Berlin to Vilnius (and an adieu to my sunglasses)

Before I go on to describe the journey from Germany to Lithuania, I would like to take a moment to talk about my sunglasses.

Yes, it saddens me to have to report that I have, in fact, lost my first item on the trip. One afternoon at the Waffle Brothers (‘cleverly’ branded, see below image), I left my sunglasses on the table and went to order a milkshake. I was gone for under a minute, and when I returned, my poor sunglasses were nowhere to be found. I guess I’m now just another café petty theft statistic.

A short eulogy follows:
“Dear Wayfarers. Our partnership lasted over 6 years, and you were always good to me. When I picked you out of that row at the Ray Bans shop, I knew that this was the start of something special, something very un-aviator like. Even when you had prescription lenses in you, which were unbranded, causing people to think you were a cheap knockoff, your originality always shone through. We had some great times together, from New York to Tokyo and places in between. You even braved the ridiculous humidity of South East Asian beaches with a grin, and just a little bit of rust on your exposed metallic joints. Thanks again for making me feel cooler than most objective measures would record my coolness as. And most of all, thanks for keeping the darn sun out of my eyes.”

Wrapping up Berlin with just a list of cafes, clubs we visited, and/or useful resources:

Waffle Brothers – The (now infamous) waffle place where V lost his sunglasses.

To add insult to injury, N’s sunglasses in the picture

Café Shwarz– Great little café close to our apartment. http://www.schwarzescafe-berlin.de/

Rampe club– Outdoor club which is chill and relaxed in the afternoon, and gets crowded as the night progresses. Techno/house/progressive electronica. http://rampe.club/

Chill in the evening, crazy at night

List of clubs – Used this to a get a more general sense of the type of club we wanted to go to.

Resident Advisor – It can be hard to get information on the acts at each of the clubs. Clubs’ websites are notoriously hard to navigate! We thought that this was the most useful website for us, (in English, the German ones are probably better). http://www.residentadvisor.net/

Right, so enough about Berlin. On Sunday, we hopped on the bus from Berlin to Vilnius, Lithuania. That’s over 17 hours. Yes. Get on at 2pm, and get off the next day at 7.30am. On a bus. With seats. Filled with other people.

Shiny happy faces. BEFORE.

You know what? It wasn’t actually all that bad! We booked seats right up front, and were on the top deck of a double decker. We had a sort of cockpit like area, and a pretty fab view (except for the generous splatterings of bird poop on the windshield). With our neck pillows, ear plugs, eye patches (is that what they’re called?) we managed to get some pretty decent shut eye as well. On the bus, there was even…. Free Wifi!

Here’s the AFTER. Because 17 hours on a bus could feel like 70 years.

The reason we went for the bus over the train was primarily cost, but also the fact that there is no direct train connection between Berlin and Vilnius (most trains take an indirect route via Minsk). Buses in general can be a third, to a fifth of the cost of a 2^nd/3^rd class seat on a train. Great bus resources: http://legacy.ecolines.net/, https://www.buseurope.eu/

And we’re off!

(Btw, as I write this, we’re actually a couple of cities ahead of Vilnius, but alas, a backlog has begun creeping up!)
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Travel facts:
Total cumulative expenses since start of trip
271GBP plus EUR 594.5

Cost of travel Berlin to Vilnius: 75 Eur for 2 pax
Ecolines, departing Berlin 2pm, arriving Vilnius 7.30am.