Blogs from Vilnius, Lithuania, Europe - page 19

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 ... read more

Today we got up and dressed in comfortable clothes in readiness for our journey to Vilnius. Breakfast was delicious again and appreciated more for it being our last. We went to catch the bus to Juodkrante but found that it only ran every other hour, so we had a rather pleasant hour reading by the lagoon in the sun. Juodkrante was rather fun. We left our bags in a random hotel and set off up witch's hill. This is a walk around a forest, but there are statues of witches, goblins etc scattered around. Some of the favourites included a seesaw, a slide and a really cool bench. After getting the ferry back to Klaipeda, we grabbed some food from a supermarket and headed for the train. Our train left Klaipeda at five and we arrived ... read more

The title sounds a bit disturbing doesn't it? actually i wish a had a better one, one that could express what i feel better but i don't. Yesterday i was outside contemplating...Autumn is here, leafs are brown, remembering "Hazy Shade of Winter" from Simon and Garfunkel...Cultures..."Peace corps" and pioneers ...uuu big Word. I was thinking about Peace corps Volunteers coming to Eastern Europe right after 1989, or just people wanting to see what Eastern Europe is. But still Peace corps Volunteers were in my mind, coming to an ex communist country and trying to change something...to help...teach...discover...they were probably the pioneers...Than another thought hit me...how did they adapt? They were coming for 1 or 2 years....just like AIESEC internships. wow there was such a big difference in culture back then, Thinking about Romania only 17 ... read more

Even though "Senna" and "Prost" drove at break neck speed to try and make up time. We arrived in Vilnius at 10.30am one hour late. After a sleepless night, aching all over but with a smile on our faces (Thanks to "Fric" and "Frac") Had a wonderful welcome from the lady at the bus station who told us off for putting one of our bags on the grass whilst we got our bearings - wasn't as if it was a nice bit of grass!!!!. So if anyone decides to sit on that bit of wall to the left of the station, beware she's a tyrant........... Finally found our "Ahostel" after being sent from one to the other, there are 3 that are only streets apart. We were pleasantly surprised, the honeymoon suite with a little ... read more

Tired and cramped we arrived in Vilnius after the overnight bus journey. We made our way directly to our hostel where we went straight to bed for a few hours to recover. A few hours later and feeling better we set out to explore Vilnius. Neither of us knew much about Lithuania, I remember hearing about all the run ins they had with the USSR, when they tried to regain their independence, but I was quite young and didn't really understand what was going on. The city was certainly nice and good-looking, and boasted one of the largest old town centres in Europe. One thing we immediately noticed was the old town didn't seem particularly old. A great amount of work seemed to be under-way in order to (at least from what we could see), make ... read more