Lithuania-Vilnius

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Hi from ho-hum Vilnius

Hmmm.... I was expecting to be blown-away by Vilnius, but so far I haven't seen anything that compares to the beauty of Tallinn (but, to be fair, I've only been here for a couple of hours, so I'll reserve judgment for now).

The bus ride from Riga to Vilnius was a painless 4 hours (I had my raspberries and my mobile phone games to occupy me). When I arrived, I got a little lost finding my way from the bus station to the AAA hostel. The hostel had a pretty creepy feel right away, made even creepier when I found out that the rooms were made up of pods! I'm sleeping in a pod tonight ... Lithuania, thus far, is just creepy (made even creepier by the nutcase who has been chanting and screaming outside this restaurant for the past 10 minutes).

I dropped my backpack in my pod and then headed straight out. It was a bit of a long and dodgy walk to the old town, and then I found the streets even emptier and quieter than Tallinn had been. (SHIT, the crazy man has made his way into the restaurant and is headed in my direction ... get me out of here!).

Anyway, I wandered into a few amber shops (the Baltics are amber-central and I'm going to buy something for Mom tomorrow). I stupidly sat at an outdoor cafe for a caffe-latte (because I wanted to have a cigarette), and then walked along the pedestrian street to a big square full of giant white buildings. I took a few photos but it started to rain, which lent an even creepier and quieter ambiance to the place. So I headed back along side streets, went to explore a graffiti'd, run-down area by a little stream but noticed a group of goth kids just in the nick of tie and headed straight back to the touristy part of town. I'm going to stay on this road for a few drinks and then go straight back to the hostel, and tomorrow afternoon I'm getting the Hell out of Vilnius! I'd wanted to see the KGB headquarters (wouldn't that make a perfect end to this day!?) but I'm hating it here and I want to leave. I thought this would be my favourite of the 3 Baltic capitals ... now I'm wondering if the movie "Hostel" is based on true events that took place here!

Talk to ya later (I hope!)

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