Lietuva

Mid-June and time to make my yearly visit to Lithuania.

Unfortunately my usual Czech Airline flight had been booked up and I had to go with Lufthansa. My first flight with them and they were very ordinary indeed (although I've heard BA are pretty poor too), certainly no better than the budget airlines.

Didn't spend too much time in the centre, though it didn't seem to have changed much. Of course two of my favourite bars have closed down. The outskirts are changing rapidly though. Almost every patch of open space is being developed with new blocks of flats and retail parks. How the average Lithuanian can afford these new flats I don't know. Probably why most of them are lying empty.

It seems Lithuania is trying to escape its Soviet past by building anything and everything that would not have been tolerated under the USSR. But I can't help thinking that none of this is sustainable (all the brand new clothes shops have everything...except any customers, even on a Saturday afternoon) and will probably all go bankrupt in a couple of years. In a strange sort of way all the new development is starting to look as bland as the endless blocks of Soviet flats.

The Stag-parties have definately found Vilnius. There's some wierd contraption now where men peddle round on a sort of collective bike, continously drinking beer with loud music blasting out and a go-go dancer on the front!? The old (and some of the young) seem pretty horrified at the sort of freak show their country might be turning into.

In the 3 short years since I've been going to Vilnius, parts have changed beyond recognition. Anyway, it'll be interesting to hear the views of min-man (and his fairer half, charlotte) on this part of Europe.