August 15, 2024

This is the beginning of a 5 week solo trip through Northern Europe. After 3 days on my own in Vilnius, I started with a tour with G Adventures of the Baltic countries, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. From there my plan is to travel on my own through Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

I arrived at Vilnius airport sleep deprived and checked Google maps for directions to the comfort inn. Less than an hour’s walk. 🤔. Too tired for that but too cheap for a taxi I found the bus stop. A man there said I needed an app to pay for the bus. I downloaded it and was trying to figure it out when my bus arrived. The driver accepted cash. I nicely even had the single euro it cost. Perfect!
By the time I’d settled into my hotel it was 6 pm and I just wanted to sleep. So I booked 2 free walking tours ( my favourite way to get to know a city) for the next day and went exploring to make sure I could find the starting point. Vilnius is lovely! I tried Kibinai (a meat filled pastry), while enjoying the music of 2 violins and a cello playing in front of a church.

Vilnius, LITHUANIA

Aug 17
I woke up refreshed and ready to take on the 2 walking tours I booked through freetour.com. The first was Secrets of Vilnius old town. It was really interesting and the guide was passionate and obviously loves her country. A highlight for me was the “country” of Uzupis. Just cross the River Vilna. There’s a sign with the rules. One is a speed limit of 20km/hr and another is that you have to smile. Apparently they separated as Vilnius is boring.
I had about an hour to find a bathroom, fill my water and sit for a bit with a snack before I joined the second tour Undiscovered Vilnius which was completely different and also interesting. We visited the wooden houses and learned more about the impact of the Soviet Union’s occupation on Lithuania
By then I was done so found a restaurant, enjoyed a beer and goat cheese salad and walked back. A 24,000 step day

Aug 18

The Republic of Uzupis

Today I spent some time visiting the republic of Uzupis. Population 7,000. An independent republic has to have money, power, an anthem and constitution, and above all, a free spirit. So. They made sure they have all this. The constitution is posted on a wall in town in about 40 languages. The sign on the border orders you to drive only 20 km/hr and smile. 😊 Well. I noticed speed limits exceeded and the usual grumpy faces. Oh well. It was interesting

I visited on a Sunday morning so everything was closed. It slowly wakes up by around 11 am. The cemetery is a nice walk anytime. 

I also visited Lukiskis prison where they filmed the 4th season of stranger things. I had pink soup there. Seemed appropriate. Lukiskis has an interesting history having been used during ww2 detaining Jews, then for political prisoners during the occupation by the soviets and a regular maximum security prison. The last execution was in 1995.. it was closed in 2019 and is now can be visited by tourists who eat soup and drink aperol spritz. It even has an airbnb!

By the time I’d done all that and taken many detours, including watching a huge cycling event that shut down many streets, I was pooped. I managed to find a bus that reduced my walk back by 20 minutes. Hey. It meant I got to sit for 20 minutes too, plus see a different area of town.

Monday

I met the 14 other members of my G adventures group last night and today we headed out on a public bus to Trakai castle. It’s a nice way to spend a morning.

Klaipeda

Klaipeda is a really nice city with pretty flowers and lots of character. Our group enjoyed lunch in a ship on the river the first day and then walked around town while Sigurd explained some of the history and high lights. It’s fun to go for a walk about and see how many weird statues you can find. Also, make sure you try the pink soup. It’s delicious!

The next day was spent exploring the Curonion spit. We explored witches hill and Sigurd treated us to several stories and fables about some of the sculptures as well as lore about how the spit was formed

We had lunch in Nida where I tried smoked squid. It was ok but I don’t need to eat it again. Later we climbed the dead dune, so named as vegetation has been planted to insure the dunes no longer move

From one dune we had a view of Russia off in the distance.
Back in Klaipeda some of us went to Devi where we enjoyed a delicious meal of Indian food.

The next day we carried on and drove to Riga, Latvia. That’s the next post!