Before summer travel gets out of hand, we had to make a decision as to where to go. Madagascar was one scenario, but required a day and a half of driving at one point which wasn’t appealing. I had concocted another scenario with Belgrade, Kosovo, and Sarajevo, but Nicole exercised her veto powers on what would be a trip filled with visits to communist sites and mass graves. We elected to do something a bit lighter and visit the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. We have never been to any of them and there is a certain appeal to going to a place that doesn’t really have a reputation as a tourist hotspot.
Our first step of the process was a SAS flight from LAX to Copenhagen. This flight has been instrumental in the past as a relatively easy way to get to Northern Europe. Alas, back in 2021, fewer people were flying and we easily got business class. Nowadays, LAX is a bit busier and we felt lucky to get two seats together in row 31. And thus we settled in for the 10.5 hour flight. We were not given a choice for our meal (I hope everyone liked beef goulash), but at least we got a meal. Nothing can be assumed after we spent nearly 8 hours on an Avianca flight without even being offered as much as a water. Nicole and I were nonetheless penned into a row by a larger man who somehow managed to sleep the majority of the flight. It thus became impossible to get up and stretch. We somehow slogged through the entire duration of the flight without even using a lavatory.
We groggily spilled out of the SAS A350 into Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport, an airport we are finding ourselves in more and more often these days. It is becoming our new Amsterdam. We had a fairly painless queue through passport control, but luckily did not have to do security again to get to our next gate. We waited for about 90 minutes until we were “boarded” by group number onto my old nemesis — the airport bus. The boarding by groups obviously doesn’t matter too much when whoever is closest to the bus door when it stops will board the aircraft first. Nicole and I had seats together in row 20 of an Embraer 195.
After boarding, we were soon off to Palanga airport serving Klaipeda and the Baltic coast of Lithuania. It was not our original plan to fly into such an unknown airport, but we found it would save us about 4 hours of driving to pick up a car there instead and drive it to Vilnius, the capital, a couple days from now. Shortly after takeoff, Nicole announced that she wasn’t even that tired. She then proceeded to sleep for the remainder of the flight. I too popped up a few times with a sore neck for the lengthy one hour flight.
Despite renting a manual economy car, we were given an automatic Toyota RAV-4. In some ways, I would prefer a smaller car, but there was no issue getting our bags into the car at least. It was a groggy 35 minute drive to the Michaelson Boutique Hotel near old town Klaipeda. Our room is in the top floor (attic) so we have to be careful not to bump our heads repeatedly on beams, ceilings, etc.
We walked around the port area near the hotel for a bit where we found this statue of the “Black Ghost of Klaipeda.” The story behind it is actually not all that scary. In fact, back in the 16th century, the ghost evidently warned one of the nearby castle guards that their stockpiles of timber and grain would not be enough. Never ones to doubt the sage advice of a mysterious apparition that only one person saw, the castle fortified its grain and timber and ultimately survived an unexpectedly harsh winter and famine thanks to the ol’ ghost.
Next we staggered into the old town for dinner. We eventually selected a traditional Lithuanian place where I had schnitzel with potatoes and veg and Nicole had Cepelinai meaning “zeppelin” which were potato dumplings with mystery meat inside. She wasn’t very keen on that part of it. They were a unique texture.
To gather food for breakfast for tomorrow, we drove to a rather chaotic Lidl to buy some pastries and drinks. Needless to say, by the time we arrived back at the hotel, we were quite exhausted and ready to bring this marathon day to an end. Good night from Lithuania.
passports & pepto bismol 