retiredmartin

May 2023.

Anyone sensible would have gone straight to bed after the 9.2% Baltic Porter but I’m afraid I’d already had a look at the top-rated Kaunas bars on Rate Beer (does anyone actually use Rate Beer anymore ?) and I felt obliged to pop in the Number 1 on the list.

The policeman across the road had his eye on me, I felt.

Vingiu Dubingiu Aludė is alluring from the outside,

rather plain and looking in bench seating inside,

though rather redeemed by a beer list of genuinely weird stuff. Assuming you like weird stuff.

I misread No. 2 as Birch Sad Ale, and swerved it in favour of the Humulupu, which I’m sure is a Beavertown beer. It was pretty good, though the place could have done with some more custom.

Outside, some folk were setting out in traditional Lithuanian folk costume ahead (well ahead) of Eurovision, which made a change from the belly button displaying crop tops that appeared mandatory on Kaunas streets.

Half a million folk (17% of the population) stayed up past midnight to watch Monika finish a creditable 11th.

though nothing in Liverpool that night would have come close to the African rhythms in Vingiu Dubingiu Aludė that afternoon.

The tunes were so good, I almost stayed for a Bark Sad Ale.

But enough is enough, often too much. And after a quick look in the loos,

I emerged to smell the roses.

Or whatever they are. My Dad’s the horticulturalist, not me.