Since Bree and I loved hitch hiking so much, we decided to do it again! This time we decided to go to Kaunas, a city about 3 hours east of Klaipeda. This time we weren't racing, but it WAS raining, so we were hoping to get a ride quick. We went to the good spot of the highway and with in a minute of having our signs up we got a ride! This guy spoke only Russian, so we used what little Russian we knew to have a small conversation. Unfortunately he only took us 2 hours and dropped us off at a gas station along the highway. We were back at it for 3 minutes and got another ride! This guy also spoke Russian, and something else we couldn't figure out. He offered to take us all the way to Georgia! He was serious too. He kept asking if we had passports and visas that would allow us to go and said we could stay there and fly back to America after. He was very persistent and I was 5% positive we were being kidnapped and taken to the country of Georgia to be sold into sex slavery. We just kept saying Net! Net! Kaunas! I noticed that he was very low on gas so I knew if for some reason we needed to bolt, we could do it when he pulled off for gas. Other then being slightly uncomfortable, he was very friendly! He kept pointing to things and wanting to learn the English words haha. Sure enough, he let us off at the Kaunas exit. Hurray! So now we find out from the kind gas station lady that we are still 3 miles outside of the city. We tried to hitch hike in, but everyone was going to Warsaw instead. We admitted defeat and accepted the fact that we would have to walk, which wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't cold and raining. Every once in a while I would put my thumb out just in case. After about 20 minutes we got a taker!!! We were so shocked! He took us all the way into the city center and even showed us a hotel! We hopped on the first bus because it said Kauno Pilis (Kaunas Castle). It ended up taking us right past our hostel, so we jumped off and checked in. Then we went and found the castle! (pictured above)
Kaunas used to be the capital city of Lithuania, so it has some pretty awesome looking buildings. Here is the town hall and something else important. We enjoyed walking around old town as the sun was setting. We ate at a traditional Lithuanian place recommended by our hostel host. I had some pancake dish smothered with sour cream. I HATE sour cream in America, but they use it on everything here, so I have gotten used to it actually.
This is the largest aquarium in the Baltics. We found it in the mall. I also bought a dress here. We had to take a mini bus to get to the mall, which was an experience in itself, as neither of us had ever used one before.
We went back into old town after the exciting mall and ended up finding an interesting hipster looking bar and people watched the rest of the night.
In the morning before heading back to school we took a ride up this bad boy. It reminded me of the incline in Pittsburgh. It was just a really steep train ride up to the top. There was a big church and a nice view of the city. After that, it was back to Klaipeda to catch up on homework and such. All in all, a good adventurous trip.
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