Lithuania, July 2015

So when my friend Adas - who was born in Lithuania - left Kuwait for good we had decided to go to Lithuania together some day. In July 2015 the day had come and we flew to Vilnius together.

During the whole vacation (and I'm not exaggerating here) we used every spare minute to gamble. We mainly played Chinese poker or a modification of Chinese poker. Every. Day. Every. Free. Minute. We agreed that we'd count the points of every day and the loser had to pay dinner while the winner had the choice of where to go for dinner.

Let me tell you this: I destroyed him so hard that he accused me of cheating every second game. I had really lucky hands a lot, even to me it seemed unreal and I started feeling bad for being this lucky. Only the last day he managed to win (of course: The day we went to the most expensive restaurant) and got some of his pride back.

We stayed at his grandmothers apartment, who was not around though. Vilnius looked as expected - a lot of sovjet-like cold concrete blocks. Adas then took me on a small tour around the city and we actually did find a few nice places, I especially liked the artists town Užupis in the center of the city (which actually counts as an own republic!).

On one wall we found some shine metal plates that explained the constitution of the republic, which read:

The Republic of Užupis Constitution:

1. Everyone has the right to live by the River Vilnelė, and the River Vilnelė has the right to flow by everyone.

2. Everyone has the right to hot water, heating in winter and a tiled roof.

3. Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation.

4. Everyone has the right to make mistakes.

5. Everyone has the right to be unique.

6. Everyone has the right to love.

7. Everyone has the right not to be loved, but not necessarily.

8. Everyone has the right to be undistinguished and unknown.

9. Everyone has the right to be idle.

10. Everyone has the right to love and take care of a cat.

11. Everyone has the right to look after the dog until one of them dies.

12. A dog has the right to be a dog.

13. A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in time of need.

14. Sometimes everyone has the right to be unaware of their duties.

15. Everyone has the right to be in doubt, but this is not an obligation.

16. Everyone has the right to be happy.

17. Everyone has the right to be unhappy.

18. Everyone has the right to be silent.

19. Everyone has the right to have faith.

20. No one has the right to violence.

21. Everyone has the right to appreciate their unimportance.

22. No one has the right to have a design on eternity.

23. Everyone has the right to understand.

24. Everyone has the right to understand nothing.

25. Everyone has the right to be of any nationality.

26. Everyone has the right to celebrate or not celebrate their birthday.

27. Everyone shall remember their name.

28. Everyone may share what they possess.

29. No one can share what they do not possess.

30. Everyone has the right to have brothers, sisters and parents.

31. Everyone may be independent.

32. Everyone is responsible for their freedom.

33. Everyone has the right to cry.

34. Everyone has the right to be misunderstood.

35. No one has the right to make another person guilty.

36. Everyone has the right to be individual.

37. Everyone has the right to have no rights.

38. Everyone has the right to not to be afraid.

39. Do not defeat

40. Do not fight back

41. Do not surrender

How cool is that?

We then had a late lunch and visited Adas' mums shop, selling handcrafted linen products - pretty cool! We then walked back home, having an ice cream on the way. After having a short rest we left the apartment again and headed to the Casino. As Adas is a passionate gambler and there was a poker tournament on that night we thought we'd give it a shot. Arriving at the Casino we signed up and received a few vouchers:

10 Euros on the machines, 10 Euros at the bar and a 30-Euro entry ticket for the tournament. As there was still some time before the tournament started we hit the electronic roulette machine to use that voucher. We actually planned to just gamble a bit until the money is gone and then start the roulette. 'Unfortunately' losing the money was easier said than done. I kept winning small pots and got up to almost 30 euros (I made the decision to just take the money and go as soon as I hit 30). As the tournament was about to start I just went for all-or-nothing: All on black. Rien ne va plus. You lose. Meh. Whatever.

I started using my 10-euro-voucher for the bar, thinking it'll get me a beer or two. Well.. a large beer was 1,20 Euro (let's do this!).

Time to hit the poker tables.

