Kaunas Castle Bus Stop
Greta: It is weird, but Kaunas Castle Bus Stop occupied a big and probably important part of my life. Since I was living in a suburb of Kaunas, Kaunas Castle (as we called it), was a point connecting me with the city and the city with my home. Since the 5th grade or so, I started going to the city quite often: for the matters related to rulers or pencils, but mostly because I could accidentally meet Him on a bus. My first childhood Love. And I would meet him. We would look at one another, watch each other, but we would never talk. Until the 12th grade, when one time he unexpectedly asked, where do I live somewhere in Laisvės Alėja. Quite soon, such closeness of Love encouraged the appearance of another Love. :)
Back then, I remember Kaunas Castle as vivid, full of people, movement and life. Where something was always going on. Some would come and other come back. Crowds waiting in front of a bus and who would wave across the square towards it and fill the entire interior of the old Ikarus (bus by Hungarian manufacturer).
A lot of people would use buses, it was no coincidence that participants of such everyday commutes would become as silent acquaintances. And today I sometimes see a person and think to myself: “Ah, he/she used to hop on the X stop...” The trip used to be short and poor, would last half an hour, so it would make those people close who would have never become acquainted or started talking to one another otherwise.
To me, Kaunas Castle Bus Stop is also kiosks. Of flowers, ice cream, newspapers and people standing around them. If I look deep inside my memory, I think I can still see a lemonade machine with a multiple use glass. Also benches. Brown, wooden, formed around concrete posts and with a roof above them. All this parking lot used to look like a giant gazebo. All this architecture in my memory is closely interwoven with the place, so I couldn’t believe after coming here again that there is only an empty field. Like a dessert. All my memories started to seem like a mirage, while in reality, in front of my eyes, there were cars, some people, some shuttles and again cars. To be honest, I would lie if I omit a new kebab place and several weird machines witnessing the arrival of capitalism into this place forsaken by God and city officials. These things stand in a place, where in my childhood, one could find a water dispenser.
Kaunas Castle was also a place of some home feeling. When arriving here, you could meet someone you know, some of your own or at least someone seen before. This resulted in a feeling of safety, yet in the evenings this dark place was not as charming.
During the last years, when the bus was still going through there and I would go in that direction as well, were my study years. Less kiosks, less routes. But my feelings related to this place are similar. The life of my friends and myself depended on this place, to be more precise, from the routes of my bus and mostly its last trip of the day (that would depart at 11.00 PM). This was for romantic evening goodbyes. It now seems that back there, I have said goodbyes to a lot of things: this place, student life and someone else...
It caught me by surprise how important this place is to me... (2015)
Augustas: When I started attending the Jesuit High School, you could still catch bus 93 from the castle. The old Ikarus buses were also still on the streets. I think somewhere in the 6th grade, the route changed, and 93 became 23 and no longer drove from the castle but just passed it by. And Ikarus buses were replaced with the new ones, which was very good, because Ikarus buses were horrible: when the driver would start a bus standing somewhere near the castle, all the exhausted smoke would usually get inside... It was full of holes and it was very cold in winter. I definitely agree that in the evening, the castle was not as charming, because a lot of drunks would come here (there was some bar next to the castle). (2015)