Baltic discoveries

"What are you doing here?!" exclaimed the lanky brunette with emerald eyes. We had stopped for directions but also to satisfy our curiosity on why a large crowd was gathered outside the red bricked church. Again she asked, "Why Kaunas?" to which I simply smiled and said "Why not?".

Truth be told, Kaunas was not part of our original itinerary around central Europe and the Baltic states. From Vilnius we were planning to head straight to Klaipeda to explore the sand dunes of the Curonian Spit. However, while trying to sort out accommodation from Vilnius, all options in Klaipeda, Nida and other close towns, were fully booked. We knew lodging over a weekend could be tricky, but we did not know it was the weekend of Lithuania's biggest festival! Klaipeda's Sea Festival is held annually at the end of July and attracts visitors from all over northern Europe. Would accommodation elude us, forcing us to skip the windswept charms of the coast?

At the hostel owner's suggestion, we researched Palanga, further up north. Disappointingly, one inn could only offer us the second night out of the two we wanted. I stared at the map on the back of my guidebook. Suddenly, the name Kaunas seemed to jump out of the page. It was the perfect pit-stop between Vilnius and Palanga. I did not know much about the city, except that one of its landmarks was a large statue of a naked man, but a new destination was added to our trip.

As soon as we arrived, it was clear that Kaunas was quite different from the baroque beauty of Vilnius. Industrial, grey and orthodox were the first things that sprung to mind, with reminders of a not too distant Communist past. However, I liked its gritty starkness - those walls and streets seemed to hold many memories. We soon came across the towering naked statue, arms outstretched like the Vitruvian man, the curls of his hair forming devilish horns.

And speak of the devil, the next morning we visited the Devil's Museum. This was certainly a unique museum experience, and not a simple collection of devil related imagery, but an intelligent mix of folklore, myth and religion across continents. Lucifer, fiends, trolls and devil opera masks, amused and unsettled in equal measure. No other museum with such a specialist theme has since piqued my curiosity.

And soon 24 hours in Kaunas were gone, but we were glad of the diversion. And what about the congregation outside church? A Christening...warding off the devil was clearly worth celebrating with pomp!