Kaunas Day One:

Arriving late on the Tuesday evening, my first setback came when the receptionist at the hotel refused to accept my (or any) credit card. This meant I had to use my hardearned Euros, which in turn meant that I had to get to an ATM at the earliest opportunity.

The receptionist only spoke enough English to tell me I had to pay cash and to tell me that the 51 and 57 buses went into town. Not where they went from. There was a bus stop outside the hotel, but it didn’t say that either bus stopped there. I walked about half a kilometre to a crossroads, and saw what looked like a shopping mall away off into the distance along the left hand turning. Having bought a bottle of water inside, I came out to find that this was where the 51 and 57 buses turned round. 

Once in town I found an ATM fairly quickly, and this meant I could begin to explore properly, and to sketch.

Kaunas is big on great churches, but terrible for maps or signposts. This huge hunk of baroque and roll provided me with a very useful point at which to get my bearings. It’s the Archangel Michael Roman Catholic Church, and stands at the end of Laisves Aleja, a long and impressive pedestrianised thoroughfare through the centre of Kaunas, which is rather like a Parisian Boulevard. And it is utterly massive. Guess how many people stopped to compliment me on my sketch while I was making it? That's right, none. I have only got a day's experience to base this on, but the good people of Kaunas seem rather like East coast Scots to me - they're not the most demonstrative of people, but they are actually very kind, and I expect that once they're taken with you, then you've got a friend for life.

At the other end of the Laisves Aleja is Vilnius Street, and this leads down into the Old Town. I like the Old Town, although it doesn’t possess the narrow, crooked streets that the name ‘old town’ maybe conjures up. No, I walked through pleasant wide streets, lined with fine baroque buildings, until they opened up in the town hall square.

I've already posted my sketch of the Vytautas the Great Bridge, which is close to the Old Town, and a trolleybus, but I also made on more sketch on this first day. This is just behind the Town Hall, and is part of a seminary which forms one corner of the square.