My first Lithuanian train ride to Šiauliai

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(the article below accompanies this video)

Today it was time to leave Vilnius, Lithuania and head to the smaller town of Šiauliai (pronounced “shau lie”; it rhymes with “how high”). It was thrilling to finally take the first train of this European odyssey; unfortunately, my blood sugars were absolutely awful, though there were some brief moments of goodness in the afternoon. Plus, our room in cozy little Šiauliai is fantastic. Always look on the bright side(s).

My BG when I woke up was 275. High, just as it has been for the last couple weeks. It just won’t go down, hardly ever. I had the last of the cereal and milk, and took a big shot for it. With every shot I get renewed hope that this time it will work better.

Masayo and I walked through Old Town Vilnius to the train station, kind of a long slog for Masayo who has two heavy bags. (But our deal before the trip was: we each pack what we want and expect no help from the other.)

We found the train station but it had construction all around its main entrance, so we ducked inside a small side door and walked around until we found a platform that said the train was bound for Klaipėda at 11:30. Our train! There’s nothing quite as exciting as finding your train on a European platform early on a November morning bound for an exotic-sounding destination. “Klaipėda” has a dot over the “e”; wouldn’t that alone put you in a good mood, high BG aside? It did me.

I found the ticket office upstairs and bought our tickets — about €9 each. Our first train on this trip! It had been all busses so far — they were far more frequent and went more places. We like trains so we were excited.

The train was really nice inside — clean and roomy. The ride was smooth, and my BG was 188 on board. A glorious reading that begins with a “1” — it was like a miracle after the terrible BGs I’ve been having. But of course you know your control is questionable if you regard 188 as a triumph. Still, mini-triumph it indeed was.

We arrived in Šiauliai — the only stop on the route besides the Klaipėda terminus — and it was a bright, sunny, and cold day, just like I like.

Our guesthouse, which I’d booked on booking.com, was really close to the train station and we found it with no problem. It’s actually an apartment with the quirky name Pigi Nakvyne, and there is no office, so as arranged by email someone met us. (Incidentally, I wonder if this is the last trip we’ll be able to take without a phone. Technology marches on; travelers must sink or swim.)

The apartment is huge, for us — a large living room and spacious bedroom, with a nice bathroom/shower area and an entire kitchen with microwave and refrigerator. (My insulin went inside.) It’s also cheaper than I’d expect, €28 a night split between us. True luxury! Plus it’s in a nice quiet leafy area close to the town center.

We went to Čili Pica (pronounced “chilly pizza”), a common chain in the Baltics that we hadn’t been to yet. But we were hungry, and I was feeling a little low. I ordered a cheese/ham/crouton salad and a 25 cm pizza. But I didn’t take insulin right away for it; in fact, Masayo ate 1/4 of the pizza, so when I checked and was 140 I finally took my shot and guessed at the carb content of the other 75% of the pizza.

We walked around the Šiauliai town center a little but didn’t feel like expending much energy — it was basically a half-rest day. There are a lot of little sculptures hidden on the tops of buildings and on tall poles in plazas in the city center. The area is clean and sturdy-looking, and while there weren’t too many people around, the ones that were there seemed contented, if generally busy.

At 5:30, back in our apartment, the bad diabetes news came: I was 302.

But I wasn’t upset; that’s what happens when you eat a pizza, I reasoned. I knew my shot was inadequate, but I felt shaky like I was low when I took the shot, so I didn’t want to overdo it. A poor choice, as it turned out. Fear of getting low is understandable but sometimes doesn’t really help.

I sighed and took three units of Humalog, and we went to Rimi supermarket for home-cooked dinner fixin’s a couple hours later.

Rimi is a very large supermarket and we had our choice of anything, plus a kitchen in which to prepare it. I wanted something that wasn’t carb-heavy and nixed the ravioli. We ended up getting meatballs from the deli plus a fishcake thing each, and a salad. I also got some crackers so I could finish the cheese I bought in Vilnius yesterday, and a chocolate milk for dessert.

I took a large-ish shot for all this, even though I figured the meat wouldn’t have too many carbohydrates in it. I really expected, if anything, to end up low. At 9:00 I found out just how bad my control can be: I checked and was 386, my highest BG of the trip so far.

How was it that high? It wasn’t logical; I was annoyed and felt I learned nothing from it. But I took a bunch more Humalog to try to take care of it. Even that was unsuccessful — at 12:30 am, I was still 283. Two more units, and off to sleep.

Where is my blood getting all this sugar??? What’s happening to the Humalog I inject, is it just evaporating unused? Some of it works, the rest just seems to disappear without effect.

I’ll try again tomorrow. I’ll try again tomorrow. I’ll always try again tomorrow.

How much insulin have you injected with no apparent effect?

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