My name is John Eugene Quinn

Do you know this intense feeling of relief and happiness that grips you after moments of dispair?
Let me sound slightly dramatic please, I have a real need for it right now.

After rushing out of Ivan's and Anastacia's place on the morning of the 11th of May I jumped on the next best bus to travel back down to the trainstation (my 4th time in 2 days! Suspicious of breaking a record? You decide)...
The train was already waiting as I mounted the stairs but what I would find inside was not quite what I had expected. Ivan had informed me that despite or maybe because of the high price I paid for the ticket I had a really good seat. When I got in my coach however it turned out that all seats were sleepers (during the day?) and that I had half of a rock hard bench. The lovely ticket inspectress later told me I was also not allowed to lie down because I only had a "sitting" ticket. Well 6 hours on this torture seat looked like a lot of fun!

I won't bore you with the 2 hours I spent at both borders and instead jump straight ahead to the moment when Ivo (my couchsurfing host) picked me up from the bus station in Vilnius. We got along really well immediately and when I saw where his apartment was located I think I got a slight erection. His company had placed him in a very nice apartment right by the town hall i.e. you couldn't be more central even if you wanted to. Ok the Radisson BLU was a couple of meters closer but who cares? I was staying here for free!

I needed to get a shower to wash off all the grime from my Russian train ride and after feeling both refreshed Ivo suggested we go grab a burger at Charlie Chaplins. Although I had sworn myself to completely forego any opportunity to eat American fast food, a burger suddently sounded so melodic in my ear I simply could not resist.
We wandered through the narrow streets and alleys that make up Vilnius' stunning old town whose sights I absorbed with a hunger of a bear who recently awoke from hibernation. The dinner started off with a local specialty that I was to sample a couple times more for the duration of my stay here and which consisted of fried bread with either garlic cream, grated cheese or just cheese. Ours came with cheese. Yum!

Later that evening we were joined by a couple of colleagues and friends of Ivo at a place called In Vino which has a lovely outdoor seating area and where we were served by a very friendly waitress who later on decided to ignore us for the rest of the evening after Ivo started shouting "PENIS" "PENIS" in order to get her attention. How rude is she?!

After waking up the next morning I looked out of the window and almost cried a tear of joy when the only thing I could see was a stunning blue sky erm and the appartments opposite Ivo's but they don't count.

I quickly packed my stuff for the day and skipped out of the house and across the road to my favourite new hang out "Coffeeinn"... "A latte please, no foam thanks" I said to the barista before planting myself outside and greedily staring at the stunning buildings that surrounded me. After I started my tour of Lithuania's beautful capital by venturing down "Didizioji Gatve", which leads down from the city hall almost all the way to the river "Neris". I passed a small alley and decided to follow my instincts and ended up just in front of the grand Presidential Palace where the first big group of school children was hanging out taking "funny" photos of eachother. Normally those kind of groups would irritate me beyond belief but due to my elevated state of happiness I couldn't help but think to myself "Aaahhh bless".

Later I passed the stunning Vilnius Cathedral, which I mistook for a museum and hence walked on by. Don't think I am ignorant of Lithuanian art, because that IS A LIE. I just didn't fancy being inside after so many days of rain. I was even sweating but that was ok. I was using Nivea Silver Protect. Nothing could hurt me.

As I approached the river I started seeing more of the tall new skyscrapers that dotted a large part of Vilnius' new town. Not all of them were noteworthy but their futuristic design formed an interesting contrast to the delicate beauty of the old town. I took the funnicular up to the "Gediminas Tower", which not only forms an integral part of the city of Vilnius (it was built in the 13th century) but also offers superb views over the city's gorgeous old town. Contrary to my expectations Vilnius' also sported a large number of churches, all of which had different styles and colours while the new town's skyline was dominated by futuristic towers. The river Neris essentially formed a border between the two parts that looked nothing alike.



After coming back down I popped into the cathedral, which was the final point of the enormous human chain that reached from Tallinn in Estonia all the way to Vilnius at the end of the Soviet Union and in order to highlight the need for the Baltic states to once again gain back their independence. Near to the cathedral was the small neighbourhood of Uzupis, which declared its independence in 1994 and even has it's own president. Not that anyone ever recognised it but it's fun to see that there is a little copy of Christiania here also founded by drunks, artists and people with their heads in the clouds. They even have their own constitution a copy of which I purchased from the Uzupis souvenir store and which contains points such as this:
Everyone has the right to understand nothing.
Wicked!

I had lunch at a lovely restaurant that was set right next to the river "Vilnia" and where I once again lunched on fried bread (this time with grated cheese) and a big glass of local beer. I think this was one of the most beautiful days I've had this year!

