Our trip in Vilnius

We took the opportunity to be in Vilnius for the Vyno Dienos fair to visit the city. We both had absolutely no Idea what this city could look like. But still we were sure it would be less crazy than Baku, the “fast and furious” city. We landed in the middle of the night but we moved straight to the city center to take the temperature in the pubs, drinking few lagers and meeting some locals. It was a Wednesday but Vilnius was quite animated. Lithuanian people are very open and nice! Most of the young people speak English and few Russian. It seems than the youth really feel European, and the Soviet period is forgotten. The atmosphere was very close to an Irish pub actually!

 We visited the city center the day after and went up to a little hill where a castle is standing. From there you can see the whole city, which is quite small by the way (500 000 hab). The city is clearly separated in 3 parts: the old town, full of churches and beautiful red buildings; the new town with big buildings and international companies, and the soviet part with its big concrete buildings and the ugliest gymnasium in the world. But our hotel being in the old town, we were lucky to be close to the nice part of the city with its historical buildings, restaurants, pubs and bars.

The 3^rd evening we went to a nice restaurant, 20 minutes away from Vilnius called the Belmontas. We had the chance to taste local food, with a Lithuanian colleague who showed us all the typical food and beverages. Nice beers, weird appetizers, and tasty brandies. The rest of the dinner led us to some “zeppelins dumplings”: mashed potatoes stuffed with meats and some cabbage accompanied with a glass of Kvas. It’s a light beer made from bread, which is quite good.

We really enjoyed our trip in Vilnius, and with few more degrees it would be a perfect destination for the vacation!