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dolorosa_12After a sleepy taxi ride to the airport through the slumbering streets of Vilnius, an early-morning Ryanair flight that left miraculously on time, and an (even more miraculous) sail through Stansted, we arrived home before midday, to a hot, stuffy house, and a dry and feral garden that had somehow managed to not just survive two weeks without us, but also to grow fruit and vegetables in astonishing abundance. (Benign neglect is clearly the way to go with this garden!) Matthias and I have spent the past two weeks on holiday in the Baltic countries — a whirlwind tour that took us through eight cities (or rather six cities and two small towns) in four countries (moving at such a pace at the beginning that we spent the first seven nights of the trip in seven different hotels). This is the longest we've ever been away apart from trips back to visit my family in Australia, where we essentially stay put, so it was very exhausting — but well worth it!
The reason for the whole trip was the wedding of one of Matthias's school friends, who lives in Finland and was getting married to his Finnish fiancée; we decided that this was the perfect opportunity to add a visit to Tallinn, and then decided that when would we next have the chance to be in that part of the world, and added on some time in Latvia and Lithuania as well! We did the whole thing (other than the flights at either end) via public transport: ferry, trains (and an unintended rail replacement bus), which was logistically complicated (especially the trains between Estonia and Latvia, and Latvia and Lithuania, of which there are only one per day on each respective route), but a great experience.
Since I always regret not doing so when travelling, I put pen to paper every day with a few sentences in my paper journal, so I'd remember all the various things we did. I'm very happy to expand on anything noted here, especially if you are considering visiting the same places and want advice or recommendations.
7 August
Late night flight to Helsinki, gliding magestically over the clouds, watching the sea and then the lakes bleed into the sky. Possibly the calmest, most uneventful short-haul flight I've ever experienced. Arrived at 11pm to a deserted airport, sailed through empty border control, picked up bags and collapsed into bed in an airport hotel.
8 August
We woke early and travelled into Helsinki train station, then caught a train to Tampere, arriving around 11.30. Since we couldn't check into our hotel, we left our bags in a locker at the station (the easiest to use that I've ever encountered), then took advantage of the lovely weather to go wandering. Thanks tonerakrose's advice, we had a good itinerary. We walked out to the viewing tower, which gave us sweeping views of the town and surrounding lakes, and the blue, blue sky, then descended to eat cardamom doughnuts below. Then we walked through the forest, along the lakefront, and beside the river which links the two lakes surrounding the town. My only regret is not taking the first opportunity (at a beach with changing huts) to swim, since no better opportunity arose. Always swim when you have the chance! After returning to town, we checked into our hotel, which was full of Swedish football fans in town for a match (and who sang loudly in the corridors for much of the night).
9 August
The weather today looked more dubious, but we had planned ahead with indoor activities: a visit to the Moomin museum, which was immersive, interweaving material about Tove Jansson's life with original Moomin and non-Moomin artwork, prints and books, and, more revelatory to me, the incredibly intricate miniature models of scenes from the Moomin stories, constructed with painstaking care by Jansson's partner Tuulikki Pietilä. After a quick lunch in the restaurant of a tiny theatre, we headed off by train to Hämeenlinna, checked into our hotel, and wandered around the lake in the evening light. The scenery was like something from a folktale: the glassy lake, scattered with waterlilies, fringed with birch forest, the castle in the distance, and the clouds reflected in the clear mirror of the water. it was incredibly still and peaceful. We ate dinner in a wine bar outdoors, then tucked into our hotel for an early night. Around midnight, the torrential rains arrived, and did not abate.
10 August
The day in Hämeenlinna began with torrential rain, which soaked us and ruined my hair in the 30 seconds it took to dash to the car driving us to the church. It poured on and off throughout the day, but couldn't dampen anyone's spirits, as we celebrated what felt like a truly collective effort: musical performances by family and friends, everyone pitching in to move furniture and clean up — a real community celebration. We danced until the early hours to a delightfully cheesy wedding playlight — the song that got everyone (a bunch of Finns, Germans, and me) on the dance floor was, inevitably, Käärijä's 'Cha Cha Cha' — and collapsed into bed, exhausted.
