Thanks to my new car, I was able to hit the road with my beloved ones.
My dear friend Egle has found Sam – the love of her life – and they invited us to their wedding.
1200 km one way nonstop by car from Berlin till Šiauliai, one of the major cities in Lithuania 🇱🇹.
In total, 15 hours passed from door to door, with 12 hours driving, two hour-long breaks, and a one-hour time shift.
Sounds smooth? Everything started with a nightmare: two nights before start of travel, a thunderstorm hit my house and shut down the elevator.
My power wheelchair and I weigh 300 kg. It’s close to impossible to overcome more than a couple of stairs using a ramp.
My apartment is on the first floor and up 20 steps… what were we to do? Cancel the first vacation since my accident two years ago?
Luckily we came up with the idea to call a piano transport enterprise (thanks to one of my nurses who is a musician).
For 250 bucks, two guys came at 6:30 AM and took down my Permobil F5 in a couple of minutes. At 7:30 AM the car started rolling towards east.
Some facts: Lithuania is a member of the European Union and their currency is the Euro. Lithuania has fewer inhabitants than Berlin. Lithuanians speak their own language which is older than German and English.
Lithuanian food is very German (potatoes & meat), however the motorways are not 🙁
The hippie and all-generation wedding of two artists in a wooden countryside house in the middle of nowhere was very beautiful and colourful.
We did not leave out the major sightseeing spot in that area for pilgrims like me: The Hill of Crosses (see featured picture).
After just three full days in the countryside and in the city, we decided to take another way back to Germany: The ferry from Klaipeda to Kiel, managed by DFDS Seaways.
I can highly recommend doing that or a similar trip as a wheelchair driver. The online and phone booking processes, their staff, and the whole process for handicapped people is outstanding. The accessibility is given from A to B without any hurdles.
After a little detour to Palanga, the Lithuanian hot spot on the Baltic Sea coast, we put the car on the ferry. Spot it!
