Stephens Adventures: Lithuania!

Next stop is Vilnius. I was joined by the two British guy's I'd met in Poland. There are so many different things to like about Vilnius, its a nice little town, the beer is cheap, and the mayor is awesome!

Example of awesome mayor: http://en.ria.ru/strange/20110803/165538168.html

Thats right ... don't park your car in the bike lane or he will run over it with a tank!

After people started parking in the bike lanes again he decided to provide the local citizens with stickers to put on any cars they found in the bike lanes:

In addition to an awesome mayor Vilnius also has an arts district that issues passport stamps. The district is called Užupis and is full of statues, signs, and all sorts of other artwork in addition to an interesting constitution and a law that you have to smile.

If this wasn't enough they also have a castle, on an island! The castle technically isn't in Vilnius but is in Trakai a quite close on the train. We made a day trip of going to the castle and found a really nice restaurant near it to enjoy some traditional Lithuanian foods. My favorite was Didžkukuliai which is a bit of meet surrounded by potatoes (always good!), we also sampled the rye bread (bread bowls for soup seemed popular), Bulvinai blynai which are potato pancakes (and a close 2nd for favorite food). We also tried Gira which is some kind of fermented drink made from bread (non alcoholic).

I stayed at a hostel called Jimmy Jumps, it's owned by a Canadian guy and is really awesome. Great atmosphere and also amazing staff! We had a fantastic time here! Link if you want to stay there too: http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Jimmy-Jumps-House-Hostel/Vilnius/43131

After one of the rather fun nights I decided that I should do something cultural and did the walking tour. Highly recommended as it even goes up to the top of a large hill and you can climb a random old tower.

Pictures: