A few days in Vilnius, Lithuania
I have to admit, Lithuania was a pretty random location. But I've wanted to visit the Baltic states for a while, and with this being pretty much the last long summer of my life, why not go now? So, after a late take off and the longest border control line of my life, we made it to Lithuania!
First impressions?
Lithuania is s l o w. No one is in a hurry. Slow walkers, slow service ..... a completely chilled vibe. It is also really green- there are parks and forrest areas every where.
It’s also super cheap. We got the bus from the airport to our hotel for €1, and stopped at a supermarket on the way for a snack and managed to get a quarter of a huge watermelon for 29cents. Not gonna lie, I was considering buying come to take back home with me.
It’s also super cheap. We got the bus from the airport to our hotel for €1, and stopped at a supermarket on the way for a snack and managed to get a quarter of a huge watermelon for 29cents. Not gonna lie, I was considering buying come to take back home with me.
After checking in, we decided to conquer the whole of Old Town in an afternoon. There was a lot to see, but we managed to cover pretty much all of it with a mighty 23,000 steps (my legs hurt a LOT the next day). We didn’t have a solid plan, but everything was pretty close together so we saw the Royal Palace, the Gediminas tower (on a hill), Church of the Holy Spirit, main town square, and streets of grafitti walls all in a couple of hours.
My personal favourite, and also the place with the BEST views, was the hill of three crosses. It was a trek up in the heat but was soooo worth it for the incredible views.
We ate a LOT - Melissa had done her research on the top places to eat. So for lunch we went to Pilies Kepyklele and I had a chicken ‘lasagne’ thing and a curd cake (a speciality). We also went back twice more for cake during our trip - the caramel and poppy seed cake was my personal favourite.
Potatoes and beer are huge in Lithuania, so for dinner I had a bacon and potato pancake which was soooo good. I’m not a beer fan but I got a pint of a fruity beer - the banana and clementine hints definitely made it taste better. The whole thing came to about €7 as well, a bonus for the wallet.
On our second day we did a day trip to Trakei, a 35 minute bus journey from Vilnius city centre. This was from platform 28- this took us AGES to find so hopefully I've just spared you 20 minutes of wandering around Vilnius bus station trying to make sense of the poorly labelled bays, if you're ever planning on going.
Trakei has the largest density of lakes in Lithuania and was beautiful. There is an island castle which you cross a bridge to get over, and you can walk around it or go inside it. The town itself is full of handmade craft and souvenir stalls, and they have so much amber they put it in everything. We decided to get a pedalo to ride around the lake and castle, which was so fun in the sunshine and was only €3 for an hour, much cheaper than Regent’s Park ;)
On Melissa’s food bucket list she had AJ Shokolatiers, a chocolate cafe which was on the walk back to the bus station. This place was amazzziinnggg- I had a chocolate caramel cake which was incredible, and Melissa had a watermelon latte (which she said was nicer than expected) and a hot chocolate which was literally melted chocolate. I tried some and it was h e a v e n l y- why can’t all hot chocolate be like that ?! We got the bus back to Vilnius and walked around Old Town for the rest of the evening, spotting the Gates of Dawn (the only surviving city gate) and a folk art exhibition we happened to stumble across.
We went to Fortas for dinner, and I had something called the rissole. Can’t really tell you what it is but looked pretty traditional, and potato pancakes which were incredible.
We went to Fortas for dinner, and I had something called the rissole. Can’t really tell you what it is but looked pretty traditional, and potato pancakes which were incredible.
On our final day, we wanted to crack on with some museums. So, after breakfast (a standard bed and breakfast, but with the addition of potatoes and herring, 2 very traditional foods in Lithuania), we went to the Genocide Museum and the museum of Optical Illusions.
The Genocide Museum was emotional. It is hard to imagine the awful conditions thousands of prisoners stayed in during the Nazi and KBG times- but we didn't have to imagine. We were allowed inside the execution chamber as well as the prisoner cells of the prison, which was a chilling but eye-opening experience. It was quite scary thinking about the fact this happened less than 100 years ago. In contrast, however, we got to see the celebrations of 100 years of independence (on July 6th) which were all over the city!
The Genocide Museum was emotional. It is hard to imagine the awful conditions thousands of prisoners stayed in during the Nazi and KBG times- but we didn't have to imagine. We were allowed inside the execution chamber as well as the prisoner cells of the prison, which was a chilling but eye-opening experience. It was quite scary thinking about the fact this happened less than 100 years ago. In contrast, however, we got to see the celebrations of 100 years of independence (on July 6th) which were all over the city!
Our final stop was the optical illusion museum, which was AMAZING- potentially my favourite part of the whole trip. I don’t want to give too much away in case there are any potential Vilnius- travellers reading this. But 100% go, it will blow your mind and you'll learn a lot about the science (and magic) behind illusions. And take student ID for discounted entry!
After one last cake, we made our way back to the airport. We got off at the wrong stop and ended up at IKEA (the trip was so smooth up until then, I jinxed it), but made it back to a VERY happy England after the win against Sweden.
I can’t say much about the people of Lithuania - maybe it was where we went but they weren’t particularly friendly. There weren't that many of them either- for a capital city it was pretty sparsely populated. Before we went I read somewhere that in general Lithuanians are very patriotic and not particularly accepting of other cultures, and actually I did see that during our trip. In the city centre every other building was a restaurant- but the food was always traditional Lithuanian food. I didn't see a single Chinese, Indian or fast food restaurant, apart from 1 Mcdonalds and 1 pizza place. This was great for us because we got to experience true Lithuanian culture, but I do see the lack of diversity within the country. But I can side-step these things because the place was beautiful, and I would definitely recommend for a cultural and cheap trip!
I can’t say much about the people of Lithuania - maybe it was where we went but they weren’t particularly friendly. There weren't that many of them either- for a capital city it was pretty sparsely populated. Before we went I read somewhere that in general Lithuanians are very patriotic and not particularly accepting of other cultures, and actually I did see that during our trip. In the city centre every other building was a restaurant- but the food was always traditional Lithuanian food. I didn't see a single Chinese, Indian or fast food restaurant, apart from 1 Mcdonalds and 1 pizza place. This was great for us because we got to experience true Lithuanian culture, but I do see the lack of diversity within the country. But I can side-step these things because the place was beautiful, and I would definitely recommend for a cultural and cheap trip!
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