Return to Latvia pt. 4: cycling to the Granatos Live 2018 festival

On thursday the 2nd of August it was the first day to get on the road and to start cycling towards Kaunas. My destination for the day was the Granatos Live 2018 festival, held at an open-air museum in Rumšiškės. I would stay there for 4 nights. From pre-party to finish.

Already within the first 6 km I had a bicycle crash. A middle-aged woman stood on the bicycle path and did not move when I was coming. Avoiding her and passing over a sewer lid made my bike slip. Result: broken smartphone and having to re-adjust the chain of my bike. After some outside help via phone I managed to fix the chain. And luckily I had paper maps that I got from a Dutch girl back in the Netherlands to replace the navigation on my phone. The most mind boggling thing was that the women had not moved an inch, not even after my crash.

The ride after the crash was really something!
Despite having a map it was hard to get out of Vilnius in the direction of Rumšiškės.
At the end of the afternoon I still had to cycle 75 km. Eventually, I found a guy who advocated I take the A1 in the direction of Kauanas (which in the end, I found out, is actually not allowed).

The ride was really something. It was mind bogglig to look over my shoulder and not see any car for 1,5 km. Due to the warm weather I also drunk close to 8 liters of water. It was a relief when I saw the sign Rumšiškės 1 km. Just before 22:00 PM I talked to the first festival staff. At this time it was also dark, made it off the A1 just in time!

Before I could set up my tent I already had a flat tire. I would deal with that at the end of the festival, making my bike less likely to be stolen in the meantime.

Despite having gone to the festival alone, I had plenty of company.
At the festival I was lucky enough to have kind Lithuanian neighbours to have a chat with. Along the same token, I met the friend of my friend, her sister and other members of the gang she was with. To top things of, I even met complete 'strangers' whom I had a shared meal and Taxify ride with.

At the festival I saw the american artists (Rita Ora and Duke Dumont) that I wanted to see but missed out on lithuanian artists Monique and Beatrich that I wanted to see. In the end, I slept on average only 5 hours each night, which is a fair indicator that I had a good time. Apart from the last day I burned out of my tent at 7:30 in the morning in true summer style. Refreshment was there doing dives or water bombs at the water side. The festival ended with massive rain, which led catering staff to make raincoats out of garbage bags when breaking things down. Luckily I packed 99% of my tent during the heavy rainfall, others weren't as lucky.

Next up: sleeping at the bus station