End of August we bought ourselves new home. An apartment with a huge terrace and master balcony right here in Kassisaba. From the sunrise terrace we have magnificent view over old town and from the sunset balcony we can enjoy view from Kristiine to Rocca al Mare.
By the sunrise, Scott was so disturbed by the depressing town that we skipped the pancakes and left right after finishing the packing. We visited the Hill of Crosses and started our way towards Riga, in the hope of having some breakfast on the way. In a roadside bar we managed to get some coffee and eggs. Scott, who was still dumbfounded by the pearls of the sovjet architecture, asked, if we could skip Riga and drive right home. Especially considering that the restaurant we planned to eat in, is closed on Sundays. We couldn't skip Riga completely, because we had to pick up a package from a local shipping company. We followed the map and it brought us to a five-story building, filled with different businesses. None of which seemed to be open on Sunday, but I still decided to make sure. Main door was open and stepping into the dim lobby I was greeted by a renovation from 1985 and a little table in the corner, covered with a white table cloth and little ghetto blaster playing pop songs from the 80ies. As an added bonus, you could make yourself a coffee or tea and disinfect your hands. The logistic unit I needed, was on the second floor and to my surprise, even that door wasn't closed. However, all the doors that I needed, were closed. Next to the directors room, there was another disinfectant. Walked back to the car and informed Scott, who needed a toilet break for the last half an hour that there's a restroom on the second floor, door wide open. Like back in the times in my elementary school. Sovjet students had nothing to hide!
We had already figured out that skipping Riga means we can have lunch in Ainaži and that's what we did. We ordered bruschettas, tomato soup, Caesar salad, salmon tartar and crispy chicken. Everything they served was eaten and finished and we were looking for the waiter to pay, when the kitchen sent us a message that it's not going to take much longer with our tomato soup...
For brunch we had planned to go to Monai in Klaipeda again and I figured it would be a good idea to grab a coffee from our local eatery. Turned out that on this lovely Sunday morning all the coffee machines were kaputt and the tourist was welcome to have an instant coffee. The tourist didn't consider it as reasonable idea and walked back to the room. With Scott we went out to some nearby cafe, but everything within walking distance was closed and the only bar opened had a waiting line running into the parking lot. We had also forgotten the masks and ended up just dragging our luggage to the car and made our way to the harbor.
After 5 minutes sailing we were on the mainland again and 15 minutes later parked in front of Monai and walked in. Our waitress still remembered us from a few days ago and we got our favourite table next to the kitchen again. Scott chose their daily offer, which was lentil soup and pasta carbonara, I had eggs Benedict. And mimosas. Although Scott praised the soup and also the pasta was worth every good word spoken, in compare to the eggs, I'm not going to waste more time on his meal. Those eggs... There was amazingly fluffy toasted slice of brioche, covered with spinach, salted salmon and poached egg. And on top of that - the most airy sauce hollandaise I've ever had. It covered the eggs like a huge pile of whipped cream. And it all tasted so good that I'd be ready to drive to Klaipeda just for those eggs. As of today, I have three favourite brunch places - Dime Store in Detroit, Agustin in Vienna and Monai in Klaipeda. We also got cakes and coffee and our lovely waitress even remembered that I had my coffee without sugar.
From Klaipeda we went to Šiauliai, where we had booked a villa with a garden. We did some grocery shopping in the Lidl near our villa, got some snacks for the evening, a few items to bring back to Tallinn and went for sightseeing. We parked on a street that could easily challenge Jõgeva for the most depressing town title in Baltics and started to walk towards the boulevard. The boulevard was supposed to be the most pompous street in Šiauliai, lined with little shops, cardamom smelling bakeries and cute bistros. All that mixed with modern (street) art. We found some street art - there was an iguana hanging on the tree, from the middle of the street Juri Gagarin was about to take off, some old radio parts were glued on a building and a few more items from a junk yard. On a boulevard, more than one kilometer long, at least five restaurants were open and more than half of the building seemed to be not abandoned. Meaning more windows had glass and not plywood on.
We returned to our villa and garden and had dinner. For the brunch we had chosen a pancake bar on rooftop of a shopping center.
During my morning run the weather was still slightly cloudy and the views over our Amber Bay absolutely enchanting. I almost forgot to finish the run, but we had brunch in Il Vino planned. They opened the restaurant at 10am and being the first customers at 10:02am we could choose our favourite seating on the rooftop terrace. Turned out that there's where our good luck ended. After we got seated, four more tables were filled, two of which families with kids and two single persons. All four tables were served before us and one of the solo guests finished her meal, paid and left all the while we still only had the views to enjoy. 45 minutes after sitting down we got the eggs (Scott approved) and oatmeal, for which I considered asking a knife, because, it was fairly difficult to break a piece from it with just the spoon.
We packed our picnic chairs and some food from fridge into the backpack and started the hike towards Russia. About half an hour later we found a perfect and totally empty dune in the forest, set up our picnic and enjoyed the delicious food and amazing views. Following the fence between Russia and Lithuania, we ended up in some splendid private beaches. Since we had only planned a little hike in the forest and on dunes, I clearly didn't bring my bikini... I wrapped the beach towel around me, tied it up on the back and swam like a decent muslim woman.
For the dinner, I decided to introduce the creme de la creme of Lithuanian cuisine to my husband and ordered zeppelinis. They still tasted just like ... well, zeppelinis. Like ground meat, covered with a lot of tasteless potato starch. I had nothing to complain about my burger and fries.
Since the sun rises on our side of the peninsula and sets on the other, we decided that on our last evening here, we're gonna check out the sunset too and walked 25 minutes to the west coast. What wasn't there, was the setting sun. However, we were greeted by a lot of clouds and a light pink stripe, where the sun most likely was at that moment.
Meanwhile, the restaurant that we planned to visit in Vilnius had sent me an email that in the summer they are closed on the weekends... Well, their business idea wasn't very clear for us, but it was obvious that it doesn't make any sense to go to Vilnius, if we can't eat in Bistro18. So, we took the map and after consulting map, Google and my dad, we decided to stay the night in Šiauliai.
We started the day with a morning run along the bay and went then to a nearby bistro for breakfast. I ordered their five-grain porridge and Scott took french fries and hot dogs. In 10 minutes Scott had his food and they tried to place a tray covered with every possible brunch item in front of me. I claimed that it doesn't look like porridge and jam at all and asked them to consult the chef again. 10 more minutes and my porridge arrived.
We had an island day trip planned for the day - community centers, local metropolis, some better dunes and a few forest hikes here and there. Started the car and made our way to Pervalka and Preila. Had some seaside walks in both, checked out some lovely homes and a few more modern examples of architecture (all very tastefully integrated into the milieu) and drove then to the gray dunes. Parked the car only to find out that the 30 EUR island fee doesn't count a penny here and to see the dunes we would need to pay 5 EUR per person. We kept on driving.
Next thing we had the Rami hill on our map, where we expected some magnificent views over forests and sandy beaches. However, the first view we got, was one of a wedding reception, where there was the happy couple posing to the photographer on the view point. We made a great background for the pics while enjoying the rest of the view and left to Juodkrante from there. Scott wanted to use a bathroom and I started to get hungry. We stepped into a lovely garden cafe in someone's back yard and found a table. Since they only had a menu in Lithuanian, the waitress offered to tell us, what they have. However, since I wanted the curd pancakes, I tried to explain to her that I want the sõrniki, the curt pancakes, made of quark. The waitress' face lit up and she informed me that not only have they pancakes, but they have piled them up into an impressive tower. I should not worry, she's got it. A few moments later, Scott's soda and my iced coffee arrived. And 10 minutes later she placed a colossal pile of pancakes and banana slices, all covered with jam in front of me. Regular think pancakes that hadn't seen the quark even from afar.
We also visited the wooden statues park and amber bay and returned to Nida.
Our patioless, but parkinglotpicnicoption hotel had breakfast included. Since it was buffet, we figured that it would be a good idea to got there at 8am before every other guest arrives and coughs on the food. Since there is also a youth hostel in the hotel yard that for currently accommodating German schoolkids in the amount that would fill half a Dresden, our plan fell through. 7:50am there was already an impressive line of insomniac youngsters waiting and at 7:55am once they opened the doors, there was no available spot around the buffet table to reach for a slice of cheese. Porridge seemed to be corn semolina and the pancakes fried in the same oil they have been using since Easter. We chose to eat somewhere else.
We walked to the beach on the other side of the peninsula and solved some travel quizzes there until we started to get hungry. We made some sandwiches in the hotel and ate a few tomatoes and went for a hike in forest and dunes in the afternoon. Since we had made our homework and chosen a restaurant in Nida, we also walked to Il Vino to take a look at the menu and book a table for dinner. I mean, it was the furthest located restaurant in our town and we would have hated to walk the 11 minutes there being all hungry and not gotten a table. Located at a distance from the central idyll, the soviet era architecture gem of bricks and discolored wood, it was a three storied building with the restaurant on the third floor and their roof top terrace on the roof of the neighboring house. From the terrace there there were breathtaking views of the sunset and glass wall toilet with posters of Emmanuelle.
By 7pm we arrived in the restaurant and as always we started to order way too much food: shrimps, patatas extra bravas, grilled cheese bruschetta, fried jalopenos, cherry tomatoes filled with feta, asparagus with ham. Muy good. Families in the neighboring tables made sure that we weren't bored during the fairly long waiting time. Parents of a two-year old girl arrived, carrying a big potty. Despite that the girl managed to pee into her pink pants. 3-4 kids at the table in the furthest corner of the terrace were screaming so loud that we tried to catch some breaks to share a few quick words. Two boys were climbing on the bridge railing between both buildings like James Bond in the towers of Siena. Anyway, until the desserts arrived, everything was to our liking. They served us tasteless overbaked chocolate cake which they called chocolate-not-souffle cake and some dry pieces of apples on undercooked crust as tarte tatin. But since the service was very lovely, we didn't make an issue of it.
