Lithuania

July 2018: Continuing our road trip through the Baltics, we drove from Riga, Latvia, into Lithuania. On the way we stopped at the Hill of Crosses, which is pretty impressive, even if you’re not religious. We stayed in Kaunas for a night before traveling to Vilnius, where we stayed for 2 nights. Not knowing much about Lithuania, we found some great little gems and really enjoyed every city we stopped in. If you’re into churches, then I highly suggest Lithuania. There are SO many of them, all different kinds. Some cool gothic ones, a few Russian orthodox, and many more. I also suggest Lithuania for vodka lovers, as many restaurants and bars make their own vodka, much like Russia does, but Lithuania is a bit more accessible to most people.

highlights

. Beer . Uzupis . Food . Hill of Crosses . Art Scene . Less Crowded . Vodka .

lowlights

. University Tower . Gediminas Castle Tower (inaccessible for us) .

kaunas

We wanted to see more than just Vilnius on our trip through Lithuania, so we decided on Kaunas. It is about 3.5 hours from Riga, and the beautiful Hill of Crosses was a great stop along the way. Kaunas is a smaller city, with less tourists, but has some great walking streets with awesome restaurants and bars. We stayed right in the city centre at Hotel Radharane. It is a “vegetarian” hotel, which means the breakfast and other meals they serve in their restaurant are all vegetarian, and it looked like they had a lot of Indian cuisine. We had breakfast there, and loved it. The hotel is older, but nice, and in a great area. Down the street from our hotel is a pub called Hop Doc Gastropub. They have some great beer. I ordered a veggie burger, and it didn’t have any sort of veggie patty in it, which was interesting. But again…great beer! Lots of choices. We were only in Kaunas for one night, so after we ate, we walked down to Kaunas Castle, which was cool just to take our time and walk around. We walked down the path by the river until we made it back to the Old Town. We stopped at Avilys on the main walking street, which is a restaurant and micro-brewery with a few interesting selections of beer. We had some dessert and tried a few beers, including a honey beer and a hot beer. The next morning, before we left for Vilnius, we walked through the Old Town and took a peek in the Basilica, which was being repaired, but it was still impressive and worth a look! Across from the Basilica is a great coffee place called Her Excellency Specialty Coffee. Overall, we really enjoyed Kaunas. It had a lot to offer for a small city, and it was great to take a break and spend some time relaxing and wandering the streets without worrying about everything we had to go see.

vilnius

Vilnius is a very cool, hipster, artsy city, with lots of churches and a more Russian influence than the other Baltic cities. We really enjoyed our two days here, and probably could have stayed a bit longer. We stayed in the Old Town in an apartment (found through booking.com), however it was very easy to get to, and there was parking in the complex. Across the street from us were two great places to eat (among many others I’m sure). We grabbed a burrito at No Forks, a Mexican place, and right next to it is Holy Donut, which has excellent breakfast, as well as, yep, you guessed it…donuts. We sought out a craft beer spot, called Bambalyne, which wasn’t too easy to find. The sign is super small, and it’s in the basement (this was nice, as it was so hot out). Very cool spot, with a large selection of beer. We wandered down the main street of the Old Town to the main square. On the way we climbed up the University Tower, which wasn’t too impressive a view. The greatest view would have to be at the top of the Hill of the 3 Crosses. Not too difficult of a hike up, and a nice path to get there (starts by the river). We wanted to go up to Gediminas Castle Tower, but it was closed for repairs maybe? So we were a bit disappointed, as I’ve read it’s one of the things to do in Vilnius. I guess we’ll just have to go back one day! Our last discovery was the amazing little district of Uzupis, which I’ll describe further down the page, as it deserves it’s own spot on here.

uzupis

This is the most fascinating little neighbourhood, separated from the rest of Vilnius by a river. On April 1, 1997, they declared themselves a republic, separate from the rest of Lithuania (April Fool’s Joke?). And no one called them on it. So to this day, Uzupis has it’s own government, constitution, flag, and currency (1 dollar is worth a beer). There is a post office where you can get the currency, as well as a passport stamp if you so desire. Their “City Hall” is a pub right on the river, and they promote democracy. They had a small “army,” but it was retired as Uzupis is all about peace. If you google this place you can find some great articles on it. Needless to say, we were fascinated by this place and probably spent the majority of our time in Vilnius here. Amongst all the creative and eclectic statues and art pieces, graffiti, etc… around the neighbourhood, they also have a cool & creepy cemetery if you’re into that, as well as some amazing little restaurants. For dinner, we tried an authentic, tiny little Italian restaurant called Pasta and Wine. That’s what I saw on the sign, and I thought it looked legit. Turns out we were right…and were immediately blown away by the owners, an Italian couple. Obviously they make their own pasta, and every day they have a different menu up on a big chalkboard wall, depending on what ingredients they had or could find that day. One of the owners will describe everything on the menu for you with great flair, and I don’t think you can choose wrong. The food was incredible.