Finally it happened: I'm in Lithuania! Found an apartment at last and got it quickly, had a stormy packing and then off to ferry and driving. Took two hours on the ferry, two hours queuing and over 600km of driving, but last night we arrived. Still need to unpack and get things sorted, but at least I'm here.
Already visited the local 24h Maxima to get some needful things last night, today walked to the nearby Hyper Rimi. A good walk there and back. School is about a block away, so that's a good thing. That's why I wanted to come to this area.
The apartment is a bit big for one person, but I didn't really have a choice. Also a bit more expensive than I would've liked. But it'll be ok.
I was prepared for quite bad traffic on the way, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I've driven in Estonia before and I knew that I'll be the slowest one there since I obey the speed limits (whenever there seems to be one, very few signs). Then we got to Latvia. I was warned beforehand that there may sometimes be trucks coming on my lane etc. Fortunately it didn't happen and I mostly drove behind trucks since I didn't want to overtake. The others did overtake all the time and usually there were three cars side by side on a two lane road. Sometimes they were all trucks...
You just have to drive on the rightmost side and let others pass and everything is ok. And keep some distance to the next one since the passing cars may suddenly want to come back to your lane because of oncoming cars.
Also when we got to Lithuania there was a police car behind me. Even the police were passing other cars. Then it hung after us when the road had obstacles in the middle. And naturally at that time I made the only error in driving the whole time! Only didn't use the signal when partially changnig lanes when the car in front slowed down to turn left. The police didn't mind, they just drove after us for a while and then sped past us, driving a lot faster than the speed limit. Oh well...
The last part was fast, since we got to the highway. 130km/h! And naturally the locals drove even faster. There are no signs for the speed limit, you have to know it. There are only signs for when the limit goes down to 110 temporarily and you have to know that after the next intersection it's 130 again. Confusing.
Also there are no typical exits on the highway like in Finland. Instead if you need to go left, there are U turn spots intermittently and signs that say that if you want to go here, make a U turn here and then you can get there. There wasn't that much traffic at the time that it didn't seem hazardous if you had to do it. Fortunately we just drove on.
The roads in Latvia were quite bad. There is a lot of trucking going on, so the roads have grooves where the trucks go. It's hard to drive when the car wants to dip into those. Wouldn't want to drive it in the winter with ice. And as a final insult, right before the crossing to Lithuania there was a bump in the middle of the road and my car's bottom hit it. Didn't sounds very pleasant, but didn't seem to make any damage either.
So, now it's time to get settled into the new environment. Good thing I already know something about this region from last summer!