturbing until I worked out why.
The only other 'tourist' attraction that I could find advertised in English, read something along the lines of 'Hot evening with Exotic Ladies'. I wondered if the Exotic Ladies in question with their obvious grasp of the English language might be able to help me find a train to St Petersburg. However something about the advertisment bothered me. Perhaps it was the way they winked coquetteishly from the poster that made me think the Exotic Ladies in question might have other things on their minds than linguistics and train timetables. Hmm.
I found the bus station in the end so tomorrow I'm off to the captial Vilnius and from there to St Petersburg. Incidently the reason I thought that The Nondecomposing Corpse of Lenin might be in St Petersburg, was that the old name for said city was Leningrad, thusly making it a good place for storing him.
Still only 10,000 miles to go...