11 August
After a very late start, a long brunch, and a wander around the apple trees, it was time to head off, with two of Matthia's friends kindly driving us to Helsinki. We arrived at our hotel in the evening, wandered around the waterfront, marvelling at the contrasting textures of sea, sky and industrial architecture, ate dinner in an overpriced tourist trap restaurant, and headed back to the hotel for an early night.
12 August
We arrived in Tallinn after our ferry trip to storms, and slate-grey skies and seas, and tried not to let the weather dampen our spirits. We ate lunch at a covered market (where I went into raptures over the fresh fruit and vegetables), wandered around the old town, and then along the harbour, where we were battered by torrential rain, but which allowed me to commune with the Baltic Sea in its preferred state: choppy, grey, and with the water beleeding into the cloud-covered horizon. I felt salt-washed and content — Matthias perhaps less so. We returned back to the city centre for dinner withhoarmurath (whose advicse as a whole served us extremely well for the Tallinn leg of the trip), then headed back to the hotel, under clearing skies.
13 August
We woked to vastly improved weather, grabbed a quick breakfast at an excellent bakery, then walked out to the KUMU art gallery, a gorgeously designed building full of Estonian art covered three centuries (a great way to learn the country's history), plus some temporary exhibitions. The gallery sits within an expansive city park, which is well worth a visit of its own. We strolled through it, then walked for an hour or so along the waterfront (how great to see it in sunshine!), through the unofficial 'Culture Quarter' (an unnerving and striking collection of crumbling, Soviet-era abandoned buildings), to the Põhjala taproom for a couple of drinks, then back to town (through a really nice residential area), up the hill in the old town, in time for an excellent dinner in a restaurant Matthias had discovered, before meeting up with an old friend of mine from my undergrad days, whose partner is Estonian and who moved to Tallinn a few years ago after falling in love with the place while on holiday. He's had a rather interesting life: when we were students together he was an aspiring political journalist, he ended up covering European football for the Guardian, and now (like, it appears, all foreigners in Tallinn who don't speak fluent Estonian) works for a tech startup. He's also played cricket internationally for Estonia, and we learnt, hilariously, about an Australian crypto gambling billionaire who is a) funding cricket in Estonia and b) using this as a way to recruit every cricket-playing Australian immigrant to work for his crypto gambling company (not my friend, though). Amusingly, while we were all hanging out, two of his friends also appeared in the same bar, and we ended up being a cheerfully, serendipitously international bunch. It's hard to describe, but after so many years living overseas, I feel more like an immigrant (than Australian or British) as the core part of my identity, and there's something so refreshing about hanging out with other immigrants — a common outlook and set of experiences that everyone understands without explanation. It was the perfect cap to our time in Tallinn, and all the more welcome for being so unexpected.
14 August
A morning spent on the move: a train, and then a rail replacement bus, zipping through fields and forests and a veritable orchard of apple and plum trees, until we were disgorged in central Tartu. As we essentially only had an afternoon here, we mainly ambled around — climbing the forested hiill at the back of the town — crowned with a ruined cathedral — then walking through the town hall square and historic centre to the little botanic garden. Tartu is European City of Culture this year, and I think with more time, one could take part in a lot of things going on, but as it was, we made the best of our short stay. Dinner was on the balcony of an inexplicably Oscar Wilde-themed wine bar, watching the sun go down over the hill behind us. We returned early to our (ludicrously decorated, Hanseatic League-themed) hotel to sleep, and rest before tomorrow's intense day of travel (about which more later).
15 August
A long day of travel, starting with an Estonian (modern) train to Valga. Valga is a twin border town with Latvian Valka, and I wondered if residents would need to be trilingual (I heard Estonian and Russian, not sure about Latvian). There's not a lot to do in Valga besides sit in the echoey, empty train station, or walk around in the heat, but we at least managed to find a cafe to spend some of the four (!!!) hours between connecting trains. Other than locals, everyone there was a tourist en route to Riga. After several hours had passed, we boarded the Latvian train (a boxy ex-Soviet one, with no air conditioning) and we travelled for three more hours until we reached Riga. The landscapes were full of fruit trees, fields, and worn-down looking villages. After a hot, sleepy few hours, we were disgorged into Riga city centre, checked into our hotel, and wandered the old town, marvelling at the plethora of ornate buildings.
16 August
Today's main task was to do laundry, and, after rejecting the idea of getting our hotel's laundry service to do it (€4.50 PER PAIR OF SOCKS), I found a laundromat ten minutes away. This was the easiest laundromat I've ever used — it took cards, the instructions were trilingual, detergent was included and automatically added! An absolute miracle, with a great bakery around the corner for breakfast while we waited for the laundry to finish. (Ask me about last year's debacle in a Milan laundromat for comparison!) With that out of the way, we crossed the river to the National Library, a striking building both inside and out, where we serendipitously found an exhibition on the history of the written word in Latvian. We then wandered along the riverfront, back through the old town, grabbing lunch and trying to avoid the rain. The main event of the day, however, was a fabulous tasting menu with wine pairings at this restaurant. This meal was fabulous — focusing on seafood, and fresh ingredients. We try to do a tasting meal once per long trip, and this was definitely worth it: amazing service and vibe, and great for people watching. I learnt a lot about Latvian food as well.
17 August
Today was all about serendipity. After the usual excellent bakery breakfast, Matthias and I started wandering around the residential area in which the Art Nouveau museum was located, intending to spend the morning there. En route, we discovered an event in a park with music, street food, and, of all things, charity basketball matches (involving teams of e.g. politicians, influencers, etc), all being broadcast on national television. We resolved to come back for lunch. The Art Nouveau museum is on a street filled with wildly decorated Art Nouveau houses which have to be seen to be believed (there are loads of pictures on my Instagram). This street, along with the museum itself, was probably my favourite thing about Riga, and ruined me for all other ornately decorated European residential buildings forever! After that, we went back to to the park for lunch, then wandered around various craft beer bars/breweries that Matthias had on his list. This kind of roaming — particularly outside more touristy haunts — is my favourite thing to do in unfamiliar cities.
18 August
Our last day in Riga, with a 4.5-hour train ride to Vilnius in the afternoon. We walked for ages along the river, learning unfamiliar parts of the city, soaking in the sleepy Sunday morning vibes. Another serendipitous discovery: a street food festival in a random carpark in the old town, which was perfect for a low-key lunch. We then spent an hour or so strolling along the canal in Bastion Park, people-watching and stretching our legs, before picking up our bags and heading to the train station. I cannot recommend enough Lithuanian trains, and the once-per-day Riga to Vilnius trip: capacious seats, air conditioning, outlets and wifi, and, because we'd splashed out for first class, free water, tea, coffee and snack — all for the princely sum of €34. I'll never be able to cope with UK trains again! We arrived late in Vilnius, made stupid dinner decisions due to tiredness and the late hour, then collapsed into sleep.
19 August
A lot of wandering, getting a feel for Vilnius as a city, plus two exhibitions in MO, the contemporary art museum: one on altneratively spirituality and conspiratorial thinking (great), one on gender, queerness and sexuality in Soviet times and after the restoration of independence, with art and photography from Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian artists. The photos — most of which were not intended for the public — were my favourite thing here, because they felt like a kind of hidden, more honest history. Lots of walking, lots of cute cafes and bars, including an amazing bagel cafe, tucked away in a side street and filled with books and art. Dinner in was in a rather touristy (but cheap) resaurant that proved great for people watching, as tourists and locals paraded along one of the main pedestrian streets in the old town, and huge flocks of crows converged on the roof of a nearby church, launching themselves from time to time into the twilit sweep of the sunset sky.
20 August
the last day of the holiday, and a wonderful way to close things off, involving my favourite activities: walking, and discovering new places to eat. After pastries at the Georgian bakery down the road from our hotel, we walked through the drowsy old town to the cathedral, next to which a group of confused Americans and Italians had misplaced their respective walking tours. We roamed around the grounds, then climbed the steep hill to the ruined castle and observation tower — lots of stairs! (There is a funicular, but I never want to pay for such things if there's a free walk instead!) We then descended and spent lots of time in a city park that straddled the river, watching ducks drift by and small children propel themselves on tricycles around fountains and rose bushes. We then climbed another hill to the Three Crosses monument, and walked to lunch, on a route that took us through an upmarket hillside area filled with cafes, little galleries and boutique shops, arriving at our lunch destination: a collection of static food trucks in the ground floor of a coworking space. I love these places (I've been to similar versions in Manchester and London; they're essentially gentrified shopping mall food courts), and this was an excellent example of the type! After that, we returned to chill in our hotel room for a bit before our trip's crowing glory: another tasting menu in a restaurant in the historic centre. Having spent the day walking through three very different parts of Vilnius, it's astonishing that one small city contains such contrasts!
And that about sums it up. That was a lot of transcribing, so I'm going to ignore any typos that I discover later! I feel really fortunate to have had such experiences, and particularly appreciate that Matthias and I are such keen walkers, since it allows for a kind of sponteneity and serendipitous discovery that balances well with my own impulses to plan and schedule everything to a rigid degree. Walking means you can revel in the unexpected, encountered en route to the planned activities!
I have a few final impressions of the trip and region as a whole, but I will leave that to another post — but as I say, I'm happy to expand on anything mentioned here in the comments! I also have extensive photographic documentation of everything documented in writing above, over at Instagram (![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
ronnidolorosa, where I'm always happy to be added by people from Dreamwidth, although give me a heads up if your username there is different to your Dreamwidth one, otherwise I won't add you back).
The reason for the whole trip was the wedding of one of Matthias's school friends, who lives in Finland and was getting married to his Finnish fiancée; we decided that this was the perfect opportunity to add a visit to Tallinn, and then decided that when would we next have the chance to be in that part of the world, and added on some time in Latvia and Lithuania as well! We did the whole thing (other than the flights at either end) via public transport: ferry, trains (and an unintended rail replacement bus), which was logistically complicated (especially the trains between Estonia and Latvia, and Latvia and Lithuania, of which there are only one per day on each respective route), but a great experience.
Since I always regret not doing so when travelling, I put pen to paper every day with a few sentences in my paper journal, so I'd remember all the various things we did. I'm very happy to expand on anything noted here, especially if you are considering visiting the same places and want advice or recommendations.
7 August
Late night flight to Helsinki, gliding magestically over the clouds, watching the sea and then the lakes bleed into the sky. Possibly the calmest, most uneventful short-haul flight I've ever experienced. Arrived at 11pm to a deserted airport, sailed through empty border control, picked up bags and collapsed into bed in an airport hotel.
8 August
We woke early and travelled into Helsinki train station, then caught a train to Tampere, arriving around 11.30. Since we couldn't check into our hotel, we left our bags in a locker at the station (the easiest to use that I've ever encountered), then took advantage of the lovely weather to go wandering. Thanks to
nerakrose's advice, we had a good itinerary. We walked out to the viewing tower, which gave us sweeping views of the town and surrounding lakes, and the blue, blue sky, then descended to eat cardamom doughnuts below. Then we walked through the forest, along the lakefront, and beside the river which links the two lakes surrounding the town. My only regret is not taking the first opportunity (at a beach with changing huts) to swim, since no better opportunity arose. Always swim when you have the chance! After returning to town, we checked into our hotel, which was full of Swedish football fans in town for a match (and who sang loudly in the corridors for much of the night).9 August
The weather today looked more dubious, but we had planned ahead with indoor activities: a visit to the Moomin museum, which was immersive, interweaving material about Tove Jansson's life with original Moomin and non-Moomin artwork, prints and books, and, more revelatory to me, the incredibly intricate miniature models of scenes from the Moomin stories, constructed with painstaking care by Jansson's partner Tuulikki Pietilä. After a quick lunch in the restaurant of a tiny theatre, we headed off by train to Hämeenlinna, checked into our hotel, and wandered around the lake in the evening light. The scenery was like something from a folktale: the glassy lake, scattered with waterlilies, fringed with birch forest, the castle in the distance, and the clouds reflected in the clear mirror of the water. it was incredibly still and peaceful. We ate dinner in a wine bar outdoors, then tucked into our hotel for an early night. Around midnight, the torrential rains arrived, and did not abate.
