Mind the Bloody Gap

So in this entry I’m going to tell you a little bit about my past weekend in Vilnius Lithuania. I still remember when I received a call from Joel about 7 months ago and he said to me “So would you maybe want to go to Lithuania next February?” My response was “Sure. Where is it?” :) So for all of you geographically challenged people like me, it’s a Baltic state in Eastern Europe and is south of the Baltic Sea. Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and there are about 500,000 people living there. And now that we’re done with the boring details…lets get onto the good stuff.

The trip to the lovely cold city started out with 6 very tired people catching taxi’s to Gatwick airport at 3:45 in the morning on Friday. After a three hour flight, Joel, Sarah, Kelly, Chris, Allen and I arrived in Vilnius. We took the most adorable mini train ever to our apartment which turned out to be A-MA-ZING! Seriously one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed and we only payed 40 euros per person for the whole weekend. 3 different massive rooms, each with a kitchen and lounge space…could not have asked for more.

Then we headed out through Vilnius. Of course it was winter so there was snow on the ground and ice everywhere. Before we got there it had been between -15 and 15 degrees but by the time we had gotten there it was a heat wave of about 34 degrees. Now all you Wisconsinites know what that means…all the snow started to melt which meant a slushy snow mixture. This was aided by the fact that it rained all weekend and all the snow was melting off the roofs of buildings which meant snow and ice crashing on the ground. Whats the point of going on a trip if you don’t have that added danger eh?!?

Vilnius had such amazing architecture. Many things were designed in an art deco style which filled my heart with glee because I adore art deco. The buildings were all very colorful and ornately finished. And the churches were just stunning. I really haven’t been in a city that looks like this before and I loved it. One of the other amazing things about the look of this city is all of the art/graffiti. Every which way you looked there was art. Now some of it was your run of the mill stupid words and such but there was a lot of drawings and pictures. It really did make the city so much more beautiful.

I would have to say that my fav place was Uzupio. It was this amazing little island district where they have their own constitution, anthem, public holidays and flag. It is this amazing artsy district where statues are everywhere, you never know when you’re going to find a spot of art, and we came across the remnants of a free Tibet rally. One really cool thing is you have to obviously walk over a very short bridge to get there and the fence is made of wrought iron. All along the fence, there are padlocks. When couples marry here, It is tradition here for the couples to engrave their names onto the lock and once its on the bridge, throw the key into the river so that they are bonded forever. Quite sweet.

As for food, well I can only say that they LOVE their potatoes. I’m pretty sure we all had potatoes at every single meal. And then we come to the pigs ears. They actually didn’t taste half bad..just tasted like pork but the interesting little cartilage in there was another story. Mmmmmm…cartilagy. We did go to this outstanding pub that had flavored beers like caramel, almond, banana, strawberry and blackcurrent amongst others. And yes, I know this is pathetic but we ended up going to a supermarket there and we got Cheetos!!! They don’t have cheetos in London and I was in orange stained finger heaven chowing down on those. :)

So here is a link to all the photos on facebook so you can see all the places I've been talking about.

Photos

Overall it was loads of fun. Such a great weekend. I’d love to go back there in the summer and see some green but it still was a great city regardless of the weather. I mean I live in London, I’m used to gray rainy skies. :) But if you’re looking for a beautiful city that has not become over-touristy…I would deffo recommend going there.