Back in Europe

Trip Start Jun 15, 2007
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Trip End Ongoing


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Where I stayed
(Vilnius hotels)

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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

We arrived in Vilnius at 9am after a surprisingly efficient border crossing, even if it was at 3am and we couldn't go back to sleep until 5am, meaning that we were very tired all day. Not that we let that stop us exploring and having a lovely day. We both really loved Vilnius, with all its cobbled streets and cottages. We spent ages just walking around, down any of the roads that we thought looked quaint. The atmosphere was very laid back and relaxed, which was a welcome relief after the quick pace we had been experiencing in Russia, with so much to see and do. We found our way to the Cathedral in the aptly named Cathedral Square, stopping en route to visit a couple of beautiful churches that caught our eye. We thought we would be all churched out by now but found that we actually weren't and so enjoyed visiting more today. The Cathedral itself was incredibly beautiful as well, again with awesome architecture and art work inside. There were a lot of people inside, many of them praying, so this is clearly a Cathedral that is still in use as more than a tourist attraction, which was nice to see. From here we walked along the main street to the Genocide Museum, where we spent several hours learning about the war and all the blood shed that occurred during that time. We also went downstairs into the prison that was used during the war, the cells of which are still there today, along with the exercise yards, the isolation cells, the torture chambers and the execution chambers. That was all a bit chilling to see but very interesting, even if most of the signs down there were written in Lithuanian.
After we came out of the museum, we went to the tower on top of the hill, where you can climb to the top of what remains of a castle and look out over the whole city. The view was spectacular. We saw the Old Quarter where we had walked that morning, we picked out some of the churches we had been to see and then we looked the other way out over the river to the more industrial part of the city. We decided to walk back along the river as we had missed out the river up to now. We stopped off at an Irish pub on the way back to get some dinner, but I was not very hungry so I ordered an omelette from the kids menu, thinking that it would be just the right size, but when it came they had put vegetables on it to make a smiley face to encourage kids to eat I guess, so I felt about 3 years old. It was very embarrassing!
I have to mention about the beds in our hostel because they were so funky! We were in a double bed in a dorm of 12 people (actually only 4 as it is winter so pretty empty) but the beds are all separate pods with wood planks on either side and above so you are private from the other beds. We will include a picture eventually to show you what we mean but the pod bed idea is wicked! It was fun to sleep in that hostel! We had a fuseball tournament tonight, which I obviously lost as I have never played fuseball in my life. Ed turned out to be pretty good and is now fuseball champion!!
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