Lithuania: Vilnius

After a hair raising parking experience at the hostel where Olaf JUST squeezed through the gate into the hostel parking, it was time to explore the city. I think parking though almost gave Emz a heart attack. Vilnius quickly became one of our favourite cities! Loads of green spaces, super clean, the medieval architecture and cobbled streets once again and excellent food was all that awaited us. It also seemed we arrived on the wkd of the Vilnius Festival, so they had loads of stages with local bands playing...it created a very festive atmosphere despite us not knowing what they were singing about!😂
We explored more of the city the next day and hiked up to this beautiful viewpoint that looked across the city. It was then time to head to one of the picturesque cafés and try the local cuisine which ended up being delicious! A cold beetroot soup for starters, potato and pork dumplings and a stacked herring salad similar to the old fashioned '7 later salad.' We were both very impressed! That evening we met some fellow travellers in the backpackers and it was interesting chatting to a French guy that had just been to St Petersburg, Russia to visit his girlfriend.😳 He says that the city carries on as before, but the place is littered with propaganda to sign up to the Russian military. Probably some more ominous signs of what is to come.😬 We also met a very interesting German guy who was in his 60s staying at the backpackers. This guy was truly fascinating! 1stly, he had just come from Minsk in Belarus which was interesting enough. But to add to this, he is completely fluent in English/German/Russian and French! He also had fascinating stories about the cold war and divided Germany and how things were like in those days. His knowledge of the local history and customs of Eastern Europe was unparalleled. His job was to assimilate Russian refugees with German heritage into Germany, but he did have a spy-like aura to him. Anyways, Vilnius is definitely a place to be recommended by us and the interesting people we met along the way was certainly a bonus!Read more