Kaunas

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Kaunas is a city in Lithuania. It is the home of Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

hitching in

when coming from Poland (or actually everywhere), ask your driver to let you out at the "Mega" supermarket next to the highway in the north of town. There seems to be a free bus to the city center :)

Hitching Out

<map lat='54.895564790773385' lng='23.87744873046875' zoom='10' view='0' float='right'/>

East towards Vilnius

When going to Vilnius you take a bus to the highway. There is a bus stop (look below) on the highway where it's possible to get rides, but it might also be a good idea to not deal with the hitchhiking competition and place yourself at the entrance of the highway.

Quite far away from Vilnius there is a huge hypermarket (Maxima Baze) next to the highway with a free bus to the center.

South towards Poland

  • The best way to get to Poland is to take mini bus 105 from the train station and to get off right after Garliava when you will see a petrol station. The hitchhiking conditions are fantastic: there is plenty of space for cars to stop in front of that petrol station and cars are not driving that fast. You might want to have a PL sign in hand. You can ask your driver to let you off right at border. If you walk back towards Lithuania from the border and make a left, you will get to a very large parking where loads of trucks are parked there. You may be able to get a ride to close to any country in Western Europe.
Along the road towards Vilnius
  • Alternatively get a bus from the center to IX Fortas (I think its bus 23 or 35 buses), this is the main road where the motorway to Vilnius joins up with the E67 (Via Baltica north and south) - with a PL sign you should easily get a lift from a truck to the Budzisko-Kalvarija border checkpoint or further. Be aware that the border is now virtually non-existent, except for an occasional random check, so try to get a ride to at least Suwalki or Augustow.

West towards Klaipeda, North towards Latvia

  • Heading for Latvia you want to get on the Klaipeda road (the A1) and then turn onto the via Baltica (the A8). You can accept rides going to the split (20km) and then hitch past the split. From the split it should not take you more than 10min to get a ride. Whatever you do, try not to get dropped off on the Panevezis ring. Garthelgard got stuck there for more than 4 hours. There is a great petrol station past the Panevezis ring and after the roads merge or a lot of space on the side of the road.

Overnight

Kaunas is a horrible place to be stuck in overnight, and there are only a couple of youth hostels, both of which close early, and are rather tricky to find. If you DO happen to get stuck here, then go the Best Western, but instead of going in, turn left. There's an alleyway on the right which leads to a place which rents out apartments. It's open late, and if you explain the situation, then you might be lucky enough to get yourself a bit of a deal on a room that would otherwise have been empty. You'll have to use all of your powers of persuasion though! trash:Kaunas