10 August
The day in Hämeenlinna began with torrential rain, which soaked us and ruined my hair in the 30 seconds it took to dash to the car driving us to the church. It poured on and off throughout the day, but couldn't dampen anyone's spirits, as we celebrated what felt like a truly collective effort: musical performances by family and friends, everyone pitching in to move furniture and clean up — a real community celebration. We danced until the early hours to a delightfully cheesy wedding playlight — the song that got everyone (a bunch of Finns, Germans, and me) on the dance floor was, inevitably, Käärijä's 'Cha Cha Cha' — and collapsed into bed, exhausted.
11 August
After a very late start, a long brunch, and a wander around the apple trees, it was time to head off, with two of Matthia's friends kindly driving us to Helsinki. We arrived at our hotel in the evening, wandered around the waterfront, marvelling at the contrasting textures of sea, sky and industrial architecture, ate dinner in an overpriced tourist trap restaurant, and headed back to the hotel for an early night.
12 August
We arrived in Tallinn after our ferry trip to storms, and slate-grey skies and seas, and tried not to let the weather dampen our spirits. We ate lunch at a covered market (where I went into raptures over the fresh fruit and vegetables), wandered around the old town, and then along the harbour, where we were battered by torrential rain, but which allowed me to commune with the Baltic Sea in its preferred state: choppy, grey, and with the water beleeding into the cloud-covered horizon. I felt salt-washed and content — Matthias perhaps less so. We returned back to the city centre for dinner with
hoarmurath (whose advicse as a whole served us extremely well for the Tallinn leg of the trip), then headed back to the hotel, under clearing skies.13 August
We woked to vastly improved weather, grabbed a quick breakfast at an excellent bakery, then walked out to the KUMU art gallery, a gorgeously designed building full of Estonian art covered three centuries (a great way to learn the country's history), plus some temporary exhibitions. The gallery sits within an expansive city park, which is well worth a visit of its own. We strolled through it, then walked for an hour or so along the waterfront (how great to see it in sunshine!), through the unofficial 'Culture Quarter' (an unnerving and striking collection of crumbling, Soviet-era abandoned buildings), to the Põhjala taproom for a couple of drinks, then back to town (through a really nice residential area), up the hill in the old town, in time for an excellent dinner in a restaurant Matthias had discovered, before meeting up with an old friend of mine from my undergrad days, whose partner is Estonian and who moved to Tallinn a few years ago after falling in love with the place while on holiday. He's had a rather interesting life: when we were students together he was an aspiring political journalist, he ended up covering European football for the Guardian, and now (like, it appears, all foreigners in Tallinn who don't speak fluent Estonian) works for a tech startup. He's also played cricket internationally for Estonia, and we learnt, hilariously, about an Australian crypto gambling billionaire who is a) funding cricket in Estonia and b) using this as a way to recruit every cricket-playing Australian immigrant to work for his crypto gambling company (not my friend, though). Amusingly, while we were all hanging out, two of his friends also appeared in the same bar, and we ended up being a cheerfully, serendipitously international bunch. It's hard to describe, but after so many years living overseas, I feel more like an immigrant (than Australian or British) as the core part of my identity, and there's something so refreshing about hanging out with other immigrants — a common outlook and set of experiences that everyone understands without explanation. It was the perfect cap to our time in Tallinn, and all the more welcome for being so unexpected.
14 August
A morning spent on the move: a train, and then a rail replacement bus, zipping through fields and forests and a veritable orchard of apple and plum trees, until we were disgorged in central Tartu. As we essentially only had an afternoon here, we mainly ambled around — climbing the forested hiill at the back of the town — crowned with a ruined cathedral — then walking through the town hall square and historic centre to the little botanic garden. Tartu is European City of Culture this year, and I think with more time, one could take part in a lot of things going on, but as it was, we made the best of our short stay. Dinner was on the balcony of an inexplicably Oscar Wilde-themed wine bar, watching the sun go down over the hill behind us. We returned early to our (ludicrously decorated, Hanseatic League-themed) hotel to sleep, and rest before tomorrow's intense day of travel (about which more later).
15 August
A long day of travel, starting with an Estonian (modern) train to Valga. Valga is a twin border town with Latvian Valka, and I wondered if residents would need to be trilingual (I heard Estonian and Russian, not sure about Latvian). There's not a lot to do in Valga besides sit in the echