Radisson Sas Astorija Hotel Vilnius

... soviets rebuilt a historic place of Lithuanian power - and this isn't something they did often.
The second castle - the Peninsula castle - is still a work in progress.

The castle is stunning - it sits on a small island in the middle of a lake. There's a wooden walking bridge you have to cross to get there. We had a guided tour that was very informative - before we were allowed about 45 minutes on our own before boarding the bus back to Vilnius. Dawn and I decided we needed ...

... dead, I didn't get an answer. I did ask a Babushka as she spoke to them, but her English was as good as my Lithuanian !!! Just up from there, I realised why I am not a big fan of religion. Above the old gate was a religious icon. I managed to get in before a crowd appeared, however Lucy wasn't as lucky. She was pushed and shoved aside as they wanted to get there. As I was trying to leave, I was even elbowed !!! Once ...

... since I'm at it). Its either the only, or the first (I think its the former) castle built on an island. That island has nothing else on it. So a 30 minute bus ride into Trakai, and a 2 km walk to the castle was well worth it when I saw what I saw. Did I mention that Trakai is known for having just way too many lakes? Its a small town, 6000 people, but the number of lakes is in double digits. Imagine the per capita on that! Coming back, the castle is perched on the island, with a ...

... buses practically departed every few minutes. And they weren't particularly crowded. I turned back in the direction I had come from. But before I would pass through the Gate of Dawn again, I stopped by in a small supermarket, bought myself a lot to drink and a little to munch on and only then I moved on. The day was warm and sunny. The later it got, the less worried I was if it might start raining again from somewhere. By the looks of it, it would not. In the Old Town I didn't double ...

... wire fences to put up their crosses. The hill is rather small, but it certainly was full. There were so many crosses that they had spread around the hill, and anywhere there was space smaller crosses had been hung to larger ones, or just thrown in the middle somewhere. It was a strange eerie place. The other strange thing about that day was where we stayed. We needed to find a place to camp for the night, but the tourist office ...

... a small cake with you to your last lesson of the semester (providing that you like your student of course). So I turned up to the class with a mini cake for each of us, but I was met with quite a hostile reception. This I learned later was because the director of my company had gone there the day before firing accusations about stupidity and incompetence. I had no ...

After our couple of lazy days in Liepaja the crazy drinking began again...welcome to another party town. We quickly became known as the Aussie invasion as there were about 10 of us staying at the hostel. And i know I've already said how cheap some of the previous countries have been but this one takes the cake. We went and got some beer and the drinking began at the hostel early in the afternoon. We carried on late into the ...

Today was a travelling and not much else day, but sometimes those are good (and needed). You don't need to sightsee and you don't feel guilty about not doing it. I woke up this morning and read for a bit in my bunk. I got the top again, which always feels like a crib to me and makes it much harder to make myself get up. Especially after a late night of local cider. I finished my book and got down to shower. The showers at the hostel were ...

... 279; (kas studentui itin aktualu) kelionė, bei tuo būdu visi galėtumėm vaziuoti kartu, o ne atskiruose automobiliuose. Dar tą patį vakarą buvo apsvarstyti kelionės marsruto variantai ir nutarta vaziuoti pas prancūzus į jų Rivierą.

... my own, the bad thing is that I didn't have money or food and I was locked out of the apartment. So its only later by the late evening that Anjay came in town to meet and we bumped into Marie-France as well with some other HC guests... they all decided to go to have a drink, but I was quite cold and hungry. The weather, quite grey, was chill and I was in short... and hungry as well after the whole day. It wasn't so nice for me... so anyway, we ...