Vilnius? Where is it?

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This is what everyone says when i tell them where i've been.

Vilnius is kind of like Venice, except without the canals. Ok, and when i was there it wasn't sunny either. But with its churches and cobblestones it has an old world charm, that is romantic in itself.

Simon and I were near the top floor of a hotel; he was attending Europython, and i was being tourist. I scoured the inflight magazines and the hotel magazine for addresses of small restaurants. Before we had left i'd looked into the tango scene: there was one, and i was determined that we would go dancing.

After the sunny weather of Venice, the gloom of overcast and rainy skies in Vilnius was a little disappointing. Simon got me a beanie because my head was getting cold in the wind.
While he was at the conference i walked around quite a bit. I got the impression that the people were sad. There's lots of refurbishing going on: improvement to streets etc, but still a sense of ...not quite despair, but gloom. No one smiled in the street, so much different to sunny Venice.

Many buildings were in a state of disrepair; to be more precise, some buildings had not been completed, so were mere shells. Many of the cobble stones in the square near the hotel were broken; there was quite a bit of graffiti. Yet, the main street was being beautified.

There are many churches, of many colour combinations; but i wasn't about to visit them. It was nice to simply walk around the town.

What struck me were the number of lingerie and stocking shops. You might think this is a strange thing to comment on in a travel blog, but again, i am not a normal tourist. I just like to look at stuff.
I went to the National museum and the arsenal, and it was all very boring.....in one museum, in all museums really.
What is interesting is how people live; how culturally different (or by the same token how similar )we are to each other.

I find these differences especially marked when coming from Australia; perhaps if i lived in Europe, i might not notice anything, but the diiferences in habits, in eating, in fashion are so pronounced that i can't help but notice, and find it all the more interesting than museums.

Tomorrow I'll write about the restaurants.

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Photos

View of Vilnius
We stayed at a hotel with a great view of the centre and the old vilnius

Bridge over canal
We had view of the canal; never any boats on it

White cathedral
This church was completely white; some are pink and white, green and white, range and white

Arsenal
Old monument overlooking the city