It’s been a quiet few days for us with most of our time spent travelling.
On Thursday, we opted to stay another day in Riga. Unfortunately, we were forced to book another apartment as the one we were staying at was already booked that night.
The new apartment was…interesting. A lack of locks on the bathroom door, dirty mattresses and slightly grimey interior wasn’t the best but we all sufficed!
Due to the weather and the fact we had to hold our big bags until we could book into the new apartment at 3 meant we didn’t really get up to much that day. We did however split into groups at one point and went off to see a bit more of Riga, including a very impressive cathedral.
That night, we spent a few hours at a Live music bar than went back to the Funny Fox for some more karaoke. This time, we shared our rendition of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’.
On Friday we had a 2.5 hour bus journey to Siauliai and spent a night in another apartment. It seems the apartments are getting more rickety each time as this one was definitely another step down from the previous night! At least there were beds.
This morning, we took a trip to the ‘Hill of Crosses’, just north of the town. We had a very funny taxi driver who spoke no English but somehow managed to explain he could take us to the Hill of Crosses for €45. As we were really struggling to understand the bus system, we accepted his offer, though were definitely unsure whether we’d ever actually get to the place we wanted!
Thankfully we did. The Hill of Crosses was certainly quite a spectacle. Over 50,000 Crosses, each honering someone who has died. Although it did exist prior, the hill become most prominent during Soviet control of Lithiania where locals would put up crosses, only for the Soviets to tear them back down as they regarded it as ‘harmful to the regime’. This would repeat constantly. It was very eye-opening.
We spent the early afternoon exploring the town and also visited a bicycle museum.
That brings us to now. We have just got on a 3 hour train to Vilnius. We’re staying most of Sunday, then getting an overnight bus to Gdansk…12 hours! 😢 Not looking forward to that one.
