Kaunas is long and hilly- the first day

Okay, to give you a general idea, the very beginning of my trip was hard. My nice colleague was recording me leaving Vilnius, which was nice, but caused pressure, you know? When I started cycling up the first hill I realized that cycling hundreds of kilometers demands a lot of effort, which I conveniently ignored while thinking about the nice part of the trip and prospective achievements. At the beginning, I was afraid that my back tyre was flat, but it turned out that I just have a very heavy backpack and I was going uphill. At the time, I was scared and tired, plus I understood that all of the media support causes a lot of pressure, and that I can’t disappoint all of you.

Luckily, after Vilnius the road was even. I also didn’t need to puzzle over the map because I knew where to go. I would like to say a big thank you to Lithuania for amazing views, and I would kindly like to complain about two small things which will teach me for future. There are almost no signs reporting the distance to the closest cities on the main road. Luckily, I eventually realized that I need to look for such information on back roads. Second, most of the gas stations are situated a few kilometers left or right the main road. Why? I don’t know.


Conclusions: I should definitely throw away half of my stuff, buy sunscreen because I somehow got sunburnt, I should have more water on me, and I should put good music on my phone, because internal dialogues are repeatable and predictable. I also got pants with pads. Now I can say, when you cycle a lot – they are vital, crucial, important and necessary.


When I got to Kaunas I was all right. When I got to my friends place I was dying. I didn’t know that I can use GPS offline, so I was confused about which road to take and needlessly cycled up the hill (two times) and up and down the stairs. Then we decided upon a particular building we would meet, but the fact that in Kaunas, the 104th building is located next to the 90th does not help. Eventually I met Luca and was over the moon that it was time to rest. I only needed to get to his place. He let me know that I can use GPS off-line (a damn digital immigrant - Eva, you’re complicating your life pointlessly) but I accidentally chose the way for walkers. I was almost there when I saw… stairs. I couldn’t even see the end so I decided to go round to get to Luca’s place. And then I saw another hill… At that moment I realized I didn’t eat or drink for the last 6 hours. Bla, bla, bla, but everything ended up well. I finally got to the place. And here the good part of the story begins. Luca went up to the 7th floor with my bicycle, let me use shower and made Italian coffee for me. Than he cooked Italian homemade pasta and tomatoes he brought from Sicily… I’m relaxing now and soon I will throw away half of my luggage. I need to plan the way for tomorrow and sleep well! Thank you all for your support!