We were off early for our 200 kilometer jump down to Kaunas. Kaunas was a city I was interested in as I like to compare the second cities in countries to the capitols.
The bus ride into the center was quick, easy and cheap. The walk to the market square was short and we arrived at the city cathedral as mass was on. When we first arrive in a city I always pick the main cathedral as our starting point figuring it is usually close to the geographical center of the old city. They had the doors open so we could see inside. Ton snapped a quick picture from the door which turned out nice.
We took a quick turn around the market square and headed to what is touted as the longest pedestrian mall in northern Europe. It is 1.5 kilometers long. We walked it from end to end, the end closest to the market square is busy and full of restaurants and shops, the last 500 meters is a little quiet.
We stopped and had a beer at a local pub, and then decided to head back. Our beer stock has dwindled to one beer, so our plan was to stop in a grocery store on our way and pick up some samples of Lithuanian beer we had liked. After our swing thru the store we had 6 cans of beer and a couple of food items. Self check out is the rule here in the groceries. It is not hard as usually you can switch the screens to English, but in this case I didn’t see the button until too late. When we scanned the first can of beer an alarm went off and we got a screen full of words we couldn’t read. The clerk monitoring the self check out came over and hit us with a long blast of Lithuanian that of course we didn’t understand any more than the screen. Seeing our confusion, she then asked all of the other patrons checking out if any of them spoke English. The lady at the next check out looked over and said “You can’t buy alcohol after 3pm on Sundays in groceries.” I checked my watch and it was 3:30. She then said “If you want a beer you will have to go to a bar and buy an expensive beer!” Ton and I laughed and thanked her and apologized to the clerk for the trouble, and we left with our food. We will split our one beer and buy some Polish beer tomorrow.
Kaunas is a nice city, but the center of the city does feel like the second city of Latvia. There is less going on than in Vilnius. Having said that Lithuania is the most laid back and quietest of the three Baltic States to us. Nothing ever feels hectic or overly busy which can be very nice.
