In Vilnius again

So This blog isnt about Vilnius in 2007 , but my visit in Vilnius 2006 as I was here for about a week just to get away from the everyday hassle of work. I found some 30 euro planetickets and decided to go to Vilnius. It was my first experience with the former Eastern Bloc and i was really not sure about what to expect, but this beautiful really surprised me in so many ways.

This is some of the things i did:

Walk around in the Uzupio district. This is a truly lovely district of Vilnius that  claimed independence from Vilnius. They have their own constitution which includes things like: "Everyone has the right to die , but this is not an obligation" and "Every dog has the right to be a dog" , including "Everyone has the right to live by the River Vilnele and the River Vilnele has the right to flow by everyone"

There are some splendid parks in this area and I almost walk around here for an entire day just taking pictures at the run down place and an old mansion that looked really spectacular at some distance , but in really poor conditions with huge cracks when i got up close. Buy a lunch at the local supermarket and sit down in a park to get away from the everyday life. When i sat there and enjoyed my lunch at a Sunday afternoon it seemed like people came out to Uzupio to take some wedding pictures. As you can see on the picture they had some really great imagination. Another place to get away from the Urban jungle is at the Hill of the three crosses , named after the three monks that where murdered here.

The old Town is very charming with many churches. Im sure that where ever you are in Vilnius you will always see at least two churches at the same time , at least its not far from the truth. There are so many churches, but my personal favorites are St. Annes Church, and while your are there the check out the Bernadine Church lying right behind it. The Church of the Apparition of the Holy Mother of God (Russian Ortodox Church), On the other side of the Neris River , on the end of Gediminas Ave have som really nice silver domes which can be seen from far away. In old-town you have the St. Catherine's Church which I have taken pictures of , both at daytime and at nighttime. Its located at the end of vokieciu Street. Just follow vokieciu street from the Town hall and you'll be there in 3mins.

If youre in New Town , be sure to check out the huge department store Akropolis. It has Bowling Lanes , Ice skating Rinks and more than 100 stores. Its also one of the most modern and biggest shopping malls in Northern Europe. People from all over Lithuania comes to Vilnius just to see Akropolis so if youre tired from the streets in old town that are crowded with tourists head out to Akropolis and sit down on a cafè for a coffee

Vokieciu street , in Adition to Pillies is the main streets in Old Town Vilnius and there are literally tons of cafe's , bare and nightclubs here.
My best memories from this street is on my departure date in 2006 where I entered a strip club to use the rest of my Litas and fell asleep on the strippers lap because of large amounts of alcohol. When i exited the club a prostitute chased me down the street because she might have thought that i was already turned on.

Another good Memory is playing Blackjack with Phil (Deats on Travbuddy) after heavy drinking for quite some time.. He actually managed to EARN money , while i lost around 50litas (20USD). Well what can you expect when youre entering a casino when youre drunk? It was actually in Vilnius that i met Eric that told me about the "New travel website" in 2006 , we where not many members back then , but with exponential growth for a year and a half has surely brought the member ratings on this website up.

I havent yet gotten the Museum-crawler attitude at this time so i just wandered around for a couple of days , just visiting the chilling KGB Prison , and going inside the Vilnius Cathedral. As you might have guessed Vilnius is one of the cities that i would say that i know the best after spending more than two weeks here in total doing many of the touristy things.