Exploring the Baltic States - Vilnius (Lithuania)

Last month I went on a three day trip to Lithuania. My first trip to the Baltic States and also to Eastern Europe in general. Usually, I travel to southern and very touristic countries, so it was nice to try something completely different. I had read about Vilnius and the surroundings before I went and made a rough plan for my days there, but I did not have much of an idea what exactly to expect of the people and the culture and the feeling of the country. I have to say that the country has surprised me positively in many ways.

 

 

 

 It was my first time to travel all alone, so this was another new thing. I expected to spend a lot of time sitting in cafes reading my book and walking around by myself while listening to some music. But to be honest, I barely spent any time alone during my three days there. Turns out that staying in a hostel alone puts you in the perfect situation to meet people. My whole hostel seemed to be full of friendly, social and interesting people. It was great to share travel stories and to hang out with people from all over the world. It was so much fun!

 

 

On my first night I got to explore the nightlife of Vilnius by joining a pub crawl. I had buckets of fun with my new temporary friends and ended up staying out until 5am. There are many different bars and clubs in the city and most things seem to be open until late, which really made the city seem lively.

 

 

The next morning at noon I was all ready and set to go on the Vilnius walking tour (although maybe not all that bright and awake). These free walking tours are my favourite activity for the first day in a new country. You get to see most of the tourist attractions and get to know the city a bit, Then you can decide which things are interesting to visit again later (if you can find them back of course).

 

 

This walking tour turned out to be another good way to meet new people. After the tour we went for lunch with a group from the tour. I tried a typical Lithuanian dish and drink: Fried pig ear and midus. The midus was a very nice drink, but the pig ear was definitely something I will never (EVER!) eat again. I bravely managed to eat most of it, but the texture was quite horrendous to be honest. Still, I am very proud to have tried.

 

 

After the lunch, some of us stayed together to visit some landmarks we saw during the tour. We climbed up to a very nice view point and went into a couple of churches. After that, we scattered again since some people were taking a bus to their next destination that evening.

Back at the hostel I took a well-deserved nap, before going for dinner and drinks with some of the guys from the hostel. Another long evening, but again, a fun one.

 

 

You might have noticed that the weather on some pictures seems very sunny, while on other pictures it looks all gloomy and dark. The reason for that is that the weather changes all the time. One moment it would rain and the next it would be warm and sunny. At some point I just stopped to take out my umbrella or rain coat, because I knew the rain would be over soon anyway.

 

 

My second day in Lithuania I did  little day trip, but more about that later. By then I felt like I had been there for about a week already because I did so much and I started to know my way around the city a bit. A really great thing about this city is that you can easily walk everywhere, it is very compact. Not having to worry about public transport makes everything so much more convenient.

 

 

On my last day I made a list of some things I had not seen yet and that I still wanted to visit. By then I had passed by most buildings and roads of the city centre already simply by taking a different route every time I walked somewhere.

 

But one thing that was still on my list was a visit to the university. I had seen some cool pictures of the library online and I wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, the library was only accessible for students. I contemplated telling the library lady that I had forgotten my student card, but instead I just asked if we could have a look. She said we could go into one room only and then left. So of course we wandered through all halls and rooms we saw. It was not the library I saw online, but it was still fun to check out another university.

 

 

Later I went for a walk to the other side of the river to visit the national art gallery. For the grand fee of just 87 cents, I bought a ticket to this nice, small museum.

 

 After that it was time to go back to the hostel to pick up my things and take the bus to the airport. I had a great time and can't wait to visit some more countries in this part of Europe.