It’s been a busy few days in Vilnius. The flight was fine — despite only a 40 min layover in Riga, which had me concerned, I found that though I had to unload, deplane and reboard — involving stairs in both directions — it was the same plane. So no need to worry. And of course I’m back to a single backpack so baggage is easy.

That said, once I arrived, despite the small airport, finding the info ctr to figure out why my bus wasn’t listed on the monitor was oddly more difficult that one would think. But the TI guy was incredibly helpful and friendly — my bus only runs infrequently from the airport and I just missed one (Google maps gave me alternate ways to get in but my host gave specific directions—probably because they are the easiest w no xfers). By the time I finished asking about places to visit and restaurants to try, it was only a 20 min wait so I took advantage of free WiFi and made some prelim plans. I finally made it to the house around 5 (was at Schiphol at 8) and of course hadn’t eaten all day — and I couldn’t get the doors open with the keys from the lock box. Probably because I was weak and starving. I left my bag and walked out to grab a snack and a few groceries — and even grabbed a little more cash from a “real” ATM — and when I returned a little fortified I could wrestle open the doors. 

Thankfully my hostess couldn’t be kinder — a little older and a worrier, but so sweet. And Old Town, where I am staying, is small, cute and easy to get around. I took a little walk around the Old Town the first evening to see where my free tour would start the next morning and also if I missed it, where an alternate one started a half hour later. The sun was shining. The air was clean, it was good. These — and above— are all the cathedral square (I’m not even going to try to write the Lithuanian. It’s really tough!)

As you can see the skies were clear and beautiful— very unlike my last days of the Netherlands and sadly, my last days in the Vilnius area.

The next morning I made it to my tour with time to spare although I had hoped to buy something small so I could get change to tip the guide (I hadn’t used cash at all so just had big ATM bills). It was fine. It was a large group of people from all over (from Thailand to Germany/Austria and the Dominican Republic). One other American – a young man, a UKansas student, is trying to get to every country in Europe!? And he is not into basketball though apparently the Lithuanians are! 

Anyway we mostly walked around squares, courtyards, views and churches of Old Town Vilnius. And heard much of Lithuanian history which was interesting. Our guide’s grandmother, at 5, was deported to a Siberian work camp with her parents and was there ten years. My Airbnb hostess’ father’s family were also all deported. They were finally released to return home but their house and belongings had all been “redistributed” so they could not return “home.” She said the only reason for the deportation was because they were wealthy — not for political or religious reasons. She also touched on the Jewish roundups and the general position of Lithuania between Germany and Russia — either of whom would start invading.

Lithuania was also the last(?) European nation to convert to Christianity, basically through bribery (of a woolen shirt — expensive then and highly prized since it was much warmer than the linen they were wearing). And it gets cold here. The area had a long history of pagan, nature-worshiping religions — I meant to take photos of various animal-based pagan statues but I guess I was too interested in the stories! Today, Lithuania is mostly Catholic unlike the other Baltics — they’re Protestant — but there are still a lot of churches of all kinds everywhere. 

The guide said there was another tour starting in 45 minutes so I changed my lunch plans to do something quick (a bagel w cream cheese and veggies in the Jewish area. I was told here that Lithuanians invented the bagel? It was very good and I’m picky about bagels!). And I made it to the second tour, Undiscovered Vilnius. It focused mostly on the newer physical part of town although we also saw many old buildings. Turns out it was my same guide from the morning tour — not a problem since she was very competent — but honestly in my experience with many tours, it’s often interesting to hear another person’s perspective. 

Unfortunately for the guide, only two people showed up for the tour and they typically require minimum 4 to make it worth their while (the way “free” tours work is they rely on tips. Whatever you want and I guess there are some people who just walk off and leave nothing. I typically see minimum 5 and up to 50 euros if a family or group. I usually leave 10 since pre-covid, but I may need to “up” it soon). In any case, a woman walked up as we were at the assigned meeting place to say she and her friend had to cancel. And our guide felt too bad to cancel with us there. So it was just me and one other. I felt bad but the guide said she’d do a slightly quicker version with us rather than cancelling last minute. 

So fortunately for me, I met a lovely woman Melissa (more on her later but we have fantastic similarities all over the place) and we had an almost private tour. The tour, as promised, talked about some of the unusual parts of Vilnius — both leftover Russian stuff, modern buildings, and these old wooden houses, leftover from the mid-19th/early 20th century.

In the above photo you can see the skyscrapers in the back but there are also old wooden structures in front— there’s a whole neighborhood of them, many without paved streets and in some, no running water.

Locally, they call the neighborhood Shanghai and I’m not sure how I feel about it. But in their minds, it is similar to Shanghai in the proximity of the old shacks to the modern new. Of course Shanghai is on a whole different level…. Anyway the houses were fascinating— some were so dilapidated and clearly partially abandoned — but that’s part of the issue. Because of the Soviet’s dividing up of houses (some rather small) to multiple families, these houses are all still owned by many. So we saw single houses of multiple colors and states of (dis)repair depending on whether that portion’s owner did any upkeep. They’re all sitting on expensive property but it’s been impossible to get everyone to agree to sell!? Some actually have yards and parking spots and I guess folks want to stay. Even big developers have been unable to coordinate so many people’s highly disparate wants. The area is now protected and Lithuanians feel that it represents part of their history!?

It was definitely interesting! I’m getting sleepy and have so much more to write so I’ll just throw a few more photos here and finish up later!!