Day 55: Kaunus, Lithuania to Kaliningrad, Russia

Number of tie wraps: 49 (holding steady)

Countdown: 7426 miles down, 1159 to go

I’m happy to report that we had an easy border crossing today. No drama. No angst over paperwork. No customs officials tracking down obscure regulations that we had no chance of complying with.

We reached the border about 10 a.m. and finished crossing into Russia about 2 p.m. for a record-setting (for us anyway) four hours. Four hours may seem like a long time to clear customs, but a long line of cars in front of us caused most of the delay, not the customs process itself.

We really didn’t want to leave Lithuania after all the fun we had there, but we are happy to be back in Russia. I’m starting to actually feel a little Russian and it’s nice to see Cyrillic signs again. The bumpy Russian roads gave John and Luke a chance to try out the new rear shock absorbers on the Roadster, and Luke told me at a fuel stop that the shocks are working “very well.”

The roadside scenery changed to mostly small villages, large fields of corn, and riotous displays of wildflowers from every color in the rainbow.

Wildflowers by the roadside on the trip to Kaliningrad

Roadside wildflowers on the trip to Kaliningrad (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We arrived in Kaliningrad about 5 p.m. and, as we drove to our hotel we saw a statue commemorating the four cosmonauts that hail from Kaliningrad. The statue made a nice preview for what we’ll see on our city tour tomorrow morning.

Statue commemorating cosmonauts from Kaliningrad

Statue commemorating cosmonauts from Kaliningrad (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Friday we drive back across the Russian border into Poland, our last Russian border crossing for this trip. Just when we are finally getting good at this!

Day 54: Vilnius to Kaunus, Lithuania

Number of tie wraps: 49 (holding steady)

Countdown: 7240 miles down, 1345 to go

Quote of the day: “We got some real shocks now!”

After dinner last night, Karen and I walked a few blocks to check out an unusual statue in Vilnius — a bust of the Lithuanian-American musician Frank Zappa.

 

Bust of Frank Zappa in Vilnius

Bust of Frank Zappa in Vilnius (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

From there we found a beer store and pub named “Beer Heaven,” but they were closing at 10 p.m. so we only had time to try one of their 80 beers. We think that, with at least 70 breweries and 3,000,000 citizens, Lithuania must have one of the highest brewery to million citizens ratios in the world, certainly a good measure of happiness.

 

Beer Heaven

Beer Heaven (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

This morning, we stopped by the local office of our sponsor, Sotheby’s International Realty, for some photos before renewing the shock absorber hunt (the shop from yesterday evening didn’t pan out).

 

John with Vilija at Sotheby's

John with Vilija at Sotheby’s (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We first went to another garage, and they pointed us to a large auto parts store, which had some shocks in stock that were the right size, but the mounting hole was too small. However, the salesman helping Luke gave us the name of a garage with a machine shop that could resize the hole, so John decided to buy the shocks. By about 2:45, the modified shocks were ready, so we drove to Kaunus, which was only a little more than an hour away over an excellent four-lane highway.

Old shock on top, new shock on bottom

Old shock on top, new shock on bottom (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Luke's got shocks!

Luke’s got shocks! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Augustus Jansonns, the salesman who helped us, signs the car

Augustus Jansonns, the salesman who helped us, signs the car (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Once we were at the hotel in Kaunus, Luke and John put on the new shocks, which took about an hour. The left rear shock had failed internally — Luke was able to pull it apart as shown in one of the photos below. He said he has never seen a shock fail like that; however, he has also never seen a shock that drove for 5,000 miles on Siberian roads! We hope that the shock saga has finally come to a close.

 

Cathedral? What cathedral? We've got a car to fix!

Cathedral? What cathedral? We’ve got a car to fix! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Shocks are not supposed to do this!

Shocks are not supposed to do this! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

New shocks; still using the springs from Novosibirsk

New shocks; still using the springs from Novosibirsk (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

After dinner Cathy, Karen and I walked around Kaunus for about two hours since we won’t have time to see the city before we leave for Kaliningrad tomorrow. I saw a nice Lithuanian calico kitty,

Lithuanian calico

Lithuanian calico (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

and we walked across a pedestrian bridge over the Nemunas River.

 

Pedestrian bridge across the Nemunas River in Kaunus

Pedestrian bridge across the Nemunas River in Kaunus (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

There is a plaque on the bridge that describes how a famous Lithuanian aerobatic pilot, Lakunas Jurgis Kairys, flew under the bridge (which is only 20 feet high) in his airplane  on September 2, 2000.

 

Plaque the flight under the bridge by aerobatic pilot Lakunas Jurgis Kairys

Plaque that marks the flight under the bridge by aerobatic pilot Lakunas Jurgis Kairys (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We also saw several nice cathedrals and the town hall that sits in a city square where hundreds of people were watching the World Cup in outdoor cafes.

 

Town hall in Kaunus

Town hall in Kaunus (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Last, we walked by a model of the Lituanica, which was piloted by Lithuanian-American pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas on an attempted transatlantic crossing from New York to Kaunus in 1933. Unfortunately, the airplane crashed in Poland and both pilots were killed. I recognized the model because the airplane, which was a Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker, is on the back of the 10 lita bill; the pilots are on the front.

 

Model of the Lituanica

Model of the Lituanica (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Back of 10 lita bill

Back of 10 lita bill (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Front of 10 lita bill

Front of 10 lita bill (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Tomorrow we drive to Kaliningrad, which is back in Russia. We’ll be crossing the border at the same location as the 1908 racers, except the 1908 racers crossed from Russia into Germany instead of from Lithuania into Russia. Our total drive tomorrow is about 300 km, with about 100 of that before the border and 200 after.

Day 53: Vilnius, Lithuania

Number of tie wraps: 49 (holding steady)

Countdown: 7147 miles down, 1411 to go

On this day in 1908, a significant event occurred in Siberia that very few people even noticed until many years later. It occurred near Tunguska, which is about 400 miles north of Tulun, the town where John lost the bag containing his papers.

At 7:14 a.m. on June 30, 1908, as the Thomas Flyer was in Omsk and the Protos was in Kansk, an object 200-600 feet across exploded at about 61 degrees north latitude and 102 degrees east at an estimated altitude of 3-6 miles. The explosion, which measured about 1,000 times the size of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, killed 80 million trees over an area a little smaller than the state of Rhode Island. Due to the remote location, no human fatalities were recorded; however, the shock wave reportedly broke windows up to several hundred miles away. The object was originally believed to be an asteroid or a comet, but more recent studies indicate that it may have been a meteor. You can visit Wikipedia to learn more. The crater and devastation from the object are still visible, as you can see in the Google Earth image below.

Tunguska Event Site

Tunguska Event Site courtesy Google Earth

Today began like many our of days, with a trip to an auto parts store that we had noticed while walking to our restaurant last night. But it was a small shop, and the clerk didn’t have a suitable rear shock absorber in stock. He suggested we try the Vilnius auto mart, a place similar to the auto heaven in Novosibirsk, but the Vilnius mart is closed on Mondays. With nothing left to do regarding the Roadster, we went on our walking tour of Vilnius.

 

Auto parts store in Vilnius

Auto parts store in Vilnius (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We spent most of the tour in the Old Town section of Vilnius, where we saw many old Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches that have been restored since Lithuania gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. The Catholic church below is located at Vilnius University.

Catholic church at Vilnius University

Catholic church at Vilnius University (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Near the university, we also had a chance to see the presidential palace, which is the equivalent of the U.S. White House.

 

Lithuanian Presidential Palace

Lithuanian Presidential Palace (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

The highlight of the tour for me was our visit to the Uzupis Republic, sort of a bonus country for our trip. The area is a self-proclaimed republic of artists that has its own constitution, president, bishop, and anthem.

 

Welcome to the Republic of Uzupis

Welcome to the Republic of Uzupis (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

As you might expect, there are plenty of small shops and art galleries to peruse in Uzupis, such as the one below that offered some good advice along with art displays.

 

Artistic advice that everyone can follow

Artistic advice that everyone can follow (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We also saw a wall that displays plaques with the Uzupis constitution in different languages (I forgot to count how many). Here are some of my favorites:

5. Everyone has the right to be unique.

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

16. Everyone has the right to be happy.

24. Everyone has the right to have faith.

38. Everyone has the right to not be afraid.

41. Do not surrender.

 

Republic of Uzupis Constitution

Republic of Uzupis Constitution (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

After the tour, John returned to the hotel to try installing one of the old front shock absorbers to replace the broken rear shock absorber. The replacement shock is too short to use the spring that was installed on the old rear shock absorber, but it’s better than nothing. As far as I know, there are no new tie wraps on the car as a result of this latest installation.

Old front shock now being used as a rear shock -- yes, John and Luke are getting desperate

Old front shock now being used as a rear shock — yes, John and Luke are getting desperate (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

About 4 p.m. our guide, Karen, rode with Leo in the Envoy to find a car wash and they instead found a garage that said they might be able to help with the shock absorber. John, Luke, Karen and I walked back over to the shop with one of the old front shock absorbers and the man in the photo below, Marius, said he might be able to find something by tomorrow. He thinks there is a Mercedes-Benz shock similar to the one the Roadster needs.

 

Second attempt to find the shock absorber in Vilnius

Second attempt to find the shock absorber in Vilnius (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Tomorrow we’ll first check to see if Marius had any luck finding a suitable shock and, depending on what happens with that, we may or may not visit a military vehicle museum before we start our short 105 km drive to Kaunus.