ARRIVING IN LITHUANIA Vilnius Airport One’s first taste of Lithuania will more than likely take place on the tarmac at Vilnius Airport. A mere 5km south of the city centre, this compact and rather charming terminal is an absolute pleasure to use. After leaving the aircraft, immigration and baggage reclaim should be over in a flash. Down the corridor to the left of the arrivals hall you’ll find left luggage (Open 06:00 - 21:00, Sat, Sun 06:00 - 18:00). Lost luggage (Open 10:00 - 15:30) and public telephones (see Keeping in touch) are in the corridor to the right. A multitude of car rental kiosks also abound Getting to town Find a taxi or two parked outside the arrivals hall. Wishing only to trim your wallet by 50%, fares are actually quite reasonable, making calling one in advance (the cheapest method by far) wholly unnecessary. Make sure the meter is running and expect to pay around 20Lt. Driving in Lithuania Lithuanian petrol stations are well equipped, widespread and are usually open around the clock. The A1 Vilnius-Klaipeda and A2 Vilnius-Panevėžys highways measure up to Western standards, although what you find on them often doesn’t. You may encounter unlit horse-drawn carts, pedestrians, tipsy invisible cyclists and chunks of wood as you drive. On secondary roads watch out for mud, holes and cows. Lithuanian traffic police have speed guns. They’ll stop you for any reason they can think of and ‘fines’ must be paid on the spot. Carry registration papers and driving license with you at all times. The alcohol-blood limit is 0.04%, and seatbelt less drivers will incur a 50 Lt fine. Most Lithuanians drive on the right side of the road. All vehicles must have on board at all times a small fire extinguisher, first-aid kit, and one of those swanky fluorescent triangles. If you’re unlucky enough to crash whilst on Lithuanian soil, even if it’s the slightest of bumps, you mustn’t move your vehicle until the police have arrived on the scene and played around with a long tape measure for even longer. Forever determined to keep at least a few ridiculous laws on the statute books, the latest catastrophe to befall the nation is the introduction of compulsory insurance for all drivers entering Lithuania. If you think your platinum all-cover super insurance is good enough, think again. All motorists arriving in Lithuania now need to fork out somewhere in the region of 40 - 50 Lt (must be paid for at the border, and must be paid for in litas) before being allowed to continue on their way. This wholly ridiculous law will be scrapped on January 1, 2004. Online traffic information Especially during the winter months, when many of the smaller roads in Lithuania become temporarily out of bounds due to the amount of snow on them, it’s advisable to consult the excellent www.balticroads.net before heading anywhere. Speed limits Towns | 50km/h | | Country roads | 90km/h | | Highways | 110km/h | (October 1 - April 1) | | 130km/h | (April 1 - October 1) | Vilnius-Kaunas highway | 100km/h | |
Population Lithuania 3,490,800 Visaginas 29,700 Zarasai 9,000 Ethnic composition (Lithuania) Lithuanians 81.8% Russians 8.1% Poles 6.9% Belorussians 1.4% Ukrainians 1% Jews 0.1% Others 0.7% Territory 65,300km2 Roughly twice the size of Belgium, and the largest of the three Baltic countries. Fertile lowland, peppered with many lakes. North to south, the greatest distance is 276km, east to west is 373km Borders Baltic Sea 99km Belarus 502km Latvia 453km Poland 91km Russia (Kaliningrad) 227km Longest river Nemunas 937km (475km in Lithuania) Largest lake Drukšiai (near Visaginas) 4,479ha Local time Eastern European (GMT+2hrs). When it’s 12:00 in Lithuania, it’s 11:00 in Paris, 10:00 in London and 05:00 in New York. Daylight Saving Time runs from the last Sunday in March until the last Sunday in October. Customs If arriving by air or sea you can bring in one litre of spirits, two litres of wine, three litres of beer and 200 cigarettes/250g tobacco. Road and rail border quotas are different, being half a litre of spirits, two litres of wine, half a litre of beer and 100 cigarettes/100g of tobacco. You would however be a fool to do so, as these commodities are cheaper to buy in Lithuanian shops. You can take home as much art as you wish tax free unless it’s over 50 years old, in which case expect to pay between a 10% and 20% duty. Take it along with your passport and two photographs of the work in question to the Committee of Cultural Heritage in Vilnius (tel. (8-5) 272 40 05), where it will be valued and you’ll be given the necessary paperwork needed to export it. Electricity Lovely Lithuanian domestic electricity flows out the walls at 220V, AC 50Hz, and nearly all sockets are of the round two-pin European variety. Some thinner Russian sockets still exist, although if you push hard enough you should get the plug in. Travelers from non-socket-friendly societies should bring an appropriate adaptor, as they’re not available anywhere in Lithuania. Language The Lithuanian language is ancient, and ranks as one of the most fascinating still spoken today. To put it another way, it’s fiendishly difficult to learn, and although the Lithuanian Language Commission will have a fit to hear such advice, readers planning on spending any amount of time in Lithuania, especially in Visaginas, should seriously think about learning Russian. Why? Well, in Visaginas almost everybody speaks Russian as their first language, and, unlike Lithuanian, Russian is actually of use outside of the country. Money The unit of currency in Lithuanian is the litas (Lt), which comes in denominations of 10Lt, 20Lt, 50Lt, 100Lt, 200Lt and 500Lt notes, 1, 2 and 5 litas coins, plus a number of weightless centai/centu coins that are worth very little and wish only to make holes in your pockets. Note that using credit cards in most of the destinations mentioned in this guide remains futile. Make sure to be always carrying at least a little cash. Toilet smarts Possibly the most valuable information you’ll ever need. Learn it.  or M = ladies or  V = gentlemen
KEEPING IN TOUCH Pre-paid SIM cards Avoid steep roaming costs when visiting Lithuania by buying a pre-paid SIM card and sticking it in your mobile. All three Lithuanian mobile phone companies now offer a pre-paid service. Below is a comparatives list of what you’ll need to pay to use each of them. Card | Price (Lt) | Local (Lt/min) | London (Lt/min) | Top-up (Lt) | SMS (Lt) | Voicemail (Lt/call) | Coverage | | | | | | | | | Bite (Labas) | 19 | 1.33 | 1.95 | 20/40/99 | 0.19 | 0.33 | 99% | Omnitel (Ekstra) | 19 | 1.50 | 1.95 | 20/40/99/150 | 0.25 | 0.30 | 99% | Tele 2 (Pildyk) | 15.99 | 0.95 | 1.95 | 10/20/50/100 | 0.15 | 0.15 | n/a |
Note All prices quoted are for peak-time calls, and are subject to change during the lifespan of this guide. MAKING THE CALL Using a fixed line telephone To call a number inside the town you’re in just dial the number. To call another city, find the code you need (see right), and precede it with an 8. To call a Lithuanian mobile, you need to dial a total of nine numbers. This can be confusing. Simply, take the number you need to call and count back nine numbers from the last number. The number should always start with an 8. Using a Lithuanian mobile phone Calling another mobile is the same as calling a mobile as above. To call a fixed line number in Lithuania, precede it with an 8 and the code (see right), then finish off with the subscriber number. Roaming To call a fixed line telephone in Lithuania, use +370 followed by the city code and subscriber number. Calling a Lithuanian mobile is almost the same as from a fixed line telephone (see above), only you should dial the last eight numbers, preceded of course with +370. If you need to keep in touch whilst in Lithuania, fear not. The following information is applicable to all communications situations nationwide. Find city specific information on the relevant pages. Public telephones There are no coin-operated public telephones in Lithuania. Phone cards can be bought from street kiosks (Lietuvos Spauda) and post offices. There are several denominations of card to choose from, namely 9Lt, 13Lt, 16Lt and 30Lt respectively. LAPTOP LOGIN From a fixed line telephone Assuming that you have an RJ-11 plug on the end of your cable (visitors from the UK please note that you don’t), simply dial tel. (8-901) 555 55 from anywhere in the country using your dial-up software of choice and away you go. No username, no password, that’s it. An internet connection in seconds. Calls are charged at a standard at 0.12Lt/min at all times from a private line (this figure may well be a lot higher in a hotel), and everything is charged directly to whoever’s telephone account you’re using. Simple! The service is provided by national telecommunications provider Lietuvos Telekomas. More information on their services can be found online at www.telekom.lt. GPRS Laptop and/or PDA owners with a GPRS mobile phone who need to keep in touch will be pleased to hear that the two major mobile operators in Lithuania both offer GPRS services. For more information, check out their respective websites at http://www.omnitel.lt / http://www.bite.lt/en/. Post Lithuanian post offices (paštas) are plentiful, and are easy to spot. The symbol is bright yellow, and features a black silhouette of an old post horn. Stamp pašto ženklas Envelope vokas THE PRICE OF POSTING Postal rates | Letters | Postcards | Within Lithuania | 1Lt | 0.80Lt | Abroad (airmail) | 1.70Lt | 1.70Lt |
Express mail rates Comparative rates for sending a package weighing a maximum of 500g (EMS is cheap because it’s slow). | London | Paris | New York | DHL | 153Lt | 153Lt | 178Lt | EMS | 111Lt | 102Lt | 96Lt | FedEx | 296Lt | 296Lt | 314Lt | TNT | 178Lt | 191Lt | 211Lt | UPS | 150Lt | 150Lt | 167Lt |
Note All prices above were correct at the time of going to press but may well change during the lifespan of this guide. Lithuanian code +370 Telephone codes Alytus | 315 | Anykščiai | 381 | Biržai | 450 | Druskininkai | 313 | Elektrenai | 528 | Ignalina | 386 | Joniškis | 426 | Kaišiadorys | 346 | Kaunas | 37 | Klaipeda | 46 | Kretinga | 445 | Marijampole | 343 | Neringa/Nida | 469 | Palanga | 460 | Panevežys | 45 | Pasvalys | 451 | Radviliškis | 422 | Rokiškis | 458 | Šiauliai | 41 | Šilale | 449 | Šilute | 441 | Švenčionys | 387 | Taurage | 446 | Telšiai | 444 | Trakai | 528 | Ukmerge | 340 | Utena | 389 | Vilnius | 5 | Visaginas | 386 | Zarasai | 385 |
The above Lithuanian city codes should be prefixed with an 8 if dialing from another Lithuanian town. The above international country codes should be prefixed with 8-10 if dialing from inside Lithuania. Fixed line Mobile Fire | 01 | 112 | Police | 02 | 112 | Ambulance | 03 | 112 |
Note It’s extremely unlikely that anybody on the other end of one of the above lines will actually speak any English, but here are the numbers anyway. Find a list of places both willing and able to teach you the local lingo on p.33 before you get into any trouble.
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