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Summer 2003 cycling

Lithuania

Agelasto
2004-05-18 20:08:43

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I've heard it said -- and I'm sorry I can't tell you by whom or in what context -- that it's better to leave the table a bit hungry than a bit stuffed. That's certainly the case with Lietuva (which is what Lithuanians call their country) and probably true as well for the other 3 nations I've visited thus far this trip.

I've spent about the same time traveling here as in Latvia (9 1/2 days each), 2 days more than in Estonia, and 3 more than in Russia; yet I've cycled a far greater distance -- 37% more kms than in LV and 46% more than in Estonia. LT is the largest of the Baltics in population and land mass, and it probably fits statistically between the other 2 in terms of level of development and quality of life/cost of living; all three seem to me quite similar in these regards, however.

I've seen much more of LT in terms of kms, and because it's the third Baltic I've visited, I am noticing more. I am disregarding similarities with the other Baltics -- things that seem 'old hat' and picking up on new phenomena (which may exist in EST or LV but which I didn't notice). Perhaps if I had visited the Baltics in reverse order, EST as the third visited would have presented me more curiosities.

As it is, LT seems richly full of oddities. For example, the cows are often not fenced in; rather they are on leads that are anchored to the ground. Each morning granny comes to the meadow to milk them. I've often seen cows waiting on granny at their pales (one for the milk, the other granny's seat). Then the milk tanker arrives at each farm to fetch the receptacles.

Some farms have fences but most, which seem to be family farms, do not. The fields now at hay harvest are dominated by older women, who shuffle and dry the haystacks that their men have composed with a horse-drawn cutter and rake. This is the lowest technology farming ...