http://www.pdsnoki.org/
Fundraising Goal: $9,000, or $9 per kilometer!!!
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Greetings after LONG, COLD day of riding! Here's the lowdown.
Last night in Panevėžys, first off, was an experience. After finishing the blog in the local strip mall (Babylonus) about 5 miles east of town, I rode the bike back to center of town as the sun was setting and checked the prices at two hotels I had seen on my way down (all by way of avoiding the Soviet-era hotel in the center of town, which I found pretty creepy...). Strangely, for what appeared to be basically the same hotel room (they usually show you the room before booking here), I was given a price of 66 euros, 53 euros and 29 euros at three different hotels. So I rode another 3 miles or so back to the first place I checked at the northern end of town -- the Hotel Pervezya, I think, but I'm just calling it the Hotel Pervez Musharraf for ease of reference -- and walked my bike up the two flights of stairs to get a room. The reception was exceptionally kind once I started speaking Russian.
I got settled and cleaned up (cold shower -- yikes!), then sauntered downstairs to the Russian "Bear" restaurant for dinner, but it was closed on Sundays and so I walked a few blocks back towards town to the restaurant attached to the 53 euro "Small Hotel" (that was the name...) and had dinner there. Turns out it was the same lady who had quoted me the 53 euro rate that I had refused, so I hope she didn't figure out who I was when out of my cycling clothes. Dinner was a particularly unappetizing "quatro stagione" pizza.Meanwhile, back at the Musharraf, the good news was that the grocery store on the ground floor was open until 10 pm, so I got some bottled water, chocolate for the road and a beer for the hotel room. Lots of other folks seemed to have the same idea re: beer.
Now, the Musharraf beds had a funny quirk. Though it is a new hotel and very modern, the beds looked more like day beds and when I took the form-fitting bedspread off, there was a comforter and then a single, unfitted sheet that didn't cover anywhere near the whole matress. Fortuantely, I had two beds, so I just took the one from the other bed and had a two-fer, solving the problem.
In the morning, I woke to exactly what I feared -- a VERY cold day with no sun, again. The same
nice Russian lady brought me breakfast in my room and when I left, totally bundled up, she let me use their freight elevator to get back down to ground level, which was pretty kind. I cycled a good 5 miles back and forth in the town trying to find the bike shop I had seen the previous night, just to check my tire pressure and see if I could buy long pants to cover my cycling shorts. I actually found two bike shops next to each other, but neither had a pump which worked with presta valves (for road bike tubes) and neither sold clothes. Explaining that I wanted to check my tire pressure in Russian to the lady in the second shop was a chore. I never fully succeeded.
Though it was cold and I was kind of sore, I decided I really wanted to make it all the way to Kaunas and avoid random towns I wasn't really interested in seeing. (Panevėžys is described in the rough guide as something like: "the fifth largest town in Lithuania, it is a grey, sprawl of a town that whose only claim to greatness is that it is on the main road between Riga and Vlinius".) So I decided to put my head down, layer up and prepare for a 110 km ride -- by far the longest of the trip. By the first small town, Ramygala, I was already ready for some hot tea, which did me much good.
Then it was Via Baltica most of the way, and that was thankfully fast and flat. I got about 30 minutes of sun, but that was it. Highlights were a clutch of very cool looking berry bushes (they looked like, but probably were not, cloudberries) and a burning field.
The last stretch of 31 km was on a rural route which was hilly and badly paved. By the time I made it to the last 20 km, things had warmed up some, but my left Achilles tendon was very 
tender, as was my right knee. I just wanted to be done! I did see some more intere
sting wood-carved, totem pole-like monuments and also a Russian orthodox cemetary seemingly in the middle of nowhere.Once I reached the last town before Kaunas, I took another tea break. The little cafe was attached to a gas station and the windows to the cafe were tinted and reflective so you couldn't see inside. I saw my reflection and realized this would fianally be a good opportunity to take a picture of myself on the bike. As I did this, some burly guy came out of the cafe and asked me what the hell I was doing. I told him and he seemed satisfied with the answer, but I guess he must have been nervous about the cafe (or himself) being photographed -- darned Paparazzi! Then when I went inside the cafe, he gave me all sorts of trouble for bringing the bike inside (so I assume he owned the place). Fortunately, he disappeared and I had a nice, tasty, relaxing cup of green tea.
Getting in to Kaunas was more harrowing than any city so far, probably because I arrived at rush hour. Cars everywhere honking at each other and nobody all that interested in giving me space. And there's a lot of broken glass here -- I expected this all through my trip, but was generally
pleasantly surprised by its absence in Latvia and Estonia. There was a fantastic, long downhill into the the city's valley, too, on the way in.Now I'm happily checked in to the "Apple Economy Hotel" here in Kaunas, which turns out to be quite nice and modern, and right in the center of the old town. Tomorrow is a laundry and rest day before I head Wednesday to the Lithuanian/Polish border.
Vitals on today's ride:
Distance: 68 miles (total 403 miles)
Map: http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=21335
On the iPod: Long Neck Delivery and Big Soap, Live at Bogart's, April 1990; The Who, Live at Leeds (also GREAT cycling music).
Cycling inspiration: http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12202333
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