There were about 50 people playing and Adas and I got seated on different tables. He gave me some advice in advance on how to play as this was my first time. I actually did pretty well (Adas didn't.. he busted pretty early.. hahaha) and was even chip leader for quite a while. At some point I had to change tables again and this was when things took a turn for the worse. I was enjoying my third or forth beer and started feeling the effects. I stopped being nervous about the tournament and started enjoying. Few beers later (I was determined to use that 10-Euro voucher up to the last cent!) I had to leave the table every ten minutes to take a wee.. and was a little too drunk to play properly. It came as it had to: Just before reaching the final table I busted (damn. I could have used that 5000 Euro Jackpot). Anyhow - didn't care. Had beer. I was pretty happy.

We stayed for a bit and Adas used the rest of his vouchers and player BJ for a bit. Then it was time to get back home and sober up!

The next day started early, we got up and went out for breakfast. After that we took a cab to one of Adas' mums colleagues who generously offered to lend us her car for a few days. We had a chat for a while and a tour through her amazingly beautiful house and then started our road trip towards the coast. The only stop we had was at Trakai castle, probably the most famous spot in Lithuania. We walked around it for a bit (it's located on an island, reachable by bridge) and had a few snacks afterwards (yummy!) and then hit the road again. When we reached the coast we drove to a small town on a half island, which is a national park. The towns name is Nida (the most western point of the baltic states), the half island is called the Curonian Split. The weather was beautiful and the beauty of nature hit me. The sunlight shining through the lush forest looked magical to me - what a great place!

We drove around looking for a place to stay and finally found a nice guest house that was affordable. It had a great view on the ocean and a small outdoor area where we could rest and gamble. The room was small and not quite clean, the bathroom two stories below.. but we didn't care too much.

After leaving our luggage we drove along the Curonian Split to meet some of Adas' mums relatives (or friends? Can't remember) in a little outdoor bar. The weather was turning and it started to rain, so we sat under a roof, drinking beer and chatting. I proudly used all the Lithuanian words I had learned so far (I always like to learn a few basics of the local language when visiting.. and having a guy with me who's pretty fluent in Lithuanian he taught me some words), which was good for a laugh for the others..

In the evening we left and headed back towards our guest house, where we found a nearby restaurant - great place for dinner. Adas continued introducing me to the local cuisine - most of it really tasty. Of course we had a few games after dinner.. as usual. The way back to the guest house we spent running as it was pouring down. We reached it complete soaked, so we put our clothes up to dry and went to bed.

The next day was a lot better, although it was cloudy there was no rain (well.. except for an odd spit here and there). We visited (what Adas told me to be) Europes largest dune. Now that I've googled it, the web tells me that europes largest dune is located in France. Maybe I got mixed up - who knows. Anyhow, we walked around in the sand and had lots of fun jumping and rolling down the steep hills (felt like being 8 years old again..). Completely covered in sand we left and headed back to the hotel. I can not remember what we did the rest of the day - I suppose sitting outside the guest house and gambling?! In the evening we headed back to the restaurant, had our dinner and continued gambling.. and that was it for the day.

On our last full day we checked out after breakfast in the morning and then left the Curonian Split, driving back to Vilnius. The only interesting thing to mention is a traffic jam that occurred at some point. we were stuck for over an hour as it was raining again and a few cars had crashed. We reached Vilnius and gave the car back to its owner. Then we strayed around the city again and went for dinner in the evening. A great restaurant (quite a famous one if I remember correctly..?) with good food. As mentioned earlier it was my turn to cover the bill this time.. which I gladly did. After dinner we headed back to Adas' grandmas place and repacked our stuff, ready to go back to the airport.

I can't remember what time we departed but it was sometime in the middle of the night. We got to the airport by Taxi and back to Germany without further trouble.

I can honestly say, that I really enjoyed the vacation, Vilnius has some great corners (Užupis!) and the Curonian Split is amazing! If anyone is planning to see the Baltic States any time, don't miss out on Lithuania.