24. Crossing The Suwałki Gap + 10 subscribers! 😍

First of all: I'm extremely happy to see that 10 people have subscribed to the blog! I wouldn't have the patience to subscribe to any blog myself, so it amazes me that people from Halmstad, Stockholm, Trelleborg, Göteborg, Malmö and Mexico have done it for this blog. Thank you, it makes it so much more fun to write this blog! 🥰

Daugai orc.

The last couple of days have been quite uneventful, just slowly grinding west from Vilnius towards the Polish border on sandy gravel roads. The ride itself is nothing to write home about, but the village names that I have passed sounds like orc and elf seetlements straight out of LOTR: Trakai, Daugai, Druskininkai, Seirijaj, Maksimai and Spyriai.

"Belorus Sanatorija in Druskininkai."

Druskininkai, in south Lithuania close to the Belorussian border, was the first city that really stood out. I travelled on really bad countryroads to get there, and all of a sudden mega-complexes in concrete towered toward to sky. I immediately startes to wonder how all the projects here were founded. It must have been injections of billions of euros!

The biggest water park I have ever seen, taking up several city blocks.

An enormous indoor skiing arena, that can't be captured in one picture.

At least 20 giant hotel complexes, in varying quality.

The only thing that these places had in common was that they were completely empty. Maybe because of sanctions? I don't know anything about this place, but I'm guessing that it is a vacation getaway for the Belorussian elite..... and maaaybe president Lukasjenko had a pinky finger involved in constructing these buildings.... 😅

Ola and Daniel, Polish bikers that gave me some great advice about my coming ride into Poland.

Deep, deep Lithuanian sand roads.

Veisiejai.

I was curious about the red white ducks in this city shield, and wondered if it had a Danish connection (ugly duckling?), but looking at Wikipedia I found out that this village was the birthplace of the language of Esperanto!

Crossing into Poland.

Suwalki gap.

I finished of the evening by crossing this tiny gap between Russian Kaliningrad and Belarus, from Lithuania to Poland. Possibly the only time I have ever crossed a border between two countries involved together in an invasion war against a democratic country.

Illegal activity.

Wild camping is strictly prohibited in Poland, so I just hope that my camping spot is sufficiently hidden. Let's se what tomorrow brings. I hear something moving in the forest ahead of me, but I don't know if it is a human or an animal.