Vilnius, Lithuania

Vilnius, Lithuania

November 28, 2009

Hello everyone. Trevor and I decided that it was time to see what Europe has to offer. We took a bus that was suppose to take 10 hours (11pm-9a), but our bus driver was awesome and got us there in 8 hours. Our first stop on this crazy trip was Vilnius, Lithuania. So at 7am we decided to find our hotel in Vilnius by walking. It only took us 20min to get there and the lady at the hotel let us check in early (which was super sweet). Unfortunately we had a bit of a set back with my not feeling well, but after a couple of hours I was able to start our exploring. We decided to head to the Old Town and that's pretty much where we spent our day. We first saw the egg statue, that was slightly less impressive than the Vegreville one, and then proceeded to the Gates of Dawn, the only remaining original gates to the Old Town. The Old Town was cool, with cobble stone streets and beautiful Gothic churches. They were just incredible when you went inside. The ceilings were painted and they had beautiful statues everywhere. It was awesome. Searching for a cash exchange place was quite a struggle and after some time we decided that Trevor would run back to the bus station to exchange money. What a wonderful man! After some exploring we went to have some Lithuanian food at a restaurant called Cili Kaimas, where they had a pet rooster (that I was hoping wouldn't be what we were having for lunch). I opted for chickenless dishes and went with fish instead. It was very yummy. Next I wanted to go see the Museum of Genocide (apparently not to be missed). It was incredibly moving and creepy. In the basement is the original KGB prison (with execution chamber). This place was definitely more creepy than Alkatrez. After some debate we decided to hang around the Old Town some more and went to the Cathedral where there is apparently a miracle tile that if you find it (first) and stand on it and turn around clockwise your wish will come true. Luckily some girl found it for us (and it was clearly worn from people standing on it) because you really would have to look hard to find it. Trevor spun on tile now we wait to see if his wish comes true. We then went to Vilnius University which is pretty cool, but unfortunately it was dark at this point and difficult to see. We also stopped by St.Anne's church, which looks really gothic from the outside, and walked by Pilies gatve which is a road that has sunken into the ground due to the town being built on a swamp. Lots of cool stuff, really neat town. I'm hoping we'll have a chance to come back. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our trip to Riga the next day!

More to come!

SMILEJ
The Travelling Prentices