August 3, 2015
Finding my way to Kupiskis
I completely misunderstood where I was last night, and it turned out to be quite wonderful. I wasn't at the holiday camp, it was much further down the road. I was at the home of a woman Eleanora "Nora" who speaks English, and sometimes hosts travellers. Yesterday was the last day of a big local festival, a yearly event for the town that recognizes the end of Soviet occupation. She had her children and grandchildren there for the festival. She had 5 children and 9 grandchildren, so it was quite a crowd. On top of that, she has organized a camp for children with their grandparents that starts today. The tents scattered around the yard made it look like a holiday camp, but it wasn't. And the German family in the living room where I was going to sleep, they were one of her daughters and her husband and kids, who now live in Germany. I figured this out later.
As I arrived, they were all rushing to the concert. I was left on my own, and showered and made myself some tea.
After they came back, Nora made my bed in the living room, and we sat outside and talked. Nora has had many visitors over the years, and a book that people have signed. It was fun to look at, with signatures in Latvian and Russian and Dutch and even English. We talked about what I'm doing. One of the son in law's in particular gave me a hard time. Why would I want to go to Istanbul, when its in such a bad country? And why ride a bike? At least that's what came through with a little translation help from Nora. Before too long, things wound down and the out of towners left (except me), and we settled in for the night.
In the morning, Nora made me breakfast, and I signed her book and took off. I did pay her 10 euros, as we agreed, but she wouldn't take extra for breakfast.
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I really was just minutes from the border. It was at the river, and was quite scenic, but lacks any border crossing drama due to the Schengen treaty. I just pedaled across, and stopped for some pictures.
Lithuania actually looked different. It was all farmland, and cows. Lots of cows.
The first big town was Birzai, about 21 km from the border. I found my way to the tourist office, which was not straightforward. Despite a claim of "no English", we did okay. They didn't have a detailed map of Lithuania, only one of the whole Baltic region. They strongly suggested that I ride to Vabalninkas and then to Kupiskis, rather than going to Panevezys. The Via Baltica passes through Panevezys. I wouldn't be on it, but traffic would be bad. So I should go to Kupiskis, and ask at the tourist office there which roads I should take toward Vilnius. So that's what I did. It was a long ride without many diversions. I stopped midway and made some adjustments to my bike, tilting the saddle up a bit to try to take pressure off my hands, an also tilting the handlebars just a bit to raise the hoods. It got hot, reaching 90 F based on my Garmin's reading. Sometimes you can have too much information!
In Kupiskis, I had a hard time finding the tourist information office. I ended up going into a bike shop and asking. Once we established that no, I did not need a new derailleur, the woman there called someone who spoke English, and I learned that the office is inside the museum next to the church.
In the office, I got "sorry, no English", and it was true. I managed to get information about accommodation, but not about which roads to take toward Vilnius, or about restaurants.
I was hungry, and went off looking for food. The maps.me app on my phone showed 2 restaurants. I found the first one easily, a pizzeria, but it was closed. I found the 2nd with more difficulty, and it was also closed. I resigned myself to preparing my own meal, trying to remember what food I had in my panniers, when I saw a tech place, and thought "SIM card". Now that's not dinner, and they didn't have a SIM card, but tucked away next to it was a kebab place! I went in and tried to order, and wasn't doing too well with the waitress/cook going off and yelling at me, when someone chimed in, in English, "she needs to know what sauce you want. Garlic or spicy or something else." Saved! There were 2 young guys there who spoke pretty good English. They said they learned it from the movies and TV. In addition to saving me from Kebab Momma, they suggested that I take the road to Utena tomorrow, and also told me a could get a SIM card at Maxima, which is a large grocery chain down the hill.
After eating my kebab, which was large enough that I couldn't finish it. I went to Maxima and got the SIM. It was 2.49 euro for 1 Gig of data, good for a month. Now I'm back on line while I'm out on my bike, out of WiFi, and can look up info about places to see, hotels and hostels, and just feel connected.
Then I found the hotel. It is the Kupiskis Technological and Business School Hotel. It is a real hotel. I have a suite, with separate living and sleeping areas, a refrigerator and kettle and a tv (which I haven't yet turned on) and my own toilet and shower. The price for this luxury? 13 euros. Now the place is well worn, and not spotless, but it's okay. They even suggested that the best place for my bike is in the room, and helped me put it there. It's a bit noisy, but I'm ready with my earplugs, looking forward to a good night's sleep.
Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 833 km (517 miles)
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