Frankfurt, Germany, to Vilnius, Lithuania

The cheapest flight from India to Europe was through Kuwait to Frankfurt.  Both flights with a 3 hour stopover in Kuwait took us 14 hours.  The passengers in the first flight were very different from the ones in the second flight.  The Indians seemed to be content with everything during the flight.  The Arabs started making demands before the take offs.  We also found out how the women eat with their faces covered.  They actually take every bite under the cover raising it just a little bit.  The service of Kuwait Airlines was great, and there was enough leg room in our seats.

 We arrived at Frankfurt International Airport at 3pm.  Karl, who agreed to host us through couchsurfing.com, came to meet us.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  A lot of people were riding bicycles.  There was no traffic on the streets, nobody was beeping, and even one homeless person was decently dressed (his shoes were definitely in better condition than my husband’s).  We could effortlessly walk on wide unobstructed sidewalks.  We took metro to his huge and very clean apartment.  After a long warm shower, the laundry was the second thing we did.  Feeling clean again, we went to the store to buy some food for dinner.  Karl made us a pizza from scratch.  He also offered us some good German beer.  We fell asleep a minute we went to sleep after a long day.  We slept on the floor in the living room.  It was cool in the room for the first time in months.  We slept like babies.  We woke up early in the morning.  We felt well rested and ready to continue our journey.  We had no trouble adjusting to the local time since we gained 5.5 hours.  When we lost time flying to Taiwan from US, it took us 4 days to adjust.  After breakfast we got to the edge of town using public transport to the best location for hitchhiking to Prague.  We found practical information about hitchhiking on hitchwiki.com.

We decided to hitchhike all the way from Frankfurt to Lithuania, while visiting our friends on the way. Dangis has his high school friend living in Prague, Czech Republic.  I have a Polish friend I met in Chicago who now lives Warsaw, Poland.  We thought we would save some money, and it would be another adventure.  I used to hitchhike a lot when I was a student in Lithuania, even belonged to Kaunas hitchhiking club.  On the over hand, Dangis never hitchhiked in his life.  It is about 500 km from Frankfurt to Prague, almost 700 km from Prague to Warsaw, and another 450 km from Warsaw to Vilnius.  Even I, in my all hitchhiking days, have never hitchhiked such huge distances before.  It took some luck to make each distance in one day. 

Frankfurt – Prague distance was the easiest.  As soon as we got to the first gas station, it took us less than 30 minutes to find the first ride with a truck.  It was going to Prague, but it had to make a mandatory break before the Czech border.  The driver himself was from the little Czech town on the Czech – Austria border.  He spoke perfect English with a slight Irish accent (He works for the Irish company).  The driver was very friendly and even bought us lunch and coffee in the gas station.  After he stopped in one of the gas stations for the night, right away we found a women who agreed to drive us to another gas station 80 km away from Prague.  She was coming back from a business trip.  She also spoke perfect English.  Some years ago, she also quit her job and travelled around US for 6 months.  It was also a pleasure chatting with her.  It took us less than 10 minutes to find our last driver right to the center of Prague.  He was young, but spoke no English or Russian, only Czech or German.  He was also nice- he held the cigarette in his hand the whole ride, but did not lit it until we left the car.  At 8pm we arrived to the center.  The first girl we asked agreed to lend us her phone to call our friend.  He picked us up and drove us to his beautiful home. 

The dinner was waiting for us.  We even got a guest room with a private bathroom.  We felt like kings.  Finally, we could really rest from our travels for a few days.  We did not have to search for a place to sleep or for a place to eat anymore.  It was a great feeling.  The weather was beautiful for a few days.  So, we got to spend a lot of time outside, visiting a palace, hiking in the park and walking in the city.  We even had an honor to celebrate Dangis’ friend’s birthday.  We had some fun.

Prague – Warsaw distance was the most difficult one.  The first truck took us to the gas station about 190 km away from Prague.  The driver himself was from Slovakia.  We did not speak any common languages.  It took us awhile to find a next person to agree to drive us.  We even started thinking that we may have to spend a night somewhere on the way to Warsaw.  We were very lucky to notice a car with a Latvian license plate.  Apparently, he was Russian going home to Latvia through Warsaw.  He was driving fast, and dropped us off at the gas station 40 km away from Warsaw at 8pm.  It was dark and only a few cars stopping at that gas station.  We were not able to find a driver to take us to the center of Warsaw or anywhere close.  We borrowed a cell phone of the gas station employee, and my friend came to pick us up.  We arrived at her apartment at 11:30pm.  Our bed was made, and we went straight to sleep.  Our friend and her boyfriend had to work, and we were left to feel at home in their home.  Without any rush we got ready to go sightseeing.  I have never visited Warsaw before and thought it was absolutely beautiful.  Its old town reminded me of Prague, just smaller and less crowded.  Again, we were lucky with the beautiful and sunny weather.  We spent couple of days in Warsaw.  It was nice to catch up with an old friend in the evening after a day of sightseeing.

Warsaw – Vilnius distance was the shortest, but not very easy.  The first car dropped us off in the middle of the expressway with cars flying by fast and little place to pull over.  I made an LT sign, so one truck driver had to really break to pick us up.  He was on his way to Lithuania, but he also had to make a mandatory break to sleep.  He agreed to drop us of in the gas station where a lot of Lithuanian truck drivers make a stop there.  There were a lot of Lithuanian drivers, but a Russian from Estonia agreed to take us. 

 He dropped us of on Polish – Lithuanian border.  It was a strange place to hitchhike, a road with no shoulder.  We decided to stand next to the gas station.  It was slowly getting dark, and we were worried to get stuck on the border in the middle of nowhere.  One truck had to block the driveway of the gas station to pull over for us.  Luckily, he and his partner with another truck were going to Elektrenai, which is 50 km away from Vilnius.  I got into one truck, and Dangis got into another truck.  My driver was also a Russian, who spoke perfect Lithuanian.  When we were left on the road, it was already dark.  Nobody even slowed down for us.  Finally, when we were going to take out some cash for the bus, one guy pulled over and took us another 10 km to Vievis.  Dangis went to the store to take some money out in local currency.  As soon as he returned, a bus arrived going to Vilnius.  We decided not to waste any more time and boarded the bus.  The bus even had Wi-Fi.  We arrived to Dangis’ parents’ apartment around 10:30 pm.  After having late dinner and a pleasant conversation with Dangis parents we went to sleep at midnight.  We arrived in Lithuania 9 days after arriving to Europe.

It is pleasantly cool in Vilnius.  The one thing I cannot get use to is the heat inside the buses and the stores.  We are not used to such a contrast anymore.  It was easier for me to handle the heat in India.  It is the same problem I had in US with air-conditioning in the summer, just opposite.  Also, we noticed right away that the air in Europe is very dry, compared to the air in Asia.  Other than that, we really enjoy the cool weather, the ease of taking public transport and crossing the streets, the cleanliness of the surroundings and most of all the food.  The funny thing was that nobody agreed to lend their phone to Dangis in Vilnius when he was a little lost trying to meet with his friend.

Another funny story was that after travelling around the world for a year without ever getting really lost or loosing each other, I managed to go for a walk in the forest near Vilnius and got lost for hours.

We already got to see a Lithuanian movie

, met some old friends, and went to see some art exhibitions.  Now I still want to go to the theater and meet some more old friends.

After travelling for almost a year mostly in the countries that are underdeveloped, we learned to enjoy travelling with public transport.  Even though, it is sometimes nice to enjoy the independence of having a car.  We learned to be comfortable sleeping on the floor, but it is still nice to have a private room with a big bed.  One thing I could not get used is all the strange flavors, and I missed familiar food the most.  It was easier to restrict ourselves to the cheapest food in the beginning, but at the end of the trip we ate more expensive food more and more.  Even though it is trivial, I learned that nice clothes and make-up can bring some joy.  Beauty in the world is important.  It brings us joy.  It was a pleasure putting make-up on for the first time after 6 months.  It was also a pleasure watching people walking by dressed in stylish clothes.  Another, most important, lesson we learned while travelling was that everybody is on their own path.  Everybody has a right to think different when we do.  Everybody can change their mind all the time.  Everybody is different and unique.  Everything is less complicated than a lot of people think.  Everything is possible.  Work is not everything.  And it is much nicer and more useful to be able to concentrate on one thing than having to multitask.  Everybody needs a change.  Even travelling can get tiring.  We are ready to finish our first big trip.  We will cherish our memories and friends we made on the way for the rest of our lives.  This was our time.