Today’s been interesting. It started with the very very strange Hill of crosses outside the place I can’t pronounce – Siauliai.
I had camped about 5kms out of town in a small campsite with only two other groups, both of whom were great people – some Czech students and a Finnish family.
I made my way back to the main road on a local dirt road that got dodgier as I approached the large road. Then I continued on a really good bike path all the way to the ‘hill of crosses’.
Wow. It’s a hill and it’s full of crosses of all shapes and sizes, crammed together. It’s not aesthetic by any means. I thought it was a local memorial initially, but after reading a few of the inscriptions, it’s clear that the site has been commandeered by all sorts of groups who want to plant a cross in the name of their family, people, cause, club, etc. That really takes away from the poignancy of the place. I realised that and left.
Joniškis was where I stopped and looked for some lunch. I finally found a great supermarket at the second attempt and made my cheese rolls outside while a thunderstorm raged overhead. My timing was perfect. Lucky though, because the first shop I went to, had no cover and very few things that I felt like for lunch.
Outside the first place as I was about to leave, a middle aged lady arrived on her bicycle with a bag of plastic bottles to collect the deposits (I assume). She was a long way from being sober and while she aimed for the bike rack, gravity intervened and she gracefully fell over with the bike on top of her. I helped her up and parked her bike in the stand, but I don’t know how far she’ll get.
Later, I passed the Latvian border.
I dodged a couple of thunderstorms and everything looked like blue sky for a while but there were still storms about and they were moving much faster than me. I made it to Jelgava in one piece and looked for the apartment that I had booked. Jelgava is a quiet place on Sunday afternoons.
The building looked decidedly dark and dodgy along with the people hanging around it, but the apartment was fantastic on the inside. It was perfect for me – space for the bike with space to dry the tent and some washing.
I grabbed some salad and ramen from the excellent Rimi supermarket down the road, so dinner was a feast.
