The lost city of Vilnius - a story of a lucky loss!

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Well hey one and all!

So I guess, its about time I wrote about the third and final country I visited in my little Baltic jaunt.

When I last wrote, I was just leaving Riga, following a girl as so many before have and so many after me will. Well I have never and probably will never meet Delila or Lysa again. Pretty sad thought I guess, but actually, I am quite happy about this. You see, now I have this memory, this perfect moment totally etched into my head. I never, ever want to ruin that. Because now I know, that what I am doing is right.

So Vilnius, well truth be told, my mind wasn't as open to this city as I wish it had of been, I got there and I was pretty down. So I sort of just wondered aimlessly around for a while, found my hostel (Monks bunks... do not go there! its not near the centre and its pretty devoid of all atmosphere...)

Ok, so my first day in Vilnius pretty much consisted of looking around for the American girl, whom I had befriended as mentioned in my previous blog. A really kind and friendly person and thanks to the fate of stupidity, well I never ended meeting here again. I spent the day walking around seeing a few of the sights and just as I had given up on the day and about to head back to my hostel, I bump into the American guys, Nick and Jon and the Swedish John too. Which was a really nice surprise, it was from them that I learnt I had just missed the alusive American. So alas, the meeting also brought an end to my dying hope I might get to catch her. Ahh well, to quote to her "at least I got a good story from it!"

So naturally we did the typical travellers things and we sat down, had a few beers and watched a good game of football... in a bar which closed before it finished and kicked us out! So we weren't exactly impressed. Actually it is here, that I should mention that Latvia to Lithuania is very different in terms of night culture. In Latvia, expect to be out to sun up, in Lithuania, it is more of an English styled pub scene. Quite nice, but do be awate of it!

So we left for the night and agreed to meet up the next day and go on the usual walking tour. Swedish Jon didn't go with us on this tour in the end. Opting to go on to Poland, where I know he had a most excellent time!

It is always sad doing a goodbye while travelling, but I would really like to think I might meet all of these people again one day, I've never met anyone I could say I wouldn't want to meet again. And if any of you guys manage to read this! Get in contact.

So the walking tour of Lithuania, quite excellent as it took us through the most unusual country of Uzupio.

Do yourself a favour and just google the place, I can't even begin to describe it, other than if your remotely of an artistic liking then you'll love the place, so in honour of it, here is the constitution

The republic of Uzupio's constitution<br style="color:񑘕 font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />1) Everyone has the right to live by the river Vilinele and the River Vilinele has he right to flow by everyone<br style="color:񑘕 font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />2)Everyone has the right to hot water, heating in winter and a tiled roof<br style="color:񑘕 font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />3)Everyone has the right to die, but it is not an obligation<br style="color:񑘕 font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />4)Everyone has the right to make mistakes
5)Everyone has the right to be unique
6)Everyone has the right to love
7)Everyone has the right to be loved, but not necessarily
8)Everyone has the right to be undistinguished and unknown
9)Everyone has the right to love and take care of a cat
10)Everyone has the right to look after a dog, until one of them dies
11)A dog has the right to be a dog
12) A cat is not obliged to love it's owner, but must help in times of need
13)Everyone has the right to be idle
14)Sometimes, everyone has the right to be unaware of their duties
15)Everyone has the right to be happy
16)Everyone has the right to be unhappy
17)Everyone has the right to be silent
18)Everyone has the right to have faith
19)Everyone has the right to be in doubt, but this is not an obligation
20)No one has the right of violence
21)Everyone has the right to appreciate their unimportance
22)No one has the right to have a design on eternity
23)Everyone has the right to understand
24)Everyone has the right to understand nothing
25)Everyone has the right to be of any nationality
26)Everyone has the right to celebrate or not celebrate their birthday
27)Everyone shall remember their name
28)Everyone may share what they possess
29)No one can share what they do not possess
30)Everyone has the right to brothers, sisters and parents
31)Everyone may be independent
32) Everyone is responsible for their own freedom
33)Everyone has the right to cry
34)Everyone has the right to be misunderstood
35)No one has the right to make another person guilty
36)Everyone has the right to be individual
37)Everyone has the right to have no rights
38)Everyone has the right to not be afraid
39)Do not defeat
40)Do not fight back
41)Do not surrender The tour will also take you out into the countryside, showing your the former burial place of a true local hero, ask the tour girl about her vampire theory of him. It is worth the listen and spookily true when you add up the evidence.Also worth the look is the three crosses on the hill. Really beautiful and quite a moving story behind it. So by the end of this tour, we had picked up a totally awesome Finnish dude called Jaarko and reaquainted ourselves with an old friend in Josef, the German guy from Riga. And it just happened that Germany would be playing Italy that night in the Euros. So naturally, we had to find a bar in the hope of supporting our friends national team.I am pleased to say we did find a bar, a bar which turned into a club later on. Also a place where my friend Jon, fell in love with, proposed to, mock married and divorced a beautiful Lithuanian girl, all in one night. Bro, if you ever read this, I hope the juice was worth it!So this bar, we settle in, make it known we are supporting Germany - DEUTCH DEUTCH DEUTCH and then turn around to discover 200 Italians have moved in behind us, all locals and all friends of the ITALIAN owner, well decide that we would stay and watch, drink and smoke to our hearts content! All I will say is, thank god Germany lost, because we had more than one Italian afterwards buy us a drink and remind us that we would of died if they had won...
So the night ended in the club, loads of beer and dancing and no deaths - thank god! The next day, we all parted. Jon and Nick went to Finland, Jaarko to Sweden, Josef to Germany and me. Well I decided to go back to Riga. Now I do wish here, I had of gone on to Poland as per my plan. But really I had an excellent time in Riga, so I can't complain, but I did spend too long there in the end.

Actually, to put a quick and beautiful end to my time in the Baltics. I think I will use this oppurtunity to finish my tour of the area. So I went back to Riga. Brad came back, Lucas and Erik were still there, as was Martyn. So I pretty much spent two weeks getting hammered and helping out with the pub crawls, it was pretty amazing. But I think my next adventure needs to a bit more daring!

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