Capital, Culture, Churches, Cepelinai, Charming

Day 14

After a four and a half hour bus journey, I was in Vilnius. The trip was only memorable for the fact that about a few miles from Vilnius, there was about a mile of where all that you could see was block of flats, some high rise, some 'low' rise, some new looking, some old looking, some recently painted, some never painted but otherwise bloody loads of them.

After a short stop for a cappuccino and directions, I found my hostel which was slap bang in the middle of Vilnius. It was almost 7pm so there was still some time for catching some sites

Vilnius did seem a pretty place at first glance but where were all the churches that all the guides go on about. Yes, I could see quite a few but it was not as if it seemed like they were everywhere.

However, the churches that I saw were very fancy looking. I then found the Frank Zappa monument and asked a nearby Lithuanian to take a picture of me with the great(?) man. This was my first experince of Lithuanians taking bad photos - I did have others later on.

There was still some daylight in the sky for me to catch the President's Palace (well the outside of it), more churches (actually it is full of them) and the square with the very impressive looking Vilnius Cathedral. The square had lots of skateboarders who were brilliant at performing jumps and not landing them.

And now it was time for tea, well more like supper, I had been told by Paulius (a Lithuanian who I had met in Georgia) to try the national dish, cepelinai, which are stuffed potato dumplings and he also had recommended a restaurant for me. It was a quality recommendation as I fould the cepelinai to be a quality taste sensation. Hmmm....cepelinai.

Day 15

I ventured into my first Vilnius church in the morning. The main emphasis in the church seemed to be the pillars which were adorned with lots of statues. However, what caught my eye was a St Anthony looking statue that had a sword through his head. It was surprising that 'St Anthony' did not seem in any pain despite his painful predicament.

I then booked a bus ticket to Minsk - I was not really looking forward to a cramped 4 hour bus journey to Minsk but the trains were not at good hours.

Since I had plenty of time to spare, I booked a train ticket to Trakai which was the former capital of Lithuania which had a picturesque castle on an island. Well, what can I say about Trakai - it had churches, restaurants and a picturesque castle on an island. Whilst there, I sampled the local delicacy which was kibinai which was basically a cornish pasty without the 'cornish' filling. I had a very chewy pork filling.

Back in Vilnius, I thought that I would check out more of the many churches on offer til boredom set in very, very quickly. I think that I was suffering from church overload and so needed a break from such settings.

I then headed towards the independent state of Uzepis. According to many guide books, this state declared its unofficial, official independence from Lithuania not so long ago. Apparently, its inhabitants are made up of artists, dreamers, scholars and drunkards. There was a big sign warning you that you were entering the place. The place seemed a little arty (ie graffiti adorning houses). It also has a funny constitution (written in lots of different languages) on one of the walls of the street. If I was Lithuanian then I would like to think that I would live there though I don't know which category of resident that I would fall into.

The church overload had worn off temporarily so I thought that I would head off to the cathedral to what the inside looked like - after all, if this was the city of churches then I presumed that the cathedral would be the daddy of them all. Not at all......it was rather tame and plain in comparison with the others.

Maybe the cathedral goes with the motto of less is more. It was getting late and as I was very feeling adventurous, I returned to the restaurant from the night before and had the same dish of cepelanai. When I asked for the bill at the end, the waiter brought me another pint of beer......ah, go on then.

Day 16

I had a couple of hours to kill so I headed off to the former KGB Headquarters (aka Museum of Genocide Victims). It was probably the 'best' part of my trip so far. The museum was all about the persecution, wars and misery inflicted on the Lithuanian people (generally at the hands of the Russians). There were so many photos of people that it really brought home the individual tragedy behind each and every picture.

Downstairs was the KGB prisons, what an absolutely horrendous place to have been in - padded rooms, solitary confinement, rooms where ice/water torture took place and an execution room. Well, not a nice way to end a trip to a country but it does explain why people from former Soviet republics are keen to get their history across to you.

Well, Vilnius was the capital of culture for 2009 and, may I say, a much more deserving recipient of the award then its predecessor, Scouseville.

And now off to Minsk, I had only got 3 visas before I started travelling. The first one to Azerbaijan had not worked. What about the second one to Belarus?