Adventure 10: Vilnius and Trakai

So here we sit, in a slightly depressing internet cafe, killing time before the joy that is to be a 9 hour bus to Warsaw. The last couple of days, like the weeks before, have been completely amazing and to be honest, we've packed so much in that I'm a little grateful that we have nothing to do for the next couple of hours.

We arrived in Vilnius hung over as hell and with little clue as to where our hostel was. I gathered up my courage to ask directions but managed to find the only person in Lithuania who spoke neither English or Russian. A bit dejected, we wandered around the grotty new town until we finally found our hostel. The staff were unfriendly and were "brick faces" - a term a much friendlier Russian in Riga had taught us, which they use to describe people who show no emotion - and our bathroom had a big sign telling us to put all of the dirty toilet paper in the bin instead of the toilet, so at this stage we weren't feeling too enthusiastic about Vilnius...



However, as soon as we entered the old town, that all changed. It's a beautiful, lived in town that has neither the disneyland feel of Tallinn or the sleaziness of Riga. It's just wonderful. It was pelting with rain (we were getting used to this) so we headed to the Museum of Genocide which did not document the genocide of jewish people like we thought, but instead the genocide that the Russians had attempted to inflict on all Lithuanians. It was housed in the old KGB headquarters and you could even go down into the basement prison and torture cells. The prison was amazingly well preserved as it was used up until 1991 (!). A really spooky, horrible place.

After wandering round the many streets of the old town, we went to bed early, but not before a (not so) tasty meal of Lithuanian zeppelins (one of the national dishes). Hugly fatty potato dumplings that are mushy and stuffed with pork mince and then smothered in sour cream. Or in Emma's case pork fat and sour cream - YUM.



After our fantastic experience with the alternative tour in Riga, we decided to do the local equivalent. It was hugely worth it again as we managed to get out of the old town and see more of what the regular people see of Vilnius.



The quick trip to Trakai the following day was easy and cheap. That town is so relaxing - it has one ruined castle and one renovated castle, but apart from that, there is not much to do except wander round and lay in the sun. Trakai's one other claim to fame is that it is home to a weird middle eastern sect who make their money through several restaurants of Kariate (spelling?) food. It was pretty good - and great to have some spicy food too!

So again, here we are in Vilnius. Today we found the "secret" tile in the cathedral forecourt. It's the point at which the 2 million person long chain from Tallinn to Vilnius which was protesting Soviet occupation in 1991 finished. So the saying goes, if you find the tile and turn around on it clockwise, your wish will come true. It was a surprisingly moving little monument as you realise just how bad things must have been to mobilse 2 million people across three countries.

That has been the one surprising thing about all three Baltic states - they are all really quite soviet feeling still. People speak Russian, there are loads of big anonymous soviet housing blocks and there is a feeling in the air that this is not quite the "cheap scandanavia" that you read about in the guide books. That said, I don't think I'd have it any other way. It's a truely unique place in the world.

Thanks to all the people who have been commenting, it has been great to hear from you all!