In this post I will describe how it happened, give some critique about European passenger rights law, and what I’ve learnt from this hell-trip.

I was going to the Hellfest festival that takes place in Clisson, France (You can make as many puns about it as you please:) ).

Part One: The Hell

As mentioned above, my trip started a bit past 04.00 in the morning when I got up to catch a bus from Klaipėda to Riga. When I arrived to Riga, I found a huge mass of people lining up near AirBaltic desks. It was impossible to distinguish if there was a separate line for luggage drop (I checked in online), and airport officers have assured me that I have to go to the end of that massive line. After standing in there for an hour and getting closer to the desks, I noticed that there in fact was a separate line for luggage drop. Yay?

Passed the security, found my gate… and found that the flight was delayed. At first I didn’t worry, in fact, I was happy that I got some time to get some normal breakfast. I had 2 hours for catching TGV to Nantes anyway. But the flight kept on being delayed more and more and I started to worry. When the plane was finally ready, it was already clear that I won’t make it to the train. I had some really good experiences in similar situations with SAS, so I hoped that I will get a replacement ticket for the train or a refund. As we say in Lithuania, hope is the last to die. We also say that hope is a mother of idiots.

Landed in CDG, got my luggage, went through the maze-like structures out. Found an information desk, asked what I can do about my ticket now, and got an answer that I have to go back to the transit area and find AirBaltic office. Back again. Searching the maze for what I need. Standing in line. Explaining my problem. Getting told that I need to go to another place. Going, searching. Standing in line. Explaining the problem. Getting an answer that they can’t help me. The only thing I can do is saving all the cheques and asking for a refund once all of this is over.

Finding a way out of the maze, going to TGV office to try my luck there. Standing in line. Noticing that it’s not the right one. Going to another one. No, they can’t replace my ticket – I have to buy a new one. I have no time to make to the soonest TGV, but if I hurry, I can make it to the next one which goes from the Montparnasse station. OK. Trying to buy a metro ticket to Montparnasse from a self service machine with no luck. Standing in line. Getting the ticket.

When I got on the underground train, I started studying the maze-like map of the lines to find the best way of getting to Montparnasse. The train was moving slowly and the time was running out, but I still had a slim chance of making it. Got off to change the lines to find out that I can’t do it in this station, although it looked differently on the map. Getting back. Finally getting off at Montparnasse. Late by 10 minutes. It’s already 20.10 in the evening and I clearly won’t reach my final destination today.

Standing in line at the ticket office. Dear Gods, the guy can speak perfect British English! And this time I can replace my ticket for a 10 € fee! Getting the ticket. Now it’s 20.50 and I have 10 minutes to make it to my train. Running. Getting on a wrong train at first. But finally I got on the right one. There are no words to express that feeling of euphoria I had when my trip was finally back on track.

I knew that trains to Clisson are not going anymore at this time of the day. I was both mentally and physically exhausted. So I called my boyfreind who was already in festival, waiting for me, and asked whether he would like to spend a night with me in Nantes. He did, but it also took him some effort organizing a taxi and a group of people to get to Nantes. Also, both of us missed one day of the festival.

We got a room in some ** hotel near the station and next day I finally reached Clisson.

A night in a hotel and extra train ticket has cost me nearly 150 €. For me, it’s big money, as around this amount is my monthly budget of living in Klaipėda.

Part Two:  Rights? What Rights?

Once back to Klaipėda, I once again looked at the brochures about passenger rights (we have a few of those at the Tourist Information Office). It is stated there that a passenger is entitled to a refund of expences they experienced due to the fault of carrier. OK, a letter to AirBaltic I write then!

…and get a reply:

<…> I would like to inform you that the flight on the route Riga-Paris on [date] unfortunately was delayed due to extraordinary circumstances. I can assure you that we did everything possible to speed up departure and ensure timely arrival.

Unfortunately we cannot meet your request to refund your additional expenses; however I once again apologize for inconveniences caused by this irregularity <…>

Wait, what? This time I open a website dedicated for passenger rights. Again, it’s written that I am entitled to a compensation. I open up a document and find this:

(14) As under the Montreal Convention, obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier

In other words, these “passenger rights” are just for a show. I honestly can’t think of a situation which couldn’t fit into this definition. “The crew was too lazy to go to work” maybe?

I also find it ridiculous that an unused train ticket couldn’t be replaced/refunded. They wouldn’t lose anything, and a reasonable service fee could be taken should that replacement cost something for the company.

It’s also a pity that all means of transport aren’t integrated into one system. Now, if I was late to a connecting flight, I could expect being put into the next one going to the same destination. But it was a train, so no securities!

Dear EU, you still have a long way to go.

Part Three: Some Good Examples

As mentioned above, I had some good experiences with SAS in similar situations to this.

1. Flying Vilnius-Copenhagen-Aalborg. In Vilnius there was a huge snowstorm so the flight (AirBaltic) was late. Several of us therefore missed the last connecting flight (SAS) to AAL. We all got tickets to a following morning’s flight, and a stay at Hilton’s, dinner and breakfast included, for free.  (To be honest, I don’t know whom I have to thank to for that – but after the latest “adventure”, I can’t believe that it would be AirBaltic)

2. Nearly two years later, same route, very strong wind over Vilnius. SAS flight was cancelled. I got a voucher for lunch; when the second flight was cancelled too (there are only two SAS flights VNO-CPH per day), we got an offer to spend a night in a hotel.

3. The next morning my luggage didn’t make it to AAL together with me. While waiting for it to arrive, I could buy the basic supplies and SAS would refund it.

I find it really weird that SAS bothers to take care of their passengers even in cases of force major (bad weather), when AirBaltic refuses to do so when it’s their fleet that needs fixing. Very inconsistent, I must say.

Part Four: The Lesson

- always be prepared for the worst

- have enough money in case you would have to spend additional 24 hours in an unfamiliar town, or even have to buy a ticket back

- know everything about local transport: fares, places of buying tickets, time required for getting from A to B, etc.

- think about travel insurance, especially if you’re flying with cheap airlines

- avoid big airports

- familiarize yourself with airport plan

- don’t plan – this way you won’t have to worry about not making it on time

- avoid cheap airlines

P.S. When going back to Riga, AirBaltic was late again.

P.P.S. In retrospect, I should have complained about this AirBaltic decision to higher authorities.  But I was too tired of all this story already.

Yesterday I bought tickets to my hometown, Vilnius, via the website www.tiesiai.lt which is operated by a big travel agency West Express. This was the first time I was using this website. My fellow Lithuanian friends recommended it because of low prices.

When buying the ticket I managed to misspell my surname. This was a silly typo, but it could have cost me 250Lt (~73€) fee of surname change, which is equal to almost half of what I paid for the tickets alone. And I noticed this typo only when my payment was already accepted. No turning back.

I quickly wrote to their office explaining the situation and asking about surname change. This morning I got a reply from them, saying, “You don’t need to pay a fee. We have fixed your surname already. Thank you for choosing West Express”. Wooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeee!

This is what I call a GOOD customer service.

I don’t know if it’s a common practice to fix the typos for free, but it certainly leaves one feeling all calm, happy, and relaxed.

1) I changed the name of the blog from “hospitality Industry Insights” to “Notes on Hospitality Industry”. I think the current one represents the contents of this blog much better. The old name was way too pretentious.

2) I changed the theme into one that goes very well with the new name also, when reading my older posts I noticed that I was constantly complaining about the bullet points; in the currents theme I see nothing to complain about.

These changes happened quite a long time ago, but I thought I should write this little update anyway.

P.S. Happy New Year!

We started the day by a visit to Centre Georges Pompidou. It was wonderful, especially the exhibition ‘Dreamlands’. What I remember most from it is an art installation ‘No one can stop a New Yorker’ – but there were many other wonderful art projects in there, too. No wonder we spent several hours in this centre of modern art – but it is possible to spend a whole day in there.

Centre Georges Pompidou

In every big city I go to I try to pay a visit to a local centre of modern art (CMA), as they reflect a part of local culture. Here, one whole floor is devoted to female artists and other minorities, and school visits are a very common thing. Also, a book shop in CMAs is a must to visit, as often they serve as an additional exhibition.

Next stop was Notre Dame. Even though we saw it only from the outside, it looks so majestic. Here I noted to myself: next time, go inside.

The facade of Notre Dame

Gargoyles of Notre Dame

Shakespeare & Company is an English book shop recommended by Lonely Planet. It is nice, but I wouldn’t include it into a must-see-in-Paris list. However, if we came there on the time when the events take place, I would probably think differently. We spent there maybe half an hour, at the same time waiting for the rain to end. (Update November 2010: the Scanorama magazine (the one you find in SAS flights) was writing about this bookshop as well. Apparently it has a very long history and traditions, and there’s also a second level with a reading room and a piano. We missed it! Now we definitely have to return there some time.)

Water fountain and Shakespeare & Co in the background

The Eiffel Tower. Probably the biggest tourist hot-spot, and I think it’s worth it. Wonderful view from the top. Here I made another note to self: next time, go here in the dark hours (as Lonely Planet recommends), as a view of lit-up Paris must be breathtaking.

Eiffel Tower

View from top

At this point we couldn’t do anything from the plan, so we decided just to wander a bit. We chose to go see the Louvre at least from the outside, and this decision brought us into the middle of a massive flash-mob, called ‘Dîner en Blanc’ – ‘The White Dinner’. I can definitely say that this was the best part of the day. We weren’t dressed white and didn’t have treats with us, so we couldn’t join, but nevertheless watching all those white-dressed people was a remarkable experience. I would totally love to see such event take place in my hometown, Vilnius.

Dîner en Blanc

Dîner en Blanc

Dîner en Blanc

And this is all I’ve seen of Paris in one day.

Next time I’d like to go to Eiffel Tower during night, take a cruise down the Seine (also preferably during the night), go to the tower of Montparnasse (so that the Eiffel Tower would be visible in the photos:), visit the Notre Dame, go to other museums and galleries, and just explore the town.

Accommodation. We were living in a suite hotel near the Gare d’Austerlitz. While making your own breakfast is a nice thing on long vacations, a ‘normal’ hotel with breakfast is a more convenient choice when on short trips, in my opinion.

The original purpose of us flying to France was a metal festival near Clisson – Hellfest. You can read my report about it (in Lithuanian) here.

Other things about Paris:

1. An incredible amount of homeless people on the streets
2. A labyrinthine and old Metro without excalators and gates munching your luggage
3. French hamburgers/cheezburgers are totally NOT like you would expect them to be.

Thanks for reading!

The Hotel

We stayed at “The International Hotel Britannia” all the nights. It was very cool that it offered 20% off for staying for four days (that was basically the reason why we were there for four days, not for three). It was also cool that girl at the reception was Lithuanian, so we got a better room Other advantages: good connection with the city using DLR (Docklands Light Railway) and London Underground services, many international people in the hotel, what gave a very cozy and friendly atmosphere. Pizzeria and room service 24/7 (haven’t used, though), pool, spa, gym (haven’t used these as well, but we just were in town all the time) and whatever a four star hotel should have. All that left me imagining what a dull life those serious businessmen have, if they don’t have anyone to go out to town with and pour some culture into themselves in the countless museums, theatres, exhibitions or pour some English ale into their stomachs in the countless English pubs. Instead of that, they stay at the hotel. Creepy.

Also, we were offered to upgrade to a room with a Jacuzzi and free access to all of hotel’s facilities. We refused, because that would have cost 120£. Well, if we would have agreed to have breakfast at the hotel (which would have cost 27£ each day), then the upgrade would be only 12£, but we thought that’s not a good deal for us, especially that we were planning on seeing London, not the hotel.

Ok, now it’s time for hotel curiosities. I was wondering, how a not so good room would be like, because from our room’s window we could see the DLR (what was cool) – and also hear it (which wasn’t that cool). And DLR goes about every three minutes, also at nights. Good that we were all tired after days full of impressions.

Other curiosities were about water. When we came back to our room after Dream Theatre and Opeth, we heard water running in the bathroom. And yes, in the bathroom there was cold water left running all the day while we were out – the bathtub was half full already, and it even wasn’t plugged up. We for sure didn’t leave the bath like that – but could have chambermaids done that? Weird, weird, weird. Furthermore, the next (and the last) morning it got a bit annoying – no hot water. Sunday morning everybody’s checking out and taking a bath before leaving, I guess – but no hot water in a 4* hotel is a bit of no excuse.

Porcupine Tree at Hammersmith Apollo

Sold out! It was a bit weird at first to listen to the concert while sitting, but later we got used to that. Porcupine Tree is not really that kind of music you could headbang to and jump around and scream and so on during the entire concert. Sitting actually fits, and quite well. Sound was a bit too loud during the warm-up band’s performance and at the beginning of Porcupine Tree there was a bit too much bass, but later it got just perfect. Lot too loud, not too silent. At the end of the concert people were applauding standing – it was really such a good concert.

There was one very nice moment in the concert, when the lead singer asked if there’s anybody in the hall who were seeing Opeth the next day. Several people raised their hands shouting (including us), and then he asked to give best wishes for Mikael Åkerfeldt, the singer of Opeth.

After the concert we went to a nearby snack bar to get something to eat before going back to hotel. I got cod and chips and it took a while for me to finish eating (I eat slowly), but during that time we could hear a fan of Porcupine Tree speaking stuff about them to his friends. He was so passionate.

Opeth and Dream Theatre at Wembley Arena

What can I say – it was a very, very good concert. Sadly we were a bit late, so we didn’t see the first band and half of Big Elf performance. They were ok. “She got me blindfolded” haha .

Opeth – goooood. They were playing the more brutal songs of theirs to differ themselves from the rest of the bands. Yeah \m/

Dream Theatre – also good. They were headliners of the concert, so they got a bigger stage with three screens and all the fancy stuff. The cool moments: at the beginning of the first song Mikael Åkerfeldt ran on the stage and growled several lines. Later there was a drum solo, first only by Dream Theatre’s drummer, but then he exclaimed that the drum kit was too big for him alone and started calling out drummers from other three bands. So at the end they were four playing one drum kit. Pure awesomeness, I must say.

After this concert we were discussing with Anders, that we see no reason for Opeth not to be headliners, as both of us find this band better than all-praised Dream Theatre. We’re not saying that DT is not worth their name – we’re just saying, that Opeth is better

The recent Dream Theatre video contains some behind the scenes shots of this concert, watch it!

Airport

Firstly – it starts to annoy me, that airport officers get confused about my old green passport, back from those times when Lithuania hasn’t been part of EU yet. The date is written there in format “dd mm yyyy”. And everybody looks at the first number, 06, and says that my passport is no longer valid, although if they looked just two more symbols to the right, they would find 2012.

Second – *censored* terrorists. I’m not afraid of flying at all, but I’m afraid to get stuck in the security gates because of some minor issue. For example, that rule for liquids not to exceed 100ml. So you can’t even bring water to the plane – you have to buy that behind the security gates, where it costs at least twice as much. And I usually carry more than one lip balm with me – so, if I forget to take one out/don’t find it in my bag, I might be interrogated and what not. This is something that really gives me nerves in airports. Not to mention being touched everywhere if the metal detector detects something. And that super fancy new X-Ray machine – wonderful, anyone can see me naked. This gives me creeps.

London in general

-          I really enjoyed, that one can buy a snack-pack of fresh fruit almost anywhere. I wonder if this is part of some governmental “Eat more healthy food” campaign, or is there demand for healthy snacks? This saved me from eating junk food, which is usually unavoidable when travelling.

-          During our stay probably all the museums and galleries were free to enter. We took an opportunity to visit Tate Modern.

-          Camden Town is surely one of the reasons to go to London. It’s like an alternative universe, where it is always 70s – 80s.

-          Greenwich – this town (?) reminded me of Vilnius very much. Architecture, university, nature and modern buildings on the other side. Greenwich market is also remarkably good – one can find almost anything there.

-          “Look right” written on the roads. Yes, left side traffic is very confusing.

-          Metal pub “The Intrepid Fox” – took a while to find it, even longer to leave it. A super cool metal pub. Just why is the music so damn loud in all the English pubs? When you need to shout to your partner and your ears start hurting – it’s too loud. Don’t they know it?

-          The banks of Thames are ad-free. That’s wonderful, I must say.

-          Madame Tussaud’s museum. Quite fun, but we didn’t know half of celebrities. Maybe we need to buy a TV.

-          I heard a terrible advertisement on the subway. Something like: “Feel ugly? Have a plastic surgery at our hospital. Call now to book your appointment!” CREEPY!

-          We are weird tourists that didn’t go to see Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Windsor Castle and went to Trafalgar Square only by accident.

-          English food. Not the best kitchen in the world, really…

-          Mind the gap!

~

I’ll be visiting London again in April. Again, for Opeth

~

Li’l update: photos from this weekend getaway are to be found here.

(Yes, that’s yet another grumbling post about my experiences )

This happened when we were flying home from our holiday. I was (un)lucky enough to see the process of getting luggage from the plain on to the luggage wagon. The bags are simply thrown around. It almost hurts to see them. (I saw it happening in CPH.)

No wonder that when we came home, I found all my stuff in a bag wet and smelly. What happened was, that a can of Corsican beer simply opened and all the liquid leaked out. A bag of original Corsican cookies also opened up and all the delicious goodness turned into crumbs.

The question is, with how much force one has to hit a can, so that it would open/explode/break into pieces? Please try this at home and tell me your findings

So, we’ve been using CPH quite a lot recently, because it’s the main port for reaching other parts of the world from Denmark. Sometimes one has to wait for a while for a connecting flight (once I had 5 hours in there) and, naturally, gets hungry. So happened during those particular 5 hours of waiting. I went all around the airport to find best price for food (I’m a poor student after all) and I found out that the cheapest place to get a hotdog is “To:go”, which is right where Terminal 1 meets Terminal 2, and the hotdog there costs 20 DKK.

When we went from Aalborg to Vilnius, I bought a hotdog there again and was given a 30% discount card for the next purchase in the “To:go” snack bar chain. And then, when flying back from Vilnius, we had to wait for a long time (I think it was 4 hours) and we got really hungry, so imagine how happy we were when we spotted that “Yam Yam”, an Asian cuisine take-away, also belongs to this chain. We bought some tasty Chinese food there and got a discount which was actually bigger than those 20 DKK that we paid for a hotdog.

And, as you might know if you are following my blog, the very next day we were in CPH again. Hotdog, and then, when coming back – yam yam Chinese food. I really like such offers!

So here’s the tip in short:

1. You buy something small and cheap from that little “To:go” kiosk;
2. You get a 30% discount for your next purchase;
3. Then you go to “Yam Yam” and eat like a king with a 30% discount.

I hope this is what they intended and I won’t ruin their business with such tips

Our ferry arrived to Livorno in the middle of the day. This time ferry wasn’t that fancy and foot passengers (us) had to leave the ferry together with all the cars. Eek. The seaport was no better. We were following the signs for the cars to get out of the area, but at some point we were stopped by an officer and he called us a taxi. Isn’t that cool? We drove to the railway station and didn’t see anything amusing on our way. At a railway station we took a train to Florence.

Florence

There are many people, who say “Florence” as it would be the best place on Earth, a dreamland. However, we were not super amused – maybe our minds were still blown off by Corsica, or maybe because we aren’t that interested in antique art. We did find beautiful buildings and statues and looked at jewelry on Ponte Vecchio, but it didn’t impress us much. Then we stumbled upon Savoy hotel and remembered that one friend recommended it very much for its especially good cocktails. We gave it a go. I ordered “Angel’s face” and I have to admit that I haven’t tasted anything like this before. This cocktail has a very particular taste. It is made from apple cognac, peach liquor and calvados. Only alcoholic ingredients, what was I thinking? Also we were served a little snack. It was olives, salty almonds and some fried puffy balls with olive-meat (?) filling (maybe somebody knows what it is and can tell me the recipe?). It was so delicious.

Alcohol made us hungry, and we started looking for a restaurant. It was hard to find one which wouldn’t be completely packed with people. But once we found one, we found a good one. Our waiter had a big paunch and was singing “Yesterday” all the time. He was so funny. And the food we ordered was really delicious. Sadly, I didn’t write down the name of this restaurant.

We stayed at “UNA Hotel Vittoria”. If there’s one word to describe this place, it’s “funky”. It’s decorated in a very particular manner, and I guess it’s not for everyone’s taste. But we liked it. Actually, the first time we stepped in, the first moment I was a bit worried that this might be gay hotel, because the guy at the reception was smiling and looking at Anders in a very weird way. But once I noticed more traditional couples in there, all my worries went away.

No matter how cool this hotel would be, there were things that probably weren’t thought through properly. It took a while for us to figure out how the lights and the shower work. But that was ok, because we were not in a hurry and actually had some good time. The biggest drawback is that in the breakfast area all main surfaces are made from hard materials, which cause a terrible echo. I wanted to run away from there as soon as possible. And also they didn’t have big cups for tea.

Other than that we really enjoyed our stay there. I’d recommend it to anyone who is tired of traditional hotels and is not afraid of seeing oneself in the mirror while taking a shower Oh, I also should say that we forgot to turn off the air conditioning before going to sleep, so I was freezing during the night. Ironically, a few days earlier I was complaining about the lack of air conditioning.

The next day we didn’t have much to do before our train to Bologna left, so we went into a shopping street. Anders bought two T-shirts, Superman and “1up” (from Mario), and I got a Vespa tank top, earrings with Jack Skellington and other earrings with hearts and bones. Oh, also we bought an Opeth patch. Sometimes I like shopping. Sometimes. We also noticed a lot Americans there. I guess they heard legends about shopping in Florence and decided to check if they are true

Speaking about shopping, quite close to our hotel there was a gothic shop, “Black Eden”. Anders had a hope to find a studded belt there, but no luck (as well as in that shopping street later). Are they out of fashion or what?

To sum up about Florence, I’d say that it’s a nice town, but not as special as others say (aren’t I weird?).

Bologna

Here we met Lorenzo. He’s a cool guy. Together with him and his wife we did a little bit of sightseeing.

Asinelli Tower. A long way up the stairs and then a beautiful view on the city.

Santo Stefano – Seven Churches. Impressive.

Then we had a big Italian dinner at some restaurant. It was once again proved, that if all the cooks around the world would be Italian, the world would be a better place.

This time we were staying at “Best Western Hotel Maggiore” (not giving a link, because their website… is not so good). They failed and prepared the room for only one person. We didn’t bother much, because we stayed only one night anyway and we had our own towels. And their breakfast was very delicious. They had big cups for tea.

Although my description of this city is brief and absolutely not thorough, I liked it (the city). However, there’s not much greenery in this town, so I probably wouldn’t have liked it if I had to stay longer.

And I have to say “Grazie!” for Lorenzo and Miroslava for their hospitality

Milano

It was the second time for me in Milano, so I already knew several things there. For example, that with one ticket you can go around metro as much as you want, until you get out. This was very useful, because at first we took the right line the wrong direction.

Our hotel was probably the highest class of all that we’ve stayed in during this vacation. There was a bellboy who took care of guest’s luggage. This hotel had two towel sets for both of us, but for some reason only one bathrobe we don’t really need that anyway, so it’s not a problem. And also there were ashtrays on both sides of the bed (both of us are non-smokers). Oh, the hotel name is “Hotel Carrobbio“. They serve very delicious breakfast; I even got a whole teapot of tea

On our way to the cathedral square I did some shopping at “Triumph”. Then we went on top of Duomo di Milano, which was quite disappointing for me, because much smaller area of the roof was open for visitors than the last year (and last year it was one of the best things through the entire journey). But Anders had fun there, so it’s ok.

Then we had to wait for half an hour until the restaurant that we were supposed to go would open, so again we went to the shops to do some shopping. Found nothing – either we didn’t like the fashion or the prices were sky high.

The restaurant we had our dinner at is “Di Gennaro”, which is very close to the Duomo (see on map). Last year our travel guide recommended it for us and it was really good. So, I was dining at the same place as last year and was even sitting in almost the same place It was so good. And then when we were already full we noticed some special tourist menu, apparently traditional Italian dinner at the last page of the menu card. Oh well. Next time

After this we went out to search for some pub, recommendation of which Anders found somewhere on the Internet. We found it, had several cocktails, had a good time, found out that they don’t accept credit cards, paid with our very last cash. Then all happy we went back to our hotel and next day discovered that it was some other pub, not the one we were searching for, LOL. Anyway, it was good, and it’s called Memphis.

Last hours of vacation we spent in a park which is near Milano Nord Cadorna train station. It was nice.

What can I say about Milano? It seems I really like it (although last year I hated it and only the roof of the Duomo fixed the day). We were not like real tourists there; it was more like feeling the spirit of the city… And it felt like home. Yay for Milano!

(photos of the whole trip are here)

- the end -

Nice

Nice welcomed us with sunny weather and French language. First ten minutes, while we were looking at maps and trying to figure out how to reach our hotel, it was very nice and warm. But it eventually got terribly hot, so we hurried towards our hotel as fast as we could.

We stayed at “Hotel Excelsior”. It left a very good impression to us. The lady at the reception was speaking pretty good English and marked the main tourist attractions for us on the map. Hotel had an elevator, and our room was nicely conditioned (it showed 18°C). We dropped our luggage and went out to explore the town.

Nice is a very beautiful town. Narrow streets, palm trees and amazingly blue water. However, it has a terrible parking problem. Those people, who say that Vilnius has a traffic problem, should go to Nice. (Although later I realized that most of the places we’ve visited during this trip have this problem.)

We had lunch at a nice French café “Le Circuit”, which is near a little roundabout that has a little fountain in the middle, close to the shopping area (you can see it here). Our waiter was speaking fluent English and the meal was delicious as well. But I don’t remember, what we ordered

Later we went out to explore the town. What caught our attention was a huge waterfall on the top of a huge cliff. After a little bit of going around we found the entrance to the park and started our way up. It was so amazing. A wide view on the town and bright blue water. Finally we reached the waterfall, where we could cool down after all the heat.

It was sunny, but with a breeze and water drops it wasn't hot

Then we went down to town again, to find a nice souvenir market. I bought a piece of hand-made olive soap there. I’m starting to think that I’m a soap maniac

Later that day at some point we returned to our hotel, where we found out that 18°C is actually very cold. Turned the heat up and went out to try that turquoise water. Unfortunately, the beach was made solely out of stones and rocks. My feet, that are used to sandy Baltic Sea beaches, didn’t approve that. Water was also maybe a bit too warm, so you can almost swim in it forever without cooling yourself down properly. Other than that, it was fun swimming when the sun was already down and the sky was all dark.

Dinner we had at some random restaurant, because, ironically, it’s very hard to find a French restaurant open at evening hours in Nice (or we were looking in wrong places).

We refused to have breakfast at our hotel, so the next morning we were out in the town again, searching for a place to eat. We stumbled upon “La Villa Borgia”, which offered breakfast combo for up to 10€. There I had two crêpes with sugar, espresso and a glass of orange juice; my man had a croissant instead of crêpes.

After this breakfast we moved on to find our ferry to Corsica.

What else I can say about Nice:

• OMG the prices. The same numbers one sees in the Lithuanian menus, but here everything is in Euros (1€ ≈ 3,5 LTU)
• So many Russians, that some restaurants write on their windows “We speak Russian!” in Russian. I guess it’s good to be Russian here
• Everything that you think of Southern France is true (but some of them do speak English!)
• It’s such a beauteous town.

The Ferry

We were using “Corsica Ferries. Sardinia Ferries” service. The ferry was so fancy inside, that we were going around looking for second-class rooms. We failed

Most of the time we were sleeping because of that smooth rocking of the ship. Later we found out that there’s a swimming pool on the top of the ferry, so we went up there and took a dip. This was followed by a little snack and Corsican beer.

The journey took so long, that we reached Bastia only when it was already dark.

Frankenstein Anders in the ferry pool

Bastia

We were staying at “ Hotel Central”. The first moment I was shocked, because it didn’t have an elevator, air conditioning and the old guy at the reception didn’t know a word in English. (Here I must say that Anders probably has some telepathic abilities, because somehow he managed to communicate with all the people who spoke only French). But it wasn’t that bad (the previous hotel had probably spoiled me ). That old guy took my bag and brought it all the way up to the third floor. The room was especially lovely decorated and had a little balcony. The fan was enough for keeping the room not too hot. Bathroom supplies had ginseng and were very good for me. The only problem was, that the bathroom’s door handle was too close to the casing, so I’ve hit my fingers. Other than that, the hotel is really lovely and cozy.

In the morning we had breakfast at small café – bakery “Ronde des Pains” (see location on Google maps), where Anders had to show his telepathic abilities again. After this we found Hertz and picked up our fancy-pantsy Renault. Let the tour around Corsica begin!

Corte

The first stop. There was a little trouble finding a parking space, so we had to park outside the town and go in there on foot. We walked around a bit and moved on – we’ve hit this town on siesta time. It was insanely hot and only a few places were open. We had a little lunch at a restaurant which is on the opposite side of the street than the local university. It was good.

Bonifacio

If you could go to only one place in Corsica – let it be Bonifacio. I was amazed by its stunning beauty. Such a cozy town, with lots and lots of stairs (I love stairs, they always give something special to towns).

Oh, did I say that Nice is an expensive town? I take back my words

We had dinner at “Da Sergio” (see on the map) restaurant. It has local goodies and special offers – everyone will find something to fit their taste there.

The lovely town of Bonifacio

Propriano

It took a while to find our hotel there, we even had to ask locals for help. We left our car on a top of some hill, next to a church, because we just couldn’t find the right road and our GPS was dead. So we picked up just a few things from the car and went two kilometers on foot, at the same time trying to figure out which road to take the next day.

So there it was – our hotel “Roc e Mare” (careful, website with sound). It really was on the shore of the sea and it had its own beach. The room was comfortable, breakfast included and overall impression of it was very good. But in the morning, during breakfast, we noticed, that most of its guests were old people. That was a bit embarrassing at first, but ah, who cares?

In the morning, when checking out, I suddenly realised that our room didn’t have air conditioning and there was no elevator. I guess they’re not necessary for comfort after all

On our way back to the car we had an opportunity to observe this little town in day light. It has a very nice sandy beach and the town is really cozy. Most of the streets are one-way; and we had to take a road towards Ajaccio, that looked like a parking lot at first, to reach our hotel (and go towards Ajaccio). Now that we found it out we were able to continue our trip.

That evening we came back to Bastia to spend one more night in there and the next day we took a ferry to Livorno.

Things that happened on the road, and everything else about Corsica:

• One really shouldn’t refuse to take insurance when driving there (like Anders wanted to do; luckily, he agreed). Roads are quite steep, very curvy and sometimes there are animals grazing on them. At first we saw a cow, which was eating grass all relaxed in a narrow 60 cm line of grass between a road and a cliff. Then we saw a girl riding a horse on the highway. Then we saw a family of wild boars (or was that pigs?) sniffing the asphalt. After seeing all that, we joked, what would be next? Next was two ibexes (or were they normal goats?) suddenly crossing the road. But that was not over yet. At some point we took the wrong turn and on that road were LOTS of all kinds of grazing animals. And they really didn’t mind the cars; for example, there was a cow standing right in the middle of the road looking at us like “what? I know that you can go around”.

Cows on the road

• That fancy-pantsy Renault had some super cool distance to other objects detector installed. It was quite useful while trying to squeeze that big car into not that big parking space, but it totally failed to measure distance to a trash bin in a gas station. Both car and trash bin weren’t damaged (although that trash bin made quite a noise when falling down), but there was a lot of laughter from my side. Later we almost hit a rock in a small parking place on a highway; at the moment the car stopped, it realised that it has to make some sound and it was a very sharp “BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!”. There was only about 20 cm left to the rock. Good thing I noticed it first and started screaming “STOP!” like crazy. This time it wasn’t very funny. And this time we were really happy, that we had insurance.

• Policemen in Corsica are really friendly and helpful. And they speak very good English. When we were thinking, how we could get the car back on the road, they stopped by us and asked if we needed assistance. Oh yes we did One of the policemen drove our car further away from that rock and wished us happy holidays. Merci!

• There are wonderful beaches in Corsica. One we noticed next to town of Porto and had great fun for a while jumping in big waves. It was also pretty cool diving for Anders in Vallée du Tavignano.

Splash!

• There also are quite a lot of cats in Corsica, but they were not into letting people pet them. However, when we stopped in Porto to get some food from the supermarket and after that decided to get some snack in the nearby café, there was a very beautiful, slim kitty begging for food from all the customers. I shared my clamshells with it

• If you would run out of gas in the middle of the night, you’re totally screwed. Gas stations here work only from 7 to 20, and during the night serve as an additional parking space.

• There are lots of billboards along the bigger roads. I guess one can see a similar view in USA.

• Traffic problem. Narrow maze-like streets, lots of cars.

• Corsica is an expensive place, but it is so beautiful.

• A little book of French would come very in handy. Silly us decided to save on this one and go around knowing only two words in French – merci and merde. Haven’t used the second one, though

• Seaports are really not meant for foot-passengers.

I guess that’s it again – and hopefully I’ll write the last part about Italy soon. Bullet points of this theme still suck are annoying.

• There is still a smell of soviet times. Those creepy big buildings, with a very distinctive architecture, will probably stand there for a long time to come. I hope that renovation projects will (finally) start going, and those creepy buildings will look better. I should also say that I’m happy for my parents – they live in one of the newer districts, Pašilaičiai, where soviet architects left more space for greenery, and buildings themselves look not that menacing. Check photos of Pašilaičiai here, and more to be found in Google maps.

• Streets and driving culture. Ouch. Need to say more?

OK, now it’s time for the positive side

• People of Lithuania (well, at least in Vilnius) look very stylish and beautiful. Girls tend to choose clothes that accentuate their slim bodies, and guys are also picking up fashion trends. What a relief for my eyes! Check out Laimikis blog, Lucky Catch section for the beautiful people of Lithuania.

• Both Vilnius and Kaunas are very lively towns. On Tuesday evening in Vilnius all outside cafés were full of people; almost the same in Kaunas on Thursday.

• Everyone should go to their town’s Tourism Information Centre – even local people will find something that they didn’t know before. To experience, for example, everything that Kaunas offers to its visitors, would probably take three days at least.

…And some restaurant experience

• Traditional Lithuanian food restaurant “Čili Kaimas” in Vilnius, Gedimino ave. We were almost alone in there, yet the service was quite slow. Food not as good as in another traditional Lithuanian food restaurant, “Forto Dvaras” in Pilies str. And at some point waitresses got very interested in some insanely stupid TV show, so they turned down the background music and turned the TV volume up. Luckily, Anders was sitting with his back to the TV and doesn‘t know a word in Lithuanian.

• Beer restaurant “Avilys” (website only in Lithuanian) in Kaunas, Vilniaus str. A classy restaurant – brewery, serving their own beer. Our waiter was speaking fluent English, the service was quick, food and beer – delicious. A recommended place to go. Warning: prices are higher than in other restaurants, but it’s worth it.

The best part of Lithuanian vacation – the yearly festival of Baltic culture, Mėnuo Juodaragis. It’s hard to find words that would describe the magic that vibrates in the air during the event. Due to pouring rain we missed almost half of the performances and activities (we just didn’t want to catch a cold right before our hot part of vacation – otherwise we would have been cheerfully jumping in the puddles, like the rest of the crowd), but it didn’t stop us from feeling the magic spirit of this unique festival. We have bought three pieces of natural hand-made soap there, which wake nice memories each time we are taking a shower.

Want to experience a little part of this festival? Listen to Mėnuo Juodaragis radio on Last.fm.

Click here for photos from Lithuanian part of vacation.

I guess that’s it – hopefully I’ll write about the rest of vacation soon (and the bullet points of this theme are really annoying)