Vilnius

The sightseeing bus transfer from Riga was amazing. Our guide, Laura, was charismatic and funny, telling us how great Lithuania is and how much we were going to love it! We started off with a couple of stops in Latvia: firstly the Salaspils Memorial which was on the place of a WWII labour camp. Lots of big marble here, and a continuing heartbeat to represent those that were stopped.

The second was Rundale Palace, a gorgeously restored old manor that has been used as much more prosaic things – hospitals, grain storage, military operations… and now it’s restored and has a grand French Garden in parterre style and masses of different roses, an outdoor theatre and even a “patience labyrinth” without hedges.

We crossed the border and after stopping off at a restaurant for lunch (I had venison carpaccio which was tasty), we climbed the Hill of Crosses, where Lithuanian people leave crosses in memory of loved ones, as prayers and requests. They were also a visible form of protest, especially against Soviet occupation.

Our last stop before Vilnius was in Kaunas, the second biggest city and the backup capital from when Vilnius was occupied. We wandered the Old Town and checked out the Castle before completing the final leg of the journey, arriving in front of the Cathedral in time to see the square full of people in uniform – apparently one or some of the military bands/choirs had been playing. We’d been a little taken aback at the military presence!

In Vilnius we were staying in a (ground floor!) apartment just off the Town Hall Square, in the middle of the old town, about ten mins of dragging our cases from where we were dropped off.

While in Vilnius, we explored the old town, wandered along the main street that had been closed off to traffic to make space for literally kilometers of stalls along the side of the road, starting with crafts, pottery, woodwork, silk and linen, amber and other jewellery, then moving gradually into food and drink. We took the opportunity while of this end of town to visit a Frank Zappa memorial (with birds nesting in the hollow sculpture.) One cafe we stopped at (Depeche Coffee) had an interesting signature drink: Cold Sparkle… when asked what it was, it sounded like Schweppes and a shot of coffee. Why not?

After a false start, we hopped on a bus to head out to see Trakai Castle, famous for being a castle on an island. A very pleasant place it is too, and after a boat trip around the area and stopping for lunch (I tried the delicious creamy cold beetroot soup) we needed to head back to the bus station. Little did we know that there are very few rideshare cars out there, and we weren’t able to request one in time! We’d been standing at the bus stop outside the visitor centre while we worked this out, and one of the lovely people working there must have seen our confusion because she opened the window and took pity on us, telling us we were waiting at the wrong bus stop and the one we wanted to go back to the bus station was just up the street. Thankfully, the next bus was imminent. and although my heart jumped when the bus took a quick detour past the shops, we made it to the bus station with a couple of minutes to spare to catch the Vilnius bus.

We caught up with the inimitable B that afternoon – she is Lithuanian and happened to be in Vilnius at the time. She took us up to the top of the hill on the furnicular and showed us the two contrasting sides of the city, and then we headed to a laneway cafe for some sorbet and drinks.

Our last day we went souvenir shopping, hitting a couple of linen shops and amber shops. I even found a linen dress that fit okay! We then waited around until it was time to head to the airport, killing time at a cafe/restaurant near the Cathedral Square where we could listen to some of the musical acts rehearsing, possibly for the Song Celebration that is coming up.

Vilnius Airport is quite small and brutalist, but looks like it’s having some renos. The non-Schengen flights for the evening included only our flight to Istanbul and a single one to London. Brexit is a lonely world!