Never drink in an English pub in Vilnius

After a couple of travelling days we arrived in Lithuania's beautiful capital city, Vilnius. The city has a massive old town which is a UNESCO world heritage site.

We made our way from the train station to our first hostel, Hostelgate. This was very central and very near what we were to discover was the best coffee chain ever.......



Unfortunately the hostel was the worst we had stayed in so far... we were across the courtyard from the main building and it smelt. The room we were in was shared with a very odd German man who we couldn't work out why he was there.....

As well as a beautiful old town we were pleased to find that there were a couple of bits to climb, namely the Gernomius tower and the hill of three crosses. The walk to the tower was so slippy and covered in ice, but the views were totally worth it.

The hill of three crosses was thick with snow and very idyllic. The three crosses are seen by many Lithuanians as a symbol of the country's constant loyalty to their roots through oppression and occupation.







Vilnius is a very quirky place and includes a mini republic known as Uzupio. In the mid 90s, following the liberation of Lithuania, a group of artists decided to make their own very odd republic in the centre of Vilnius. The constitution is up on a wall in 9 languages and includes gems such as a dog has the right to be a dog and people have the right to be unhappy. To enter the republic you walk across a bridge which is covered with locks that have been attached to the bridge by lovers who by closing the lock will supposedly be together forever. Very cute and suitable for the entrance of a romantic, bohemian republic.

Lonely Planet listed 5 quirky attractions to visit and we decided to track them down. All were pretty easy to find except the miracle tile in the cathedral square which took us about half an hour to track down.

 1. The Frank Zappa statue- a Lithuanian super fan got permission for the erection of a statue of Frank Zappa's head which now resides in a random car park near the Turkish embassy.

2. The egg statue which once took centre stage in the Uzupio republic was replaced in 2002 by the angel (see below)

3. The angel of Uzupis which apparently hatched from the egg statue.

4. The miracle tile is situated in the cathedral square and marks a place where the baltic chain occured. The baltic chain was a protest by all three baltic nations where people held hands over 600km. It was a tool to highlight all three nation's desires to be independent from the Soviet union. 6 months after the protest Lithuania declared itself as a nation no longer part of the Soviet union.

5. The socialist bridge, which had been destroyed several times has on each corner a statue celebrating the worker.

Whilst we were in Vilnius the spring festival took place, this was the biggest market I'd ever seen and spanned the entire old town with stalls. It was packed!!!

Trakai

As a day trip we went to Trakai, a castle on a hill and home to the Karaim people. I can safely say this was the coldest temperatures I have ever been in and as we were being battered by snow and wind when crossing the very frozen lake by a slippery bridge I did question both our minds. Adam was super brave and stood on the frozen lake for a piccy!!

Kaunas

Kaunas is Lithuania's second city, comes with a compact old town and a devil museum (yup random). To be honest the few days in Kaunas we chillaxed, ate popcorn and watched films. I finally  saw V for Vendetta and now understand the whole Guido Fawkes mask thingy!!!

Hill of Crosses

In our book of Europe that our supercool friend Eloise gave us, the haunting images stood in both of our minds and we were determined to visit. The crosses are a mixture of devotional crosses and in memoriam crosses. The place was beautiful and surprisingly peaceful. The wind caused the crosses to tinkle.

PS. Yes we did go to an English pub in Vilnius. Yes we did get tonnes of free beer from a wide brimmed hatted Lithuanian man. Yes the hangover the next day was disgustingly painful.