While not among my 18 official destinations on this trip, Rīga, Latvia, is ideally situated midway between city #17, Kaunas, Lithuania, and city #18, Tallinn, Estonia, breaking up what would otherwise be an interminable 9-10 hour bus trip into two manageable four-and-a-half hour chunks. And my rule with layover cities is that even in these
Run-down. I keep coming back to this phrase when trying to describe Kaunas, Lithuania. The city isn’t uniformly so, of course. Other Kaunas buildings aren’t run-down; they’re just plain ugly. But the most memborable facet of this city to me, as I walked all over it from stem to stern, was the shabby condition of
Kaunas vital statistics: Population (2018): 288,363 (city proper); 380,974 (metro) Latitude & longitude: 52˚ 53′ 50″ N, 23˚ 53′ 10″ E January average temperature: High -0.9˚C (30.4˚F), low -5.7˚C (21.7˚F) July average temperature: High 23.4˚C (74.1˚F), low 13˚C (55.4˚F) Time zone: GMT+3 (7 hours ahead of U.S. EDT) Language: Lithuanian Currency: Euro (€) Exchange rate: