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Those of you who have been to Prague will realise that it is the Charles Bridge in Prague, nothing to do with Vilinus.
What is the weak connnection? Prague is beautiful with a castle on a hill, (sorry Jana, next time I promise), Vilinus has a castle and is beautiful too. Sorry we can not always
download the approprite photos and the website will not let us write anything if we do not have a photo - hense random shots of Tintagel and Prague.
We have no shame, I should say "I" have no shame. Lack of time, slow computers, cost.... you name it has lead us to send out the messy little blog thing, which is far from managed and tidy, at
least you will know where we have been and have a bit of an idea of what we are up to. So we decided to send it out ,anyhow in all our chaotic, mispelt glory, as we need to catch up as we are
actaully in China not prague or Lithuania.
People can have a butchers at the little photo diary we have been collecting. We are both a little behind on the techno front so please be sympathatic to our techno phobe tendencies and my bad
spelling, My spelling was atrousious before I left, but that culmanating with my enjoyment in rambling, dodgey key boards and me speaking pigeon English for 3 months has meant it has detierated to
quite a tragic state.
However I know "Thank you" in 18 languages!!!! Including the Urghurs "Rachkmut" which differs slightly from their neighbours, the Krygzhs, "Rachkmat." Anyhow I get ahead of myself, I am meant to
be in Lithuania.
Don't worry it is Andrews turn next and he spells real good!
Vilinus - arrive on the night bus from Warsaw, drunk Polish lady, the specail blond hair out of a bottle type (no offense sorry anyone), keeps us entertained alllllllnight, getting loudly drunk
(this being drunk loudly in a celebratory fashion in public. This is something that we will undoubtably come back to - people think the lager louts are soically unacceptable in Auz and the UK. In
some places we have visited they are exhaulted like a national folk hero and given prime postion on public transport, immigration queues, toilet access etc....) so the lovely lady was chatting up any
one who looked remotely male, she liked the driver with his big handle bar moustache. I liked him too - but not in that way! WE got there much earlier than expected, 6am instead of 9am.
Time is a subjective concept as we know, well I think it is and people who have arranged to meet with me somewhere are likely to understand where I am coming from with that! This overland business
can create a physcial and mental sensation not unlike time travel, something much eerier than jet lag, you arrive when you don't expect, change languages and alliances (if you know what I
mean)...within seconds, then other times it is so subtle that I still think I am going to enjoy some Czech beer that evening but I can't because I am in Riga.
I could not comprehend the impact of overland travel on our lives ridiculus I know, what are we on, we find our selves telling people we like trains. I mean really like trains, in that way that
people stand by the side of the track with a notepad, as some kind of weak excuse of why we would not be getting the plane.
The lovely lady in the Chinese Embassy in Prague made a huge effort to communicate to us that there was something available nowadays called "Ryan Air". Which means it is now actually possible to
get to Prague in 2 hours rather than the 2 months that it had taken Andrew and I. We felt behind the times, you know out of date, on the slow train....literally!
Anyhow 6am in Vilinus - Andrew and I felt like ...., well you know.That lovely lady however waltzed off as fresh as a daisy in her cloud of smoke, enjoying her 10th or something cigerette of the
morning. The driver with the mousache, had kindly stopped on a number of occasions along the side of a busy road to allow her to fully enjoy her habit and not be inconveniced by the other
passangers.And while all of this was going on, what did the other passangers do? Well I can tell you, Not a thing other than, allowing the drunk maxium space to recline and a clear acces
to the door when it was smoke break time.
And me...As you know I can say "Thank you" in 18 different languages, so I did just that...feeling lucky to have been in the presence of one so blessed...Of course I didn't! I showed my
displesuare at this disturbence and I am sure I that I exhaled the loudest tut on the bus, I think Andrew would vouch for that!!
Vilinus, old loely town, green hill, huge extravegant train station, market full of sausage, tomatos and peachs, EU money pouring in to the old cobbled streets, lots of renovation work going on,
felt like Scandonavian air and living after being soenclosed by land for a while, my first sighting of a soviet train with a samovar (hot water on tap). Quick reflection of people, excited about the
future, proud and helpful.
That soveit train meant we had to get on it and head for Riga that day, so did not see to much of the town but watched the Lithuanian countryside roll by all day, lovely wooden houses, wild hills
and forest turning red from the encroaching Autumn, our first hint of a change in season. Such lovely carrot sald found for lunh too, seriously ben missing the vegetables.
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