Hey, how y'all doing?
The story I am sharing is our first trip with our toy-sized dog CHIA exploring Klaipeda, the seaport city of Lithuania and visiting the well-known sea museum of Baltics.
The trip length was 02 days and I split the story into 02 posts for you easier to follow.
We travelled in August 2021 during the covid restrict time, so there were very less foreign tourists in the city.
Part 1 - day 1: Train from Siauliai to Klaipeda - A full day visit the Sea Museum and the Aquarium
At 7:00am, we took an early train from Siauliai city, where we live, to the port city Klaipeda. The train is very clean and fast. It took us less than 1.5 hours to arrive at Klaipeda Train station. Klaipeda is located in Western Lithuania and the only seaport city of the country. From train station, we took a public bus from there to the Old Ferry pier of Klaidepa city.
The train station of Klaipeda city, LithuaniaAfter 8 minutes and the bus stopped at the beginning of ferry pedestrian way. Chia, my partner, and I enjoyed a beautiful walk along the embarkments of the Old Ferry pier. The sea breeze was so nice and relaxing.
Chia enjoyed the walk along the pier
The sea black ghost (Juodasis Vaiduoklis) of Klaipeda at the old ferry
Behind the sea black ghost statue
My partner and tiny Chia at the Klaipeda Old Ferry (1)
My partner and tiny Chia at the Klaipeda Old Ferry (2)There were many private tourist boat companies greeting us and we did not know where to buy the public ferry tickets. For sure, we decided to follow a family group walking in front of us. Finally we reached the ticket terminal of public ferry. A Lithuanian volunteer speaking English instructed us to use the terminal machine.
When the ferry left into Curonian Lagoon, through the sea gate, and brought us to the island of Curonian Split. Here we had 02 options: walk 30 minutes from the pier to the sea museum or take a short train operated by a private local group to the Sea Museum. (cost 1.5 EUR per person per way)
Chia and I on the ferry to Curonian Split island
Chia and I enjoyed the sea gate sceneMy spoiled Chia was lazy to walk and whining. To save time, three of us took a short train from the ferry pier gate to The Sea Museum. We purchased museum entry tickets online a day before the trip to avoid the long queue in front of the ticket office :D. (museum ticket cost 15 EUR per person)
On a train from Old Ferry (island side)to Sea Museum (photo cut from our clips)The Sea Museum was built with a castle shape encircled by a rampart. A wooden bridge connected from outside to the castle gate. Inside the museum complex, under the rampart, there were many rooms displayed the remains of national historical marine and navigation. Luckily for us, there was an impressive boat exhibition during our visit.
In the tunel under the rampart to reach exhibition rooms
In the exhibition room of Lithuanian old navy army
The Aquarium is situated in the middle of Sea Museum Complex. Two sides of the aquarium gate are outdoor pools for the rescued penguins, sea-lions, and seals.
The seals relaxing in their outdoor pools
Me and the penguinsInside the aquarium, it was very dark and our phone could not do good jobs at taking photos. The first floor was a big open tank of sharks, next, the second floor was the collections of shells corals, and alive jellyfish. The following floors were the diverse exposition of living baltic sea nature.
Dried corals in a glass tank
Living corals in a special sea water tank
Living tiny jellyfish in a sea water tank with magnified glass
A cute clown fish like the fish in "Finding Nemo" 😝
Before ending the aquarium tour, we walked through a glass tunnel with very huge fishes swimming around and above us very gently. maybe they got used to having human watching them around everyday.
a big fish above us in a glass tubeAfter walked out of the aquarium, my partner and Chia relaxed on the stone bench. I alone climbed up the rampart to enjoy the outdoor collection of anchors as well as the displays of old boat engines and ancient navy remnants (images below).
We enjoy seeing a funny big seal being fed before we left the sea museum at 4:00pm (total 05 hours of the visit).
We went back to the Old Ferry pier by the train. A struggling moment came to us when we found out that the ferry tickets were two-way and we must keep the tickets for the return trip. We did not know that and we were not sure if we still kept them or not. More nervously, we did not see any ticket terminal at the island side 😱😱😱.
Super luckily, my partner found those tickets crumpled in Chia’s bag right on time before the ferry left. We were on board heading back to the mainland side.
We took the bus to the guest house “Poilsis Jums” and did self check-in for a night. Guest house room was very clean and quiet. The location is super near to Klaipeda Bus Station and Klaipeda Train Station. Only 2 minutes walk to the stations and 3 minutes on foot to the IKI store.
We were so exhausted and only ate some already-made food from IKI store. We slept very well at night because our legs burnt all energy in daily time for the museum visit.
The second day was a small adventure of Chia and us to discover small hidden attractions in Klaipeda central area.
The part 2 of this trip will be written as soon as possible when I have time.
Hope you guys enjoy the day 1 of our and Chia’s trip!