i had some time left after finishing my tasks of today, so writing you a new fanmail (with correct subject this time)

the park sounds of the urban variety. not enough nature to really enjoy the time spent there. probably also had the smell of "city" floating around there, exhaust-air and warmed pavement and so on. it does not sound enjoyable. the tilted bench, enjoyment points reduced. one could say, in total, net-negative enjoyment. but, that's reading between the lines. perhaps it was not that bad and you enjoyed. hope you at least got to rest your ankle some more. (ps. i only heard of "romper" in baby clothes terminology. description also not clear. suit? sounds more like pants-and-shirt-in-one. onesie? but that's for sleeping in, mostly).

interested to hear about the gauge-swapping-machinery village. what to do in those parts? blank thoughts, no imagination. a place existing purely because the rails demand it, maybe. very funny concept.

cafe experiences in these times are all the same. assorted screens active, calls in progress, either fake (cover) or paid-for music playing, no human interactions apart from ordering and fetching / receiving the order. not that i mind, i like that people leave me alone in public settings.

hearing the laundromat experience in more detail opened my mind. contactless payment. emergency number (meaning no staff in the shop all the time??). remote activation. everything is getting "smart", i.e. connected to the world-wide-web. scary to think about what's next. what the consequences are. tennis balls can be used in a washer. some say including them reduces wrinkles when retrieving clothes from the machine. also, helps break up cotton or down in (winter)-jackets, so it doesn't clump up in one area. never tried it though, so can't verify effectiveness. probably general usage in a laundromat. don't steal.

good you made it in time for your train. lucky. instinct maybe. probably a bit of both. too bad you couldn't get any more sleep. hope the landscapes were worth seeing. if not, that the book was good.

did you also take one of the fancy electric scooters (or a "lame" taxi)? or did you really walk the distance to your accommodation? not sure, given ankle situation and relative walking distance it sounds like a bad idea. might also have been doable at the time. people will walk shocking distances before admitting defeat and using other forms of transportation, i notice. especially on holiday.

dinner looks... weird... at first. after a quick translation of the packaging, i see it's not so weird after all. at least not for the polish. red beets, always good. cooked, stewed, mashed (with potatoes (optionally)). bon appetit.

bad luck (or bad odds) on the shaving cream covering of the insides of the pack. hope it cleaned up okay. not fun to have all the contents be covered in it. shaving cream specifically also feels impossible to fully remove, there is always some residue left behind somewhere, lurking.

i have never heard of suwalki. not that i know many places in poland. a few. anyway, sounds like it's a perfect drive-by-town when on a train. i imagine you can see everything there is to see in town from the comfort of the train seat, looking outward. then again, this is probably a thing i'd do too. go where the road is less travelled and find interesting things to see, do. did you get a chance to see how the gauge-swapping-machinery operates?

phone store situation was enjoyable as far as i can tell. something happening to kill time. train station (and platform) scenarios, funny. bomb story, probably the best. accidentally threatening national rail infrastructure because of conversational enthusiasm, powerful.

did you just break the dutch streak on your own!? oh, there were other instances there. transgression forgiven. remember: wherever you are, there is always at least 1 (other) dutch person present. one of the rules of travelling, i suppose. something embedded in our dna from the voc-times. must leave a presence in every part of the world, even if it's not "ours".

not sure if the conductor not checking interrail ticket with a discounted regular ticket is standard practice, or you just got the edge case where it was not checked. either way, better safe than sorry (this is aimed at non-interrail-ticket users. please disregard). there is probably some lithuanian rail-maxxing subculture built entirely around this loophole already.

hostel lady sounds nice. extra nice that she offered advice on the what-to-dos around in the area. props to guitar guy. kind of funny how you wrote it too. this hostel sounds like a typical hostel stay again. i am now convinced every hostel is like this. on the one hand, i'm intrigued and want to try it out. on the other, still a bit reserved. something about a "comfort-zone"? further engagements with hostel-goers makes me lean more to the intriguing side of things. the hostel-user archetype becomes more real with every entry.

bad movies can sometimes be good. but they have to be really-really bad. like "the room", or "rubber" bad. the one you saw was probably better than those. unforseeable. regrettable. walk back sounds nice though. hope you didn't put more strain on your ankle than it can handle at the moment.

attached picture looks exactly like how i imagine any place in that region looks like.

being the smallest hostel and the best hostel in lithuania made it easy to look up. entrance looks shady, but the interior seems cozy. hope you enjoy your stay there. i see the guitar. guitar-guy story-arc verified. ask him to play "thunderstruck" or "smells like teen spirit". guitar players hate those requests.

i wish your ankle a speedy recovery. enjoy the food in lithuania. from hearsay i heard it's good. whatever "good" means in a subjective way. definitely try cepelinai if you get the chance. again, from the same hearsay, that should be "the best food i've ever tasted". some kind of meatball (and assorted "special" fillings) with a potato-ish exterior.