digital nomad at sunset: vilnius cafes, wifi hotspots, & 77% humidity

the sun dipped behind the snow-dusted radio towers outside the city like claws, painting the cobblestones in burnt orange. i opened my laptop at the kettle&swan cafe, 21.9c outside but feels like wading through a damp dream due to that 77% humidity creep. wasters next table muttered about the tourist cards being scams while I tried to mentally navigate the free public wifi map they provided-still unsure if i’m paying for parking bc everything’s in lithuanian cyrillic, right?,

mentioned the blurry stained glass windows to a local barista who nodded knowingly and slid me a conjugate verb app. the pressure here’s 1018 hPa, same as that heavy feeling in my skull after 3 straight days of balancing budgets and deadlines at the same wooden table. tried the šaltinis pancakes-&-i swear the first bite tasted like granola but then melted into something sweet. maybe food poisoning? maybe magic?

.
whatever, the tourist police were too busy eyeing the sketchy docks to care. overheard some rumors at the liquor store: ‘the old convent b&b’s reno crew stole a statue from the square. don’t. sleep. there.’ someone else claimed the city gym’s treadmills double as metronomes for stray cats. take your pick of local gossip, i guess?,

"i once saw a pigeon juggle breadcrumbs off the lerista bridge,"

said the guy pretending to be a local. maybe he’s right. maybe you should trust birds over google reviews.

so here I am, wired via the alemanni college’s shaky internet, drafting this at 8:47pm. windows open, humming with cicadas and the distant clang of a hammer somewhere near the orphanage. if you get restless, kaunas’ cobblestone chaos is a u-turn away. or, you know, bike to the port where the maritime museum’s apparently a bat sanctuary? totally untested pro tips.

.

whipping through the vilnius tourism office site for more clues, but mostly just eyeing the šaltonys street mural and pretending I’m not late for another livestream. maybe tomorrow I’ll try that "stork lean" pose on the bridge, if my knees don’t revolt first. oh, and if you’re here for the WiFi, avoid the library downtown. rumor says it’s haunted by slower routers.

you’re welcome for the vibe. next up: figure out if this dongle’s lying about data speeds again. v. recommended if you like chaos and lukewarm coffee.

img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1563639387933-5de0967fab5b?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&w=1080&q=80&h=600" alt="Vilnius street at golden hour" width="100%"
img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1616658589346-a152b4514b37?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&w=1080&q=80&h=600" alt="Vilnius park with pigeons" width="100%"}

You might also be interested in:

• https://votoris.com/post/moving-to-houston-my-chaotic-checklist-and-what-no-one-tells-you
• https://votoris.com/post/wandering-through-the-weird-and-wonderful-streets-of-long-beach
• https://votoris.com/post/cairo-chaos-coconut-dreams-a-botanists-unexpected-detour
• https://votoris.com/post/coding-in-san-jose-can-you-afford-the-wifi-and-the-ramen
• https://votoris.com/post/crime-statistics-in-sinnris-is-it-getting-safer