After lounging a little longer than necessary I walked across town towards the other side of the old town where I found the magnificent "Genocide Museum" that is housed in the former KGB headquarters and shows a very true to detail exhibition about the horrors of Soviet rule, the continuous struggle for independence and the way Lithuanians were imprisoned on site. One of the cells in the basement was a medium room that had a slightly lower floor and a small round platform in the middle. The room's floor would be filled and covered with ice cold water and the prisoner had to stand on the tiny platform for however long he/she was put in here for.
A truly grim story but important to know about considering how little countries like Lithuania are mentioned in WW2 and Soviet history.
The rest of the day I spent wandering across to new town (not really that bothered) and through the main thorough far of the old town that housed a.o. A FUCKING WOK TO WALK!?!?!?! WTF were they doing here? Of course I HAD to have one in memory of my lovely hometown of Amsterdam. Didn't taste as good though but have you noticed how the cooks always have long dreads? What's up with that?
When I got back Ivo invited me to come along to a bar to have some drinks with the usual suspects from last night and some more people. There was a guy from Germany who worked with Ivo and whose English was so bad I almost felt like making up I was from Mongolia so as not to be embarassed for my country. Especially because as it turned out Ivo was pretty fluent in German despite being from Estonia.

After only 1 beer the group dispersed and Ivo and I decided to go home and drink some more there. Not long after his other German colleague and his most annoying girl friend joined us again and brought about 15 bottles of beer. Evening sorted I thought. How wrong could I be.

So, moving on...

The next day my goal was to visit Kaunas where a good friend of mine from Lebanon was currently finishing his medince studies and where I hoped to find another gorgeous old town that I could get lost in for some hours. Of course my day began with a coffeeinn latte followed by a failed attempt to visit the nearby Modern Art Gallery, which was currently closed due to changing of the exhibition. Fine!
At the trainstation I was informed that the next train would not be for another 2 hours so I jumped on the next minibus instead and was swiftly on my way.

After reaching Kaunas busstation it took quite a while for me to get anywhere near the old town. On the way I almost stepped into an old syringe that was lying on the pavement with its tip pointing up. It was like one of those moments that you'd find in Tom&Jerry or Willy Coyote where the eyes go very big and the time stands still for a moment.
Kaunas didn't really strike me as very charming. It has a lovely pedestrianised boulevard called "Laisves aleja" which leads directly into the old town. There I walked all the way down to the beautiful city hall and its surrounding alleys which to be honest was very little compared to Vilnius. I also found that the people here were a lot ruder and somehow not so open to foreigners wandering around their town. My friend Jad was busy until 6 so I sat down outside the local coffee shop called "Vero" where I was also witness to a sudden thunderstorm that flooded the city (quite literally) and thunder as loud as bombs crashing into the floor just in front of me. I was a bit scared, no, really!

After finding out where Jad and I were meant to meet I ran towards the next busstop (on the way I got completely splashed by a cock of the driver) and ended up meeting Jad inside the enormous shopping mall called "Akropolis" There were whole houses inside as well as an icerink, bowling and tons of shops that sold everything under the roof of this world. The last time I had seen Jad was in Beirut in 2008 when we partied our way through the legendary nightlife there. It was even more bizarre that our next reunion would therefore take place in Kaunas of all placed. He took me upstairs to one of the dozens of restaurant where I finally tried "Zeppelinas" which was like German Knoedel with a meat filling. Hm so-so.

Later he showed me his place, which was located on a hill above the city center and where I also met his cat Gonzo. Cool dude that cat.
He told me that living in Kaunas was one of the most depressing things that could happen to you and for some reason I had to think of my time in Bucharest when it was really cold. About the same kinda feeling I thought.

After returning to Vilnius that evening I went to bed and passed out immediately. Ivo was still partying somewhere haha.

On my last day in this lovely place I bumped into Ivo on the way to the bathroom. He had bright red eyes and a slumped walk that suggested a massive hangover. As he left the building to stumble to work I did a couple of workout routines for my Adonis body that were shown in my Men's Health magazin for people on the road. I mean who says you can't look good when you're travelling?

This morning I also went to Coffeeinn and was served by a stunning Barista, the first and last I would see here :(
I tried to find a post office where I could pack and send off the two bottles of vodka and cognac I had bought in Kaliningrad but they first turned out to be a fail while the second one I had to walk past 3 times before actually spotting it. I don't know why but from Lithuania it cost less than half the price it cost me from Poland for the same weight. Very suspicious...

Ivo took me to the busstation at around 12:15 and after I had loaded my backpack into the luggage compartment I set off on the next real Soviet adventure of this trip... MINSK waaaahhhhhhhhhhhh