Baltics - 16 June 2012 (3)

Evening in Vilnius

Solstice Doll, Gedimino Prospektas

It was only a short drive to Vilnius and we were soon in the suburbs.  Once again, Dzintars took us on a tour of the Old Town before taking us to the hotel.  Unfortunately I fell asleep at a critical point in the unofficial city tour and woke up as we arrived at the hotel – the Hotel Vilnius, part of the Best Western Group.

Bell Tower, Cathedral Basilica

We were on the 6^th floor again, but still used the stairs when we walked down after dumping our bags.  No one was about, so we decided to head into town.  The hotel seemed quite a long way from the Old Town so we asked about buses at reception.  We were told that there were four buses which we could catch from a nearby bus station to get to Cathedral Square.

Vilnius Cathedral Basilica

We walked through a ginnel next to the hotel and then along a paved area, which ended in a flight of steps down to the road which runs alongside the River Neris.  As we couldn’t see a bus station, we crossed the river on the Green Bridge and kept heading forwards for want of any other direction, hoping to end up in the Old Town.  After going up a hill, we reached a square where a stage had been set up for a concert.  Aija had told us that this would be a special night with concerts all over town.

Grand Duke Gediminas

We had a coffee in a café on Vilnius gatve and then made our way to Cathedral Square.  The route was lined with stalls on both sides.  It looked a bit like a farmers market or a craft market, as the stalls were selling soap, honey, some hot meals, cakes, smoked fish, wooden kitchen utensils, sweets, jewellery and many other items.  At the bottom of the street was a leafy arch with a straw man and woman standing guard.

St. Paraskeva Church

As we waited for the lights to change for us to cross over to the cathedral, I watched a sparrow who was very close to us.  He had found a large piece of candyfloss.  I don’t know if he was going to eat it or take it for nesting material, but he flew with it onto some grass and tried to pull it apart.

Dinner in the Sky®

We walked across Cathedral Square and on to Pilies gatve, where we began to look for somewhere to eat.  There were a lot of people about on this special Saturday evening, especially as it was still warm and sunny.  We didn’t find any free tables outside any restaurants until we reached Pizza Jazz on Vocieku gatve.  This was after we had walked through Town Hall Square, where there was a crane holding a very high dining table.  We could see feet dangling underneath and May was concerned about what would happen if someone dropped their camera or something.

Town Hall, Vilnius

Once we had found our restaurant, we sat next to the cycle path which ran in the middle of the central paved area of the avenue and watched the world go by.  There was plenty of time to watch as service was a bit slow.  Actually the longest wait was the one to place our order: after that things picked up.  I had tomatoes and mozzarella with guacamole, basil and pepper dressing.  It was really nice and a good contrast to the heavy pasties at lunchtime.  May had a salmon vegetable bake.  We drank a pineapple and kiwi smoothie, which was really good.  Then I finished with a chocolate torte and May had a brownie.  She said that it wasn’t as good as the one she’d had in Kaunas earlier.  My meal came to LTL32.40.

Church of St Casimir

Then we continued walking on and found ourselves on Vilnius gatve again.  We decided to head back to the hotel.  As we approached the hotel, there were two girls at the end of the ginnel, wearing very short pink dresses.  May said that the dresses were very revealing, especially when one girl bent over, as she wasn’t wearing anything underneath!  I was too bothered about my itchy legs – a combination of midge bits, prickly heat and a possible allergy to insect repellent to notice.

Dzintars was sitting outside the hotel, having a beer.  It was his statutory day off the next day and we wondered if he would be going to the sleazy pink bar.

Back in the room, I soaked my feet, shins and calves in cold water, which helped soothe them a bit.  Then it was another early night, but lights didn’t go out until 2300 as I got my journal up to date first.