Lithuania by www.born2travel.it

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07. 08. 2001 Vilnius (LITHUANIA) The outskirts of the Lithuanian capital are very run-down. Lots of poor souls, beggars, petty thieves wandering among us. It made a very bad impression on me. At the central station, asking for information, I meet four Finns (three girls: Anna, Bea and Lena, and a boy: Taapsa) on the first day of their interrail. At that international station no one spoke English, but luckily Bea, having lived four years in Moscow, speaks Russian properly, and so a large part of our problems are solved! What's more, the train to Warsaw has no seats, only couchettes. And so patient Bea, after an hour and forty minutes of conversation in Russian, finally manages to book a compartment with six beds for all of us.... Vilnius is a very ambiguous city.

It reminded me of Istanbul: a very poor part with beggars, the sick, the maimed, ragamuffins and the homeless thrown onto the street with open hands held out to passers-by begging for something, and a rich part where expensive cars zoomed by, well-dressed people and the various government buildings and embassies. The night in the couchette passed peacefully, a shame that we didn't sleep a wink because of the various border police checks of the different nations, the train inspectors and the customs officers.

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