Unless I rent a car in a new country, I try to make friends with the driver who picks me up from the airport and see if he/she can stay for the whole duration of my stay. Basically, then I have them become my local guide and translator. Throughout the journey, they help me understand the local language, culture, food and answer all those millions of questions I always have about a new country.

After my trip, I usually keep up with them thru WhatsApp calls – certainly on birthdays – and then often refer them to anybody who wants to go to that country. I have 19 such friends.

Well, I had 19 such friends.

Gintautas is now my 20th such friend. On Wednesday afternoon when I met him at Vilnius airport, we were complete strangers. By Saturday evening when he dropped me at the hotel, I knew his whole family history uptil his great grandfather and all his likes and dislikes. What is remarkable about him is how an unfortunate incident in his life (lost his dad at 16) completely changed his outlook towards life.

By his own admission, his priorities changed. He started to understand the important from the unimportant. And he started becoming an introvert. Like me, he does not like parties or is very uncomfortable in group gatherings.

“You are very young. Why did you choose this profession?”

“After my dad died, I concluded that I do not want to work for money. I want to do what I love the most. Because I do not know when I might die. As a child, I loved cars – we had those old Russian cars then. I loved how cars went on roads. I loved how drivers would control the car. I used to sit on my dad’s lap and pretend to drive his car all the time. This is what I am going to do all my life”

“Good for you”

He introduced me to the local food and picked the roads and places to go. Without Gintautus, this trip would not have been half as much fun. If any of you ever want to visit Lithuania and would like a guide and a very safe driver, let me know!

It was yet to be 4am. I was coming down the hotel elevator in Vilnius to head out for my morning flight. I was reading the poster in the elevator with my eyes half closed. And suddenly I woke up. Something was wrong with this picture.

Can you spot it?

One of the things about European countries is that they tend to be relatively small. And that means, you can often bounce off the country borders. My route took me from 30km (20 miles) off the Belarusian border to 40 km (25 miles) off the Latvian border to 2 km (1.5 miles) off the Russian border.

After touring the castle, Gintautas and I decided to try out some local food. Went inside a place and checked out the menu for Kibinai. Apparently, Trakai island area is famous for this. Well, the surprise element in the menu was Samosa!!

We ordered both so that we could try out each other country’s food. Turns out Kibinai is very similar to empanadas that you can get in Spain or Portugal. I remember enjoying some great ones in Argentina. I had the Kibinai with local chicken broth.

Gintautas became a fan of samosas. However, this was a bit different from what a typical Indian samosa would be. The big difference was that the stuffing was not primarily potato – it was some vegetables. Which is a surprise. Since potato is fairly common here – especially in traditional foods like Cepelenia.

The one thing I could not get is the famous pink soup (Šaltibarščiai) of Lithuania. Every restaurant that I enquired in asked me to come back in summer!! (It is a cold soup made from beet and buttermilk, I believe)

But I guess not trip to Lithuania is complete without visiting the Trakai Island Castle. (construction on this started in the 14th century!!)

During the drive on rural roads thru Lithuania, multiple times, I saw trees that looked like the ones in the picture. First, I thought those clumps were birds’ nests. Then I realized they are not. My friend mentioned that this is a result of some kind of disease in the tree.

Does anybody know what this is all about?

With all due apologies to Robert Frost, I suggested to my friend – “Gintautas, today, let’s take only rural roads. We will avoid all the highways.” My friend was excited by that. Apparently he has not done that in a long time. He mapped out all our destinations choosing only the rural, bucolic roads. Many of those roads, he mentioned would be a first time for him too.

Saw some incredible beauty of the countryside of Lithuania. The clouds were constantly overcast. I can only imagine how much more beautiful it would be in summer.

One thing – Lithuanians have a very high sense of civic duty. Went thru nearly 400 kms of rural roads. Did not see a single piece of trash. Anywhere!!