Vilnius

Well I'm sitting outside a cafe in central Vilnius enjoying the sunshine so I'd thought I'd compose my first travel entry for this blog.

After negotiating the public bus system which seemed to stop everywhere and obviously only caters for people with BO problems I arrived in Vilnius Old town. As the bus dropped me close to the train station I decided to take the opportunity to purchase my train ticket to St. Petersburg straight away. It appears my Lithuanian wasn't as bad as I thought, although I nearly bought 3 tickets for the 92 train as opposed to 1 ticket for the 392. Nevertheless I emerged from the transaction with one over night ticket to St Petersburg. A train journey of 8 hours covered 3 countries and 735km for the princely sum of 35EUR. Success :-)

Vilnius old town is one of the largest in Europe and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It's fully of mazy little cobbled roads. One of the first sites I visited was the sobering Genocide museum located in the old KGB building. A rather harrowing tour throw the building gives a history of Lithuania's suffering at the hands of it's more powerful neighbours and of the fighting over it during the war period with both Nazi and Soviet sponsored horrors were visited on the nation. The tour culminates in a rather disturbing tour through the basement cell blocks with KGB agents use to imprisoned, interrogate and torture political prisoners. The padded cell and execution chambers were particularly disturbing.

Lithuania is a particularly religious country as is seen by the fact that Vilnius is home to over 50 churches. The most famous being the main cathedral, an impressive place made all the more striking well full for Easter ceremonies and it's large cavernous insides resonating with the hymns of a 50 strong choir.

One of the more striking and interesting places I visited today the Uzupis Republic. This little enclave in Vilnius surrounded by the Vilnia River declared its independence in 1997 and has its own constitution
and elected president. Its national holiday is April 1st which tells you all you need to know about the place. It's a real bohemian quarter where anything goes. It's fully of eccentric characters and off the wall artistic displays. I was really quite struck by the place. A quirky little tradition is the fact all all the bridges into the area are covered in padlocks. Couples etch their names into the padlocks and then lock them to the bridge. As long as the bridge stands the couples relationship will last.

Almost as weird as the fact that the first monument erected after Lithuania's independence in 1989 was that of Frank Zappa, the musician, rather than any folk hero or freedom fighter. What's the connection between Lithuania and Frank Zappa - absolutely nothing!

Apart from the other sites in Vilnius I also made a trek outside the city to the ancient Lithuanian capital of Trakai. It really was a beautiful spot. It was so tranquil and serene. The castle was so picturesque settled on its island in the middle of the huge lake. I was blessed again with the weather as the sun shone brightly which made the scene all the more appealing. I was glad I made the effort to head out in the end as I nearly decided in the morning that it wasn't worth the hassle.

All told I've learnt a huge amount of Lithuanian history in my short time here. The baltic states always were just a footnote in some other saga to me. That really is why I love travelling, it opens up new stories and other fascinating worlds that you would have previously gone unknown to me.

The group in the hostel were a good laugh and most evenings were spending chilling out in the communal area with some drinking games. We always claimed it would be a quiet night to recover from the night before but invariably we ended up in town. However Vilnius at Easter is not a happening party spot, religion is the emphasis of this bank holiday weekend compared to the drink fuelled long weekend in Ireland. Such is life, we managed to make our own fun nonetheless!

Anyway, that's all from now. Russia here I come!
В советской России поезд едет вы ( In Soviet Russia the train rides you ;-) )