No Football Only Basketball

Europe » Lithuania » Vilnius
September 8th 2007

Published: September 11th 2007

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Steph and Rob

Soviet highrise flats

We woke early this morning, but easily fell asleep again until midday. The weather was overcast and didn't really inspire us to get up and do anything. When we did eventually get up neither of us was particularly optomistic about the day ahead.

First stop was cathedral square to find the tile that the human peace chain ended at. We really couldn't find it anywhere, so after a quick look around the cathedral itself we headed up to the Gedimino tower. It was around then that we realised we were exhausted. By the time we'd climbed to the top we were shattered, this could be due to a lack of decent meals. This was duely noted. On the way down from the tower we saw the three crosses hill which is where three monks were executed by the soviets.

Unimpressed by the "sights" we'd seen so far, we went in search of Balti Drambali, a vegetarian restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet. It was definitely worth it. I finally had a meal that wasn't fried cheese, curd or potato instead it was vegetable couscous. Rob had eggplant, zucchini and tomato with rice and sauce. A welcome source of vegetables and

New town...

a change from heavy stodgy food.

We headed in the direction of the museum of genocide victims which is housed in the old KGB headquarters. We stopped off on the way to see the only statue of Frank Zappa ever. That really wasn't worth the metal it was made out of. It was so small and in the car park of a random building. The museum was rather interesting and not quite as heavy as others we've been to. There was a two floor exhibition and then the old prison was open to view. This was pretty cool as it wasn't too dissimilar from the one we stayed in.

England vs Israel was due to kick off in two hours, so we headed back to the main shopping area to look for a bar to watch it in. After a detour into a shopping mall, we quickly realised that there was no chance we'd get to see the game. Basketball is really popular here and Lithuania played Italy in some important cup.

We walked down a street with some big old buildings on, in search of another square that was on the maps, but after half an

...old town

hour we gave in and headed back to the main eating place in old town in search of food. It was only half eight but most places were either empty or not serving food anymore. Eventually we conceded defeat and headed to good old Cili Pica where we watched the basketball and ate. (Lithuania beat Italy)

Uzupio is supposed to be this really bohemian party type place, so we headed there planning to get a drink there. However when we got there it was deserted and the roads around it were quite eerie, so we headed back to an area we knew had a pub on it.

We finished our evening in The Pub which is a dodgy bar with really old English music like Saturday night altenating with bad dance music. The place is busy though and it's given me the chance to catch up on diary entries. We were also just treated to a flaring display in the bar.

We will probably head off back to the hostel after I finish this pint. The beer is about as disappointing as the city. I think we would both leave a day early but we have already