Visit to the religious city of Kaunas, Lithuania

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We ended up in Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania, by taking a bus from Šiauliai. Kaunas is a captivating and religious-themed town; our guesthouse was an amazing facility next to several large churches, and there are statues and a feeling of reverence everywhere. My blood sugars, best of all, were almost all fantastic – until a terrible high after dinner.

On me and Masayo’s last morning in Šiauliai I checked my blood sugar before breakfast, hoping that yesterday’s diabetes luck might have lasted. It had: I was 141, an excellent morning BG for me these days.

We ate breakfast in our apartment hotel room: pastries, yogurt and granola, a banana, and hot tea, all bought from the store yesterday. Cheap and filling! I took a larger shot than usual since that seems to be helping my high blood sugar problems. “Duh,” you may say, but I somehow have gotten into a bad habit of taking fewer units than I calculate out of fear of getting too low. It’s a psychological, not medical, issue, and is something I need to overcome.

After breakfast we packed up and headed to the bus station. I hadn’t bought tickets online, unusually; but we managed to buy some at the ticket window for the local bus down to Kaunas. We were going to be on the bus during lunchtime so we got some stuff at a bakery stall in the mall attached to the bus station. I got four little cinnamon rolls, and coffee to go. Not a perfect lunch, but something for my stomach.

The bus pulled out and we were on our way to another exciting new town that we’d never heard of a week ago. That’s the way to travel! Open schedule and moving my instinct and circumstance.

As we left a stop on the way called Kėdiniai we dove into our “lunch”. My BG beforehand was (drum roll)… 128! Amazing. All those high BGs for all those days on this trip so far, and apparently all I had to do was take bigger shots. I wonder why I haven’t tried that before. Low BG fear I guess was holding me back.

I took a shot of Humalog while sitting in my seat (through my Bluff Works pants leg) and ate my mini cinnamon rolls. Tasty.

We arrived on time in Kaunas and then had to make it to our guesthouse, which I’d booked on booking.com. It was too far to walk, but I had cleverly and carefully researched which trolleybuses to take from the bus station to get to Old Town.

The Kaunas trolleybus system let me down, though.

At the trolleybus stop I studied the numbers and times. The buses I was expecting to be there were listed, but the stop I wanted wasn’t mentioned under any of them. Did they not in fact go there? I stood there getting irritated as several buses came and went. Oh the outrage! Why had my research not paid off? Why was our stop not listed where I expected it?

Then I noticed that the stop we were at wasn’t listed either. I even crossed the busy road to look at the buses going the other way, but all the info was the same photocopied sheets. I was disappointed in Kaunas. It’s the small things that annoy me, probably a result of my living in Japan where things like maps and timetables are generally meticulous and easy to understand at a glance.

We went inside the long distance bus station where there was a tourist information desk. The lady there spoke English and when I mentioned the stop I wanted she said, “Oh, it’s easy. Take any trolleybus, except number 4.”

Well OK, great. But how was I supposed to know that? Why would Kaunas go out of its way to not mention such basic information at the bus stop? It’s right next to Old Town; it would seem to be a major stop for arriving tourists. Japan has made me very demanding of such things.

Anyway the lady was right; the next trolleybus we took went right to our stop, and finding our guesthouse was a simple walk through Old Town, down its wide main street past old but characterful shops, buildings, and intriguing alleyways.

The guesthouse is located next to two large churches and a big plaza at the back of Old Town. It’s called Kauno Arkivyskupijos (“Kaunas Archdiocese”, I think) and it is perfect. Super clean, with an amazing location, and absolutely quiet at night. We will be here for two nights, in a small but comfortable room with two single beds and a bathroom/shower shared with one other room. I can’t praise the location and cleanliness of Kauno Arkivyskupijos enough. It’s very impressive.

We were tired but wanted to walk around Old Town a little. It was really nice – it seemed quiet but there was just enough buzzing activity to keep it interesting. In fact, there are three large churches right near our guest house and there is a feeling of pious grandeur as you stroll the cobblestoned streets.

We stopped at a local little cafe called Motiejaus Kepyklėlė which of course I liked because of the dots in the name. Inside was a spacious and modern coffee shop with its own unique character. The walls were painted black with white line drawings on them, and the staff seemed like they really enjoyed being there.

I ordered a croissant and coffee even though I didn’t really think it was enough to eat. Before eating I checked blood sugar again and got yet more good news: 109 at 4 pm! All day it’s been nothing at all like the terrible highs I’ve been having almost constantly lately.

After taking a single unit of Humalog and resting at the cafe, we strolled around a little more. Afterwards my BG was 70, at the very bottom of my 70 to 130 goal range. I probably could have gotten by without that single unit of Humalog. Must be the walking.

We found a vegetarian Indian place called Radharanė on a side street for dinner. When we entered the restaurant the tables were all full except two in the middle. They were too central and open so we started walking downstairs to another seating area. But it was dark, and when a server approached us we asked if we could eat downstairs. He sighed and said, in English, “If you want to”, and turned the lights on. I don’t know why he seemed unhappy about us sitting there, but we had the place to ourselves and it was really a nice atmosphere. Maybe he didn’t want to walk up and down the stairs.

I ordered the house meal of cream sauce with tofu chunks on a great pile of yellow rice. And a sparkling water, naturally. My BGs may have been excellent all day but here I was facing a big diabetic challenge. I remembered what rice had done to me in Vilnius but hey, I was hungry and thought I should eat what I wanted and do my best with the insulin. So I did.

The food was excellent.

Actually, having been only 70 I waited until halfway through the meal to actually shoot up (I checked too; I was 180).

Afterwards, in the guesthouse room, I needlessly complicated matters by taking another several units of Humalog so I could eat some mushroom-shaped ginger cookies we bought from a little deli on the way home. A backpacker’s hunger and eating schedule can complicate diabetes – it takes real concentration and smart dosing to keep your BGs in range.

I did poorly this time, and deprived myself of a day of all good blood sugars: a little while after the cookies (which were delicious and which I certainly overdid) I was 304. I wasn’t happy about it but then again I wasn’t particularly upset – it made sense. Juggling that much insulin and carbs can often lead to such an imbalance. I took some extra Humalog before bed.

In the midst of all this, Masayo said she wasn’t feeling well and took a post-dinner nap. That’s a little unusual; I hope she’s ok.

Before bed I did some laundry with the Scrubba. Quite a lot of it, actually, about three loads. We hung up the clothes line between the closet door and the back of a chair. I hope everything will be dry when we check out in a couple days. The socks take forever to dry, even though I towel-roll dry them after washing them. Still, something about the hands-on simplicity of this type of laundry makes me almost prefer it to traveling in style and paying someone to do it for us. Backpacking is not just a financial necessity for this traveler; it’s a preference!

It’s great to be in yet another new place and to be in such nice surroundings. The mostly-great blood sugar was particularly nice. I will continue to refine and work on my control. Being able to convince myself to take the dose I know I need is a breakthrough, no doubt about it.

We’re planning on exploring more of Kaunas tomorrow. I hope Masayo feels ok and that my BG behaves like it did most of today.

When is the last time you had a perfect BG day except for one crazy reading?

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