From Kaunas (Lithuania)
to the Art Festival in Rodby (Denmark).

I bought the ticket through the internet to ryanair plane from Kaunas (Lithuania) to Bremen (Germany). When you are flying at first time by the cheap ryanair flight you can feel a little scared about your safety. But people in the plane were very friendly. They have been smiling and laughing. Stewards and stewardess were as actors in the small flying theater. It was looking like they wanted to show the best of their entertaining talents during the flight.

It's very easy to get to the center of the city from the airport in Bremen. It takes only 10 minutes or so by tram. You can see lots of taxi drivers near the airport also (most of them look Turkish). I don't think a lot of people have taken a taxi from the airport in Bremen. The main difference between countries from former ussr and western Europe is a feeling of freedom, that it seems you can enjoy everywhere in Germany.
Bremen

In Bremen you can feel the smells of fried fish and old wooden buildings everywhere in the center of the city. The streets are very crowdy with lots of tourists in the days and party people in the nights. I went to the railway station in Bremen to wait for my train to Rodby, where I ate a pretty cheap and delicious vegetarian sandwich. In the train I heard the story from young couple, the guy was from Germany and the girl was from UK or USA, anyway, they were speak English, so I've understood them. When the girl asked the guy about what kind of food he eats every day, he said that fruits are expensive and not allowed in his menu. So i guessed (may be i was wrong to judge by this one story) it's not so easy to be a vegetarian in Germany.

Going by train, I've noticed a group of turkish guys. They were talking very loud, laughed a lot and looking ''stylish''. They have been eyeing up random girls and when two young women were taken the seats near them, immediately started to approach them with jokes and conversation. It was really funny. You can not see the kind of behavior in Moscow too often.

In Puttgarden I've bought the ticket to the big ferry going to Rodbyhavn in Denmark. At the smoking lounge on the ferry I was smoking and thinking - Europe is old, probably older than the rest of the world ... and staying on its feet very well. After a while I've noticed the Danish cabin for smokers - it was a something new and funny for me, so I bought the cigarettes here because I've heard that in Denmark they are very expensive.

It was a strange feel in the air when i got to the station in Rodbyhavn. I was walking through a dirty underground filled with smell of antiseptic, so my first impression from Denmark was not too cheerful. There were not people at the stop waiting for their bus to Rodby. Almost all the people who arrived with me by the ferry went to homes with their own cars. I would wanted to ask somebody how I can get to Rodby, but it was really no one out there. To my fortune in approximately 15-20 minutes I got a taxi stopped near me.
The taxi driver was speaking English not so good, but he understood me and asked how much I will pay him?
I 've answered him that I don't know how much it cost.Then he said it will cost me about 100 crowns.
How much is this amount in euro? - I asked.
'Cvainzih euro' he answered in German.
So if you don't understand German it will be very hard for you to take a taxi and pay a decent amount of money in this place ......

For example to take a bus from Rodbyhavn to Rodby will cost you 14 crowns and it will cost 160 crowns for a taxi if you cannot speak German.

In 10-15 minutes we arrived to the Rodby camping place. Jan, the owner of the camping has prepared a small nice tent for me. I asked Jan where I can change my money, have a dinner, buy a food etc. Have you arrived to the art festival? - he asked. I said 'Yes', and he pointed me there are another artists in our camping and they will answer at all my questions! I saw the people near the caravan, they were drinking beer and talking loud. So here I was meeting my new friends, and we sat together and talked about our home countries. Dutch artist Jelke, Isao Kurihara from Japan, a singer and painter Ronnie Holmberg and a nice girl artist Charlotte Ronnlund from Sweden. They were laughing, discussing Rodby festival events and I think they had a good time together. It was very nice to talk to artists from different countries, who believe in the world without borders, I think I use to believe in this too. I felt a bit hungry and Ronnie has taken me to a pizzeria. The pizzeria's owner was a man from Irak, he sat outside of his restaurant on the street, talking to his friends, smoking and laughing. Ronnie was told him about me and I got a place inside the restaurant. Waiting for my pizza to be ready I was really surprised to see the Danish cabin for smoking in action. The cabin was made from transparent plastic, there was a small but high table in the center. When someone was smoking there it was such the zoo for everybody. Then I've got a small pizza with a small coca cola, it was a really tiny coca cola cup, but the pizza ...... That pizza was rather huge than small, but may be it's the the size of a small pizza in Denmark ;-) Then they told us pizzeria needed to be closed in ten minutes, so I've been eating in a hurry, and then went back to the camping through a dark silent empty streets.

My first night in the tent was cold, but the country side air and the silence in the camping made me asleep very fast. In the morning I went to a food store. Remembering the words from Lithuanian friends I've found the Aldi supermarket (famous for nice prices). In Rodby the Aldi store is opened from 9 in the morning. In the store I have bought an inexpensive food for the same money I usually pay at home. But the cigarettes are very expensive in Denmark, more than 3 euro for a pack, beer is pretty cheap though, about 50 cents for a bottle.

After I had a breakfast in the camping I went to the gallery, where I met my new art friends, the gallery owner Bo Sigvardson and his wife, who's kindly helped me to check my e-mails. Also I've got a free beer and friendly help from Ronnie with placing my paintings on the wall in the gallery. After that was a time for the opening with music, songs, speeches and taking photos.

Though it was not so easy to sell an art, it was still nice to stay in Rodby during the festival. Some of the artists expected to sell their big paintings, but I didn't. Rodby is a small town with less than 3000 people living here, and as for tourists - highway to Copenhagen brings them a possibility to drive further, without staying in Rodby. No tourists, no people, no sales. So I've been decided to sit on the chair outside the gallery and draw some cool mixed technique sketches. Some were a fantasy taken from my head, some were just inspired by stuff I've observed near me while drawing. I have sold a several drawings to people in Rodby, by very cheap price, but it was nice to share my work with them. Some of the drafts I've gave to my art friends.

After very warm and friendly conversation with Bo and his wife Lotta I went to my new 'home' to pay for a camping and the tent. It's really cheap to stay in the camping if you don't use electricity, washing machine etc. And it has a good kitchen with all facilities, so you can cook everything you want there. Of course taking in account a cheap price for the camping, they have some stuff that doesn't work well also. For example, if you have something wrong with refrigerator they wouldn't repair it for a long time, or shower in the camping was broken, and you can't mix cold and hot water in a normal way.

My travel to home was fast and simple, except the accident in the airport in Bremen, where they throwed out all the things from my bag on the custom control and I was in a hurry and stressed to get all my stuff to the bag again, with lot of people waiting after me in line.

I think it was a really good summer trip and interesting experience with the Rodby art festival, and meeting new artists friends from over the world, and I hope we'll meet again on next exhibitions and art festivals.

If you want to know more about the Rodby Festival pls contact us