Kaunas, and a little Rant

Saturday 20th September.

First a little rant about the Ibis. It looks beautiful, obviously quite new and aesthetically the design can't be faulted. The girl on reception is very welcoming; all the reception staff are brilliant, do a great job and speak fantastic English. The hotel is right next the to bus station and I have a great view of it from my window. Was rather hoping to get a kettle and fridge but none  in the room. Every other hotel has given me a password for the WiFi and it has worked for both phone and laptop. At Ibis log in with the phone but then laptop needs a new username and password. Call reception and the guy gives me a new password which works fine until the next day when it expires. Call reception again and the woman gives me another new username and password. But it is very difficult to tell someone a random string of letters over the phone. It's why people invented the phonetic alphabet tables,  but can't expect hotel receptionists to know them and even though her English is excellent we have some problems with "g" and "j" among other  things. We get that sorted out when I go down to reception. Think it is the first hotel I have come across that doesn't have a shaver socket in the bathroom. Finally the lights in the corridors are controlled by motion sensors to conserve energy, which is very laudable, but I find myself walking into a dark corridor with the lights coming on behind me. And when I come out of the room at night, the corridor is pitch black;. wave my arms around holding the door open but no lights come on. Can't let the door close without taking the key card out of its socket, which turns off the room lights. Total blackness. If I let the room door close and walk down the corridor to activate the lights,  and if for any reason they don't come on, I won't be able to find my way back to my room. Being an ex boy scout I have an LED torch in the room so I get that out in order to venture into the corridor. Ibis, you can do better than this. Rant over.

I chose the Ibis hotel to be close to railway and bus stations so it is not so close to the Old City. It is a good 35 minutes brisk walk as I found out later.. But there is a bus and trolley bus stop just outside the hotel and the buses go quite close to the old city. The fare, according to the information on the bus stops, is 2 Lita (about US$0.44) but for some reason I get change from the 2 Lita coin I hand over and it seems the real fare is only 1.2 Lita.

The main street running for nearly 2 km through the old and new parts of the city has been pedestrianised and once into  the old city it is lined with cafes, bars and restaurants, all with outdoor tables. By now the weather has brightened up so it is very pleasant indeed. Being the weekend, the cafes are doing a good business and yet again I see couples getting wedding photos done, including one groom chasing his bride on a bicycle and another couple squeezing into one of the old style telephone kiosks which are dotted around. At the end of Vilnaus Street, the main street in the old city, is the Town Hall Square, which has a stage set up and singers, in what I think is a talent competition.  

Vilnaus Street

Town Hall Square

Wedding Photos in a Telephone Box.
 And their children will ask "What was a telephone box?"

Singing Competition?

Audience: Three Bicycles and a London Taxi

Walking beyond the square takes me to the old castle, although I didn't realise it at the time, past a bubble blowing contest, or at least a lot of people blowing big bubbles, and finally to a park at the confluence of the rivers Neris and Nemunas. Can't go any further without getting my feet wet.

Bubble Blowing in the Park

Confluence of the  Neris and Nemuna Rivers

Returning to the main square I find that it is the finishing point of the “Kauno Ruduo” car rally.Lots of mud spattered cars come in to fill the square and the stage is where the cups are handed out and the champagne splashed around. 

http://www.kaunoruduo.lt/en

The Cars Arriving in Town Hall Square. The Naked Woman? No Idea.

Happy Cup Winners

By now I am feeling quite hungry, so go to Avilys, one of the many places along Vilnaus Street  which describes itself as a Restaurant-Beer Brewery where I try the  mulled beer, which is interesting and the smoked pork shank which I enjoyed. Later I saw that Avilys got a lousy write- up in the "Kaunas in your Pocket" guide  but I was quite impressed.Got some exercise walking back to the hotel.

Mulled Beer with Straws

Sunday 21st September.

In fairness to the Ibis, they do a fairly good breakfast.  My plan  is to go up one of the two funicular railways  in the city and I get the No 3 bus which seems to go in the right direction according to the bus map. Eventually I realise that we are have gone too far out of the city so I get a tour of the Northern suburbs.  Lots of 4 -6 storey apartment blocks but much lower density than Singapore. Not surprising since Lithuania has just over half Singapore's population spread over an area nearly 100 times greater. Lots of green space, a few local shopping centres, also quite a lot of individual houses in some areas. It all looks a lot better than I expected although admittedly it is a sunny day! The bus route seems to have been designed by someone throwing some tangled string onto a map, meandering in all directions then crossing the river and dumping me at an out of town hospital complex. According to the timetable at the bus stop, the No 11 bus should take me back into the city and there is one due in a few minutes, but it doesn't show up and since this is the terminus, makes me go and look at the timetable again.  Come to the conclusion that it doesn't run on Sundays, so need two buses to get to the centre. 

Traditional Wooden House just outside the City Centre

Since the "Kaunas in your Pocket" guide  lists the castle as somewhere to visit I follow the map to find it, only to realise it is where I was yesterday. I wonder whether I missed something but come to the conclusion I didn't, even after climbing up a few steps to get a better view.

Kaunas Castle. That's all there is

Wise Old Man. Mural on Wall near Castle

Back in the main street, realise that there are two old style minis, beautifully restored. One is advertising the Republic Bar so I am quite surprised to see someone get into it and drive it away.

One of the Two Minis in Vilnaus Street

Also visit the St Peter and St Paul cathedral on the advice of the guide. From the outside it is an unexciting, squat, red brick building but inside it is yet another ornate baroque cathedral.

Yet more Baroque Extravaganza

Time to sit down for a snack of cheese and ham crepes and a glass of win and watch the world go by.

In the evening, go out to one of the restaurants suggested by the guide, Bajorkiemis City, which is a new building just outside the Old City. The design is rather strange, along one side of the restaurant the decor is very traditional, lampshades with tassels etc, while on the other side the style is very modernistic. I have the cold beetroot soup which is good but overpoweringly pink! I thought  Singapore Slings were the pinkest substance that could be eaten or drunk but the beetroot soup is pinker!

Monday 22nd September

Have another wander round the old city, which is much quieter than over the weekend. The pavement cafes are almost deserted so it looks like a lot of their patrons are local or weekend visitors. Near the river I come across  a modern grey building,  the "Jezuito Gimnazija", literally "Jesuit Gymnasium", which conjures up visions of young priests in cassocks climbing up ropes and swinging from the wall bars. Inside the grounds, I am astonished to see three very attractive girls, probably in their late teens,  all with blond hair, chatting among themselves and I wonder whether they have been planted by the authorities to test the  resolve of the young priests. But the reality turns out to be more prosaic; it is a high school founded by a Jesuit in 1649.