Ostpreussen

So I actually have made it to East Prussia. I didn’t think that was going to work out since I couldn’t get a Russian visa but it turns out, and I should have known this all along, there is a small sliver of what used to be East Prussia in Lithuania, very near where I wanted to be anyway. After WW1 this little sliver was taken from Germany and first put under French administration. In 1923 it was annexed by Lithuania. Lithuanians and Germans had been living together in this area for many years already. I remember my grandmother talking about the Memelland, as they called this area. My father too. The Memel/Nemanus River became the new border.


I took the train to Kaunas from Vilnius yesterday morning. It was pouring rain and I walked the 2 km to the train station with all my rain gear on which makes it look like my pack is even bigger and me more crazy. But it was a pretty good walk. The train ride was cool. Very hard, uncomfortable benches. A little old lady made some suggestion to me, I thought maybe that it would be better in another car but really I had no idea and so I stayed put. It was hard getting on the train with the small, high, steep steps. And then the stop seemed to be the wrong train station way outside of town so I walked for miles before getting on the trolley bus. I kept asking people for directions to make sure I was going the right way.

My plan was to take a boot from Kaunas to the sea along the Memel/Nemanus River. It would be a 4 hour boot trip apparently, all according to the Lonely Planet who assured me that by the time I’m reading this information it would actually be accurate. Well, it wasn’t. The boot isn’t running yet. They’re now hoping for August. I wonder if it’s possibly a problem with the Russian border on the other side of the river??

So I rented a car and headed west. It’s a little tricky navigating on my own, but I’m good with directions, there aren’t that many roads to choose from and I have a good map. So it’s working out very well really. Though I did get stopped by the police already…for speeding. Except that I was being very good about the limit and I had just seen the sign marking it down to 50 and I took my foot off the pedal to slow down but they were sitting right behind the sign! Which I tried to explain to the officer and since he didn’t understand a word I was saying he just waved me on through. Whew!

I stopped in a town called Jurbarkas where there was a good view of the river. There I took some pics and met an old man who was sitting on a bench enjoying his beautiful Memelstrom. (The wise person who designed this parking lot and sitting area though put the benches on the wrong side of the carpark so you have to look past the cars to see the river!) Anyway this man started talking to me. It turned out he could speak German too. He was a German teacher at a high school for 50? years. He knew all about the East Prussian history and all the German names. He had been to Königsberg not long after it was bombed. My dad was there during the bombing. They must have just missed each other. We had a nice conversation. He wanted to invite me back to his house since he has many books in German about the history. But I wanted to be on my way since it was already late afternoon. He gave me his address because he wants a travel report and I should come and visit the next time that I come.

He also talked about how the economy in Lithuania is not very good. There aren’t many jobs though there is a lot to do. But not enough money and young people are most interested in having nice cars, and drinking beer. Not so much working. Many go to find work in other countries. As I was driving through the countryside through the beautiful little villages with their often ramshackle houses, some looking like they very much date back to the German era, I thought that these towns and villages will likely have the same fate as those in Eastern Germany. On their way to becoming obsolete or swallowed up by bigger cities as they expand with their malls and highrises. In the meantime I imagined I was driving through villages that may very well have resembled the small ones my grandparents and great-grandparents came from.


At the turn-off to Tilsit/Sovetsk I decided to take it and see how far I would get and what I could see without having to produce a visa. Tilsit is the city my mother was born in. My grandparents lived there for a few years with their new young family. And my father lived there too as young man. He tells of swimming across the river and going paddling with his friend. I could see bits of today’s city from afar. I couldn’t even get close enough to actually see the river. There was a dike or rising in the way. But I could see the old gates of the old bridge that one usually sees in pictures of the city and some old smokestacks and ugly Soviet architecture blocks of buildings.

I stayed overnight in Heydekrug/Silute at the Hotel Deims. It seems it has been a hotel since 1870 but it’s nicely modernized now and the walls are tastefully adorned with pictures of the city in days gone by. Very interesting. I imagine many German visitors come here as they’re exploring roots and homeland. There seem to be a couple here. I’m going to explore around the area today. Maybe I’ll find a campsite tonight. I hope it’s not too cold. It seems to cool down in the evenings and I’m not sure I have enough warm clothes with me. We’ll see. Maybe I can find a nice sweater here in Heydekrug. After this I’m heading to the Curonian Spit/Kurische Nehrung, up then to Memel/Klaipeda and into Zemaitija.