Caliban – Opinion and Righteous Anger

No brown stains! Sorry, but I had to blurt that out. Frequent readers will know what I’m talking about.

We’re home, after a few diversions to escape some fairly horrendous traffic along the A1 near Hamburg. Once we’d worked our way around that, it was pretty much plain sailing all the way home, where we arrived at about 16:20.

My first errand after returning was opening the mountain of post behind the front door. We even entered via the back door, for fear the front door wouldn’t open and we wouldn’t be able to turn off the alarm promptly enough.

Next up was the grocery shopping at the Albert Heijn. Sunday afternoon and it was positively frenzied in there. My pace of life has wound down considerably over the last few weeks and I’m now used to supermarkets ten times the size with only a tenth of the customers in them. This country is seriously overloaded with human-beings.

What a trip: 4805 km over 5 countries (including getting to the port in Germany and back, which, alone, accounted for about 1100 km of the total) in 42 days. Add an extra 33 km for the bike ride we did from Nida to Juodkrantė on the Curonian Spit, the same again for the bus ride back, 150 km to Helsinki and back by ferry, plus the many kilometres racked up on the ferry from Kiel to Klaipėda and back. Alll in all, we covered a lot of ground and water and used a good mix of road and waterway.

A hugely satisfying trip, all in all, with great food (and a little bad), fascinating sights (and a few dull), beautiful nature (and a few mosquitoes). Everyone in the family had a fantastic time, but each of us in his or her own way is also happy to be back home, I think.

Tonight we sleep in our own bed and tomorrow, the old routine begins anew.

And, on Wednesday, Eloïse starts at primary school!

It was, indeed, a long day, but I’m happy to report that the Maxima is a much nicer ship than the Gloria. The children’s room was good enough to entertain the children for much of the voyage and the food was also better than on the way out.

They claim to use Lithuanian time (EEST) on board, but things were closed at times they should have been open, whether you interpreted the listed hours as CEST or EEST. It’s anyone’s guess why.

We’re now back on CEST at Rasthaus Schakendorf, a hotel about 45 km from the port in Kiel, which leaves us with a very dull, theoretically almost five hour drive to get home tomorrow.

This is the same hotel we stayed in on the way out; it’s even the same room. They serve a good dinner here and I really wasn’t up for doing the drive this evening. The children are knackered, anyway: far too much lost sleep the last few nights.

Tomorrow, we’ll wake up when we wake up, have breakfast and wind our way home.

As I write this, our ferry is heaving up and down on some sizeable-feeling waves, whilst lightning flashes illuminate the night sky.

We started off this morning from Šiauliai and drove west to Plokštinė, rain battering the car on and off all the way there.

In Plokštinė, we visited the former Soviet Missile Base. If this sounds familiar, it’s because we did the same thing shortly after arriving in Lithuania, close to six weeks ago.

On the first occasion, we had turned up late, after the final tour of the day, but were led on an accelerated version of the tour by the very generous guide. I had enjoyed the tour so much that I wanted to return, this time to experience the whole thing. It was also very close to our route today, just a minor diversion from the A11 near Plungė.

The tour was great, of course, but this time I was sure to take plenty of photos.

By now, it was after 13:00 and stomachs were rumbling, so we sped on to Palanga, a very popular Lithuanian beach resort, where we spent the afternoon.

Lunch was tricky, and we had to send back a couple of meat dishes ordered for Sarah and Eloïse, because the English text of the menu had omitted the fact that the dishes contained meat.

When it came to paying, we discovered that they wouldn’t accept credit cards, and we had deliberately used almost all of our Lita in preparation for leaving the country. I thus had to go to the bank, which our waitress clearly wasn’t happy about, fearing we might abscond.

Palanga is a strange resort town, a mix of Blackpool, Playa del Carmen and sundry other beach towns. Every time I’m in a town like Palanga, I can’t remember where I’m reminded of, precisely because such towns are generally so forgettable.

On the other hand, there’s plenty to do for children and Palanga has a great pier, which we walked along to observe the huge, swelling waves being whipped up by the very strong wind. The sight of them made us fearful of the night’s ferry crossing. Kite-surfers raced across the waves and then soared into the air. It looked like tremendous fun, but also tremendously dangerous. If you know what you’re doing, it’s fine, I’m sure.

When we were finished in Palanga, we went back to the car and drove the last stretch to Klaipėda, where our Baltic adventure began back at the beginning of July. Enough time had passed that it felt as if this were our second visit to the area, which technically it was, but both visits are part of the same trip, so it seems odd to say that we’ve been twice.

We had dinner in Klaipėda at a jazz club called Kurpiai, which turned out to be one of the best meals of the whole trip. I skipped the stewed beaver — never seen that on a menu before — and went straight for the sweet and sour ostrich, which was fantastic: ostrich steak, with small potato croquettes and a mixture of fresh fruit. Absolutely delicious!

During the meal, a band who would be playing later that evening were performing their soundcheck. Eloïse and Lucas had never heard a live band before and were both captivated by this loud Lithuanian rock ‘n’ roll.

Next to us, a Dutch couple were also eating dinner, and it turned out that they were going to catch the same ferry as us, later that evening.

Time was ticking away, so we walked back to the car and drove to the local Maxima hypermarket to buy snacks for the next couple of days.

Our final errand was a quick stop at the last petrol station before the port, in order to tank up on cheap Baltic fuel.

It paid off to arrive slightly later for check-in this time. Boarding was already under way when we checked in, so there was no time wasted in a stationary queue, waiting for things to get going.

We were on the boat by 22:00. Sarah took the children up to reception to check in and get the cabin keys, while I parked the car deep down in the bowels of the boat on deck 1.

This boat is clearly nicer than the one on the outward journey. It’s more modern and has more facilities. We haven’t explored it properly yet, though, having come straight to the cabin and prepared the children for bed.

Speaking of which, it’s time to pull down my bunk and climb the ladder to my nesting place for the night.

Our final day in the Baltics was a good one. I’m glad we managed to return to the Soviet Missile Base and squeeze in Palanga. It was an easy drive, too.

Tomorrow may be a dull day, as we try hard to keep the children amused in a confined space. On the other hand, a ship is much larger than a plane, so things could be worse.

Here we are in Šiauliai, spending our last night in Lithuania and therefore also our last night in the Baltics.

The drive up from Kaunas was very easy, primarily due to the first half of the journey being along the dual-carriageway A1, where we savoured being able to drive at motorway speed.

We drove straight through Šiauliai on the way in, so that we could go to Kryžių kalnas, the Hill of Crosses, while it was still dry. This is by far the biggest tourist attraction in the area and is probably the only reason a tourist would stay the night in Šiauliai (although most don’t). For us, it’s once again a question of breaking up the journey.

Depending on the source you consult, more than 50,000, 100,000 or even 200,000 crosses have been placed on this hill, that lies about 12 km north of Šiauliai.

There aren’t just crosses there, though. Crucifixes, carvings of Lithuanian patriots, statues of the Virgin Mary and countless tiny effigies and rosaries also adorn the site. It really is an amazing thing to behold and forms a grand, unspoken testament to the faith and will of the Lithuanian people, whose resilience in the face of foreign oppression allowed the site to survive until the present day.

Just as we were finishing up at the Hill of Crosses, the heavens finally opened and gave us a jolly good dousing. The temperature suddenly fell to about 16°C, which is pretty low, even for our taste.

Šiauliai itself has little to offer the tourist, bar a few curious museums, such as the Museum of Radio and Television. I’d hoped to go to that one for a couple of hours, but there was barely enough time and the rest of the family was restless.

Just as we were giving up on finding anything very interesting here, we chanced upon a small concert taking place in a tiny amphitheatre just off Vilniaus gatvé. A choir of about a dozen older men and women were singing folk songs to the accompaniment of an accordion.

Lucas and Eloïse loved it and clapped their hands with joy, drawing quite a few looks of their own from the attending locals. Sarah and I, too, found it a relaxing, unexpected way to wile away the minutes until dinner.

When the concert finished, we wandered down Vilnaius gatvé to Brodvėjaus Pica for some surprisingly good pizza.

Tomorrow, we pack up the bags one last time and head west. We’re not yet sure exactly where we’ll stop off on the way, but at some point in the afternoon we’ll eventually reach Klaipėda, which is where we arrived in the Baltic countries almost six weeks ago. Those weeks feel more like months now.

Our ferry doesn’t haul anchoir until 23:00, so it’s going to be a long day for the children, one we’ll just have to play by ear after dinner, while we’re waiting to board. However, there’s a children’s room on the boat this time, so that will hopefully keep them amused for a few hours on Saturday, at least.

We’ll dock in Kiel at 19:00 Saturday evening, have dinner and then stay the night about 45 km along the A21, shaving a few kilometres off Sunday’s drive back to Amsterdam.

We should arrive home some time in the afternoon on Sunday. At this point in time, however, Amsterdam still feels half the world away.

I can’t believe our Baltic holiday is drawing to a close. We’ve been on trips as long as this before, but this one somehow feels longer. Perhaps it’s because I’ve written more about it, which has helped my mind’s retention of the events; I don’t know.

As usual, as I look at our well-thumbed Lonely Planet guidebook, I’m left with familiar, dichotomous feelings about the end of this, our latest adventure: glad to be going home, but sad to be abandoning the itinerant lifestyle. It’s bittersweet.

I am definitely not looking forward to opening six weeks’ worth of post and the administration that will doubtless ensue, doing grocery shopping, etc. Getting back into the rhythm of mundane life is always the hardest part of returning.

On the other hand, I am looking forward to getting back on the crosstrainer and the Wii Fit in an attempt to undo some of the damage incurred at the mercy of the hearty Baltic diet.

Oh, and let’s hope there are no fucking brown stains on the ceiling this time!