Vilnus

Friday 15^th of June



Yesterday morning I took a bus to Vilnius, accompanied by Akvile and her two friends. I have this small problem that I only have an ISIC which is not valid anymore. I didn't want to buy a new one because normally I've never needed it for anything. And I have my Finnish student card which still is valid so I thought that would be enough. Well, I found out that the bus prices in here are half of the normal prices for students. So yesterday I bought a ticket from a ticket office and got it for half the price and was very happy. Then I tried to get inside the bus but the driver didn't accept my card combination after all. I didn't get any refund and had to buy a new ticket and was quite pissed off because of that. But after we already took off, the driver came to us and he managed to sell my ticket to the next student who hopped in. So the story had a happy ending after all...


I arrived in Vilnius at 11am, and I had more than five hours before my host got free from her job. I spent the time really efficiently, because I basically managed to see all the sights in old town right away. I like the city a lot, it has the biggest baroque old town in Europe, and it's also in Unesco's World Heritage list. I find the old city in here as nice as the old city in Riga. I also saw one thing yesterday that made me think there should be one in each city. It was a restaurant table that got lifted up in the sky with people sitting around it and waitresses serving dinner. Everyone just had their own seat belts and safety ropes on, and then the table got lifted up. Now how cool is that?

Gates of Dawn, Vilnus old town

My host here in Vilnius is a really nice girl called Egle. First thing she did yesterday was to offer me a beer. Now that's what I call a warm welcoming! She's living with her friends who are away at the moment, so there is room for surfers. Her boyfriend Vaidas is also here at the moment, and yesterday we went out together, and it seems like they know half of the people in this city. We met many of their friends and had a really good time.

First thing I did today was to go to the bus station and buy a ticket for a night bus to Warsaw for tomorrow. I bought it from a private company outside the bus station and it was half the price they asked inside the station. It was only nine euros so I figured I even save money, because I can sleep on the bus and now I don't have to go to a hostel. After that we tried to go walking to the city with Vaidas, but it started to rain so we came back. I think we'll try again later. The weather in general so far hasn't been the best. It could've been worse also, I admit that, but still in many days it's been cloudy and even raining a little. I hope it gets better soon.

Cathedral Square, Vilnus old town

Restaurant up in the sky... :P

Saturday 16^th of June



Yesterday was a lazy day. The weather was bad so there wasn't so much to do. I did some more sightseeing with Vaidas and in the evening went to watch some football. Today I went to a nearby town called Trakai with Egle. We met an Amercan traveller in the bus and he joined us for the day. Trakai is a nice small summer city next to water and has a nice castle in an island. The weather was perfect today, so maybe the real summer now finally starts...

Island Castle of Trakai