Blogs from Vilnius, Lithuania, Europe - page 12

Buying tickets in Warsaw central train station for Russia is not the easiest thing you’ll ever do; be prepared for your blood pressure to rise significantly! You have no idea what the people selling the tickets are saying, and they pretty much just nod at whatever you say. After some intensive discussions / sign language though, we managed to book a ticket on the Moscow train which is over 20hrs! - You couldn’t make this stuff up…. While sitting in a café a while later, I began thinking about something the ticket lady had being saying… Belarus, Belarus!! - Now we had told her we had no visa for Belarus (meaning we can’t go there, as you can’t buy a visa on the border) but it got me thinking so I trawled the internet for some ... read more

Summer is here and Lauren finished her school responsibilities already. We initially planned to head out to Asia and Australia for the summer. But we decided to postpone that and diverted our summer trip to Europe. Our first destination? Vilnius - capital of Lithuania and the European Capital of Culture of 2009. Again, our friends were curious on our choices of summer destinations. But we were always searching for destinations that were not overly commercialized yet. Lithuania is the largest of the three Baltic countries and got its independence in 1991. This was followed by its membership into European Union in 2004. Despite its growth and accomplishments, the country stayed below the radar screen and was relatively unknown away from Europe. After our Christmas honeymoon drama, we decided to stick to the basic - fly American ... read more

Today saw us up and out of Klaipeda and off on the bus to Vilinius (the capital of Lithuania). The first thing that we had to do before we could leave Klaipeda was to take a photograph us all of the card carrying members of the Olympic Casino. :) The weather deteoriated as we got closer to Vilnius until it was raining pretty constantly when we were getting off the bus. This gave me a bit of a dilemma. What was I going to do with Pugsy. He has a bag to ride in, but the bag is pretty full with books and the laptop etc and this meant that when he was at the top of the bag he was fully exposed to the rain. The only thing that I could come up with to ... read more

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ~Anatole France May 11, 2009, Monday, Trakai to Vilnius, Lithuania, “A Problem Day… Somedays are just not easy”, or “The Day Kel almost lost it”. As the rain came down, we parked and rushed to the bus, but we didn’t have the correct amount. (Why would the price change from yesterday?) Maureen rummaged through her purse and paid the additional amount, we took a seat. Ten minutes later, Maureen can’t find her wallet? PANIC sets-in as every article of clothing is being searched. As we arrive in Vilnius, the wallet is found. Chapter II On to the next problem, today we plan to leave laundry at the hotel, but we are late for the pick-up. They “MAY” come back. We leave the ... read more

The last two days were going to be dedicated to last minute errands, shopping, walking, and general winding down before the trip back. Friday morning we decided to check out both open-air markets, the one by the train station, and one on Kalvariju. The former was smaller. The main hall had mostly produce merchants and the adjacent hallways housed clothes and tchochke peddlers. My attempt to take photographs was met with suspicious eyes and negative remarks, so I had to abandon it. (Yes, I’m there to take photographs of your funky sweatshirt and immediately submit them to my manufacturer in China, just so I can corner the market. That specific market in Vilnius.) After walking away with two pickles (they tried to make us buy two kilos instead) we went back to our hotel and dropped ... read more