Lithuania (At Last) and get me Audi here!
Note - The subject matter of this post occurred back in August and September of 2006 during our around northern Europe trip. I have only gotten around to finishing the blog for this now.We left Riga, Latvia and drove to Lithuania where we were going to spend the night in Palanga. Palanga is a nice Baltic seaside resort frequented by Lithuanians on vacation. We had never heard of it until we met our builder, Valdas, who renovated our new flat. He's Lithuanian and from Palanga, Lithuania. It just so happened that at the time that we would be going through Lithuania he would be on vacation visiting family. He invited us down.
Not to harp on about the roads on this trip but the roads were by and large in good shape and the expressways were excellent. You come to appreciate the speed that you can go on the expressways when you get stuck on a one lane stretch of road behind a grain tractor because they haven't yet upgraded the roads. But by and large the driving was good.
On the other hand, the drivers are not so great. There is generally a lot of bad driving in Eastern Europe, where Poland is probably the worst (it's okay, im Polish so I can say that). This is because the roads are so bad in Poland and the drivers are maniacs. However Lithuania doesn't come too far behind.
As we entered Lithuania we got stuck behind a lorry but couldn't pass because the smart car doesn't have great pick up speed and there were cars coming from the other direction. Simply did not want to risk it. This situation did not stop a number of Audi 80's from passing all the cars behind us and including us to try to pass the lorry. At first there was just the one, and then another until four Audi 80's were trying to pass one another and the lorry. Compared to the lorry they all looked like flies flying around a piece of crap. Every couple seconds one Audi would swing out to see if it could pass another and then wither pass or quickly jump back into the correct lane before it was involved in a head on collision. This went on for a few minutes until the road widened into a multi-lane highway.
Talking about Audi's, and anyother VW product, it seems that Lithuania is where they go to die. The cars are highly regarded for their engine durability and are highly prized. You will see loads of them around. Due to Lithuania being a relatively poor country they are usually older models from the early 1990's with some being fairly new. These cars are imported from Germany once they get to the point that the Germans don't wish to buy them on the used car market. It was funny seeing all these Audi's and VW's because it has almost become a stereotype of Lithuanians in my mind now. It made me think back to our builder who drives, back in London an Audi A6, as well as the electrician and the plumber who drives a VW Passat....all Lithuanians.
Anyway, we met Valdas in Palanga where he showed us around the town, took us to a Lithuanian restaurant where we saw a Ukrainian pop band, singing in Russian. The weather was nice and warm so we rented bikes and explored a bit more. All in all it was a good evening and a very nice seaside town.
posted by NV @ 7:32 pm
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