Day 170 – 171 | Latvia to Lithuania

Day 170 | Wednesday August 31

My host Dennis gave me a tour through his town Ludza. It’s a very old town surrounded by lakes. Dennis hasn’t seen much outside of his town, the border with Russia is only 10km away but he prefers to stay in Ludza, so he knows it pretty well. With his sports car we drove off-road into a forrest, some kings from hundreds of years ago and even mummies were buried here.

Around noon I left Ludza. I wanted to go to Vilnius but that was impossible to reach in one day. So I stopped halfway down, in Daugavpils. In search of a place to stay I entered some hotels and found my luck at Park Hotel Latgola, a beautiful looking hotel located probably in the tallest building of the city. My room was located on the 9th floor and had a great view over the ‘skyline’.
Minor problem was that there was no opportunity to charge the car at the hotel. In Latvia there are some public chargers but they are found in and around Riga. I started to drive around and looked for a socket. There are not many here. I was lucky to find a carwash with a nice guy who offered me to park and charge overnight, problem solved.

Day 171 | Thursday September 1

Funny thing to discover on this trip is how breakfasts are totally different in each country. Today I had the opportunity to discover it at the hotel. In Latvia they eat very strong: eggs, salads, fish and and soups for breakfast. Less bread, no croissants at all.

Vilnius was now only 173km away. When I had been driving for 50km or so I noticed the country seemed to change. The roads were better and the houses looked different. Without knowing I already entered Lithuania. Last night I didn’t had any offers yet for places to stay in Vilnius so I send out a request on Facebook. In the morning I had 3 people who replied to it, including two Dutchmans. In the afternoon I arrived in Vilnius and stopped at a shopping mall to pick up free wifi and check my messages. The malls are huge here, in the middle of the mall even was an ice-skating ring! Impressive.
They also had some superchargers installed at the parking. Long time ago I saw one. Some cars were charging there and I made a short talk. Apparently it where taxi drivers and they felt pretty satisfied with the EV’s.

Bernie, my Dutch host invited me to come to one of his restaurants. In 2001 Bernie got the opportunity to start a houseclub here in the city, loved it and stayed ever since. He now owns 6 different establishments in Vilnius including a tapas bar, rum bar and burger restaurant. Bernie is original from the same city as me, Haarlem. It’s a small world.

After dinner at his restaurants (really good beef steak by the way) we drove to his house. It was only 2km and I had 4% battery left. For the first time this trip the battery ran completely out! Luckily I was in the middle of the city with electricity everywhere so right where it ran out there was a hotel and it was ok to plug it in there. After 15 minutes we got home.

Bernie lives with his girlfriend and 2 cats in a nice house only few minutes from the center. We talked a bit, did some work and than Bernie took me to a concert in town and we finished it off with some rums at one of his bars.

Pictures