Vilnius, Lithuania

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My stay in Vilnius was short but sweet. I wanted to push on to Russia and because of this only had 2 days to spend in Lithuania’s capital. The overnight bus from Warsaw wasn’t brilliant. The long distance coach was completely full which made getting any sleep difficult. Things got worse when the bus driver pulled into a service station for a toilet break and allowed a swarm of mosquitoes to get on board. I finally arrived in Vilnius at around 6am. The ATM unhelpfully spat my card back on my first attempt to withdraw Lithuanian litas, but a quick phone call to my bank in England and the problem was resolved. I waited for an hour and then caught the first bus to my hostel which was located west of the historic Old Town in the recently self-declared and internationally unrecognized Republic of Užupis. The Constitutions of Užupis, which was announced on April Fool’s day in 1997 and is engraved on a monument in town, makes for an entertaining read. My favourite Articles included: ‘Everyone has the right to celebrate or not to celebrate his birthday’ and ‘A dog has the right to be a dog’.

Shattered from the last two weeks I spent much of my time resting up in the hostel. That afternoon, I did however venture out to admire Vilnius’ Old Town which has also been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status. I’ve uploaded some of the pictures I took so you can see the beauty of this medieval town which boasts some of Northern Europe’s best gothic, renaissance and neo-classical architecture. Užupis also had an artistic and bohemian feel to it. Although I didn’t see many locals around it feels like a safe and relaxing place to kill time in.

My onward train ticket to Saint Petersburg was booked for the next day. Leaving at 18:15 and arriving at 9am the following morning this was to be my first ever overnight sleeper train. I had just enough time to venture up to a panoramic viewpoint before making my way to the train station, loading up on snacks and then finding my bunk.

Before we actually entered Russia we needed to travel through Latvia and then deal with the two successive border crossings (exiting Latvia, entering Russia) which took place around midnight. The passport checking process was long but as every passenger had a bed you could just snooze until the guards came to collect your passport. After the train started moving again I tried to get some sleep. This wasn’t too easy as I was both very excited and apprehensive about my first ever visit to the Russian Federation. What would it be like? Would the people be friendly? Will anyone understand English? And just how difficult would it be to cross the largest country in the world, on a budget, not being able to speak or read a word of Russian?

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