Lit for Lat.

Leaving Riga was tough. But it was time for the road trip portion of our Baltic trip, into Lithuania. We picked up our Opal Astra at RIX (Riga airport) and headed south. Jeff assumed driving responsibilities. I navigated.


We picked a good day for driving. The countryside in Southern Latvia and Lithuania is pretty. Feels midwestern.

Except for all the castles.


There were old castles,


beautifully restored, 100+ room castles.


with ornate porcelain collections


and ostentacious ballrooms


And then there were roasted chicken thighs and coleslaw from Maxima, the Target of the Baltics.


Or as I like to call them, the "other" castles.

Maxima has three different sized stores. Maxima X, which is like a mini mart, Maxima XX which is more like a regular Target with modest sized supermarket, and then Maxima XXX, which is both supermarket and discount dept store. I'm already brand loyal to Maxima. They're the low cost leader in the Baltics. I hope they are more Target than Walmart, or I might have to jump ship to Iki, another popular chain.

Before hitting the border, we realized we had a LOT of Latvian coins, which we needed to exchange.



so we stopped here for an ice cream, and some snacks.


Goodbye Latvia.


Our first stop in Lithuania is the Hill of Crosses.

It's a pretty stark sight. Under Soviet rule, the site was bulldozed twice, but those spunky Lithuanians just started over.


I guess you're not supposed to pray here. Wha?


Unless you're a gnome.

Our guidebook calls Lithuanians the "Italians of the Baltics" which we first interpreted as a huge compliment, but so far, we're discovering it's sort of a mixed bag. They seem to be a bit more fiery in nature, show their national pride (and emotions in general) more openly, (we never saw "I heart Latvia" t-shirts) but we've also seen more nutjobs here too. There seems to be a crazy hitchhiker contingent along these beautiful, back roads.



Next stop, Vilnius.