vilnius, capital of Lithuania

November 6, 2006 by zankbennett.

The capital of Lithuania is a most special place. I heard an interesting thing about Vilnius from and English man in Riga, Latvia; he said that Vilnius was still somewhat shaded from the barage of tourists for the fact that the low-price airlines (Ryan Air and EasyJet) just don’t serve the city. I find that very interesting and immediately evident.

In true E European style, the city is well-labeled, but it’s still a but more difficult that other places to find one’s way…the walk to my hostel was one of the longest, and most serpentine! Once there, checked into a giant, nearly deserted, Russian-style building. The decor? Compession-formed particle board. Unpainted. I have my own bathroom. I can’t remember the last time that happened…
The place is actually quite close to the city center, but for the first days I would spend nearly 30 mins trying to get there! It’s now an eight-min walk.

My first night (felt more like three!), went out to find a vegetarian restaurant recommended in my travel book. Finally find the entrance which was really nothing more that a big hole in the ground. So, with low expectations, I went for it. How cool can it be…a bunch of weird Lithuanian vegetarians?! The restaurant was really a bar with damn good food and an excellent live-music venue. This dungeon had doors that led out from the main bar area to various eating/drinking/listening rooms. I got a table in the back with three goth girls. They were classic and spoke good (enough) English. The one in all black was explaining to me how when she met the other girl sitting across from her (dressed in all white), they had made a deal to always wear only that one color. She assured me that her entire closet contained nothing but black clothes. I took her word for it! I took an amazing picture of the three. Will post…
The band playing was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, and certainly the best on this trip. I asked, but no CD, no web site.

From there, walked aroung in circles trying to find the next thing to do. Wound up at a really cool 2-level bar that was like an old ranch house with steep wooden stairs leading up to the second floor and a small dance floor. The music was, well, terrible. It’s not that I’m not down with Paris Hilton or that Wang Chung song, or She Bangs! She Bangs! or AC/DC…but how do they expect people to dance to that mix?

At 5 am, they kicked everyone out into the -6 C morning. A friend, Sandra, I had been dancing with wasn’t any more tired than I was and gave me a full guided tour of the city until 7 am…It was sureal! The snow was coming down in a constant white blanket as the morning sun made the sky just so subtly, deep orange. We were amidst castles and old fortresses and state buildings with massive columns…and everything was white! The lamps that illuminate the taller buildings stood out like cartoon spotlights as the snow lit their paths through the air. We stopped for a while in near white-out conditions to push snow off some of the tiles in front of the Vilnius Cathedral…looking for this special translucent one. When I found it, we brushed away all the snow and she told me the tradition of standing on the tile and spinning three times while making a wish, which will subsequently come true…
The last few days trump nearly every beautiful alpine experience I can ever remember, save one or two. It’s shocking! Have pictures…one great one of is walking, and trying, with both our mouths open, to catch snow flakes…..

Finally left vilnius Monday morning on a (slow!) bus to Warsaw, Poland.

Man, this is the best!!!! Really the best. All of it, even the sweet sorrow of leaving such a beautiful city to memories.

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