When I calculated how long it had been since I lived in Kaunas I couldn’t believe it was 29 years and I first visited on my way to the Siberian expedition some time before. At that time it was a pretty difficult place to live. There were only 6 foreigners in the4 city and we all knew each other.
There was Rick, a short fat American who was on a Peace Corp mission, a Canadian girl, two entrepreneurial Swedes called Anders and Ragnar who were with me on the earlier Siberian expedition and a very dodgy British man called Rod. Rod had a bus and had come from Norway in a bit of a hurry with all his possessions in his bus.
I say he was dodgy because the Swedish guys told me he had shown them some explicit pictures of children which horrified them. We all gave him a wide berth and he made a conscious effort not to engage me in conversation which suited me fine.
While I lived in Kaunas I was working (probably illegally looking back) in a state laundry where I was overseeing the laundering of trousers for the British High Street. It was a tricky job and I had to learn about laundering clothes very quickly from a man who came from North Wales to instruct me.
My intention was to work in a university as an English teacher. I would find work we I arrived I thought. I didn’t intend to work in a laundry but I had met an old man on the plane to Kaunas and he was the owner of a CMT company and he gave me the job so that by the time I had landed I had got a job. I also did some teaching but most of my income came from the laundry.
I remember being cold the whole time I was in Lithuania. I had a nasty flat with fleas and very little social life. I would go out with my camera and take photos in parks and in the old town. And here I am now today treading the same cobbled streets of the old town. This time I have the luxury of being able to afford a much warmer place to stay.
I have failed to find the old laundry where I worked and the main pedestrian street has a scattering of mid-level international brands. I had forgotten just how much of the city centre is pedestrianised.
I walked down into the old town to get some breakfast and had forgotten that although cafes are open, most shops do not open until 10:00 or even 11:00 so the place looks deserted. I walked along the banks of the river to the confluence and then back into the main square where my accommodation was.
My hands were buried into my pockets and I wished I had brought some gloves. There is very little I recognise here in Kaunas but the memory which has come back most strongly is that of being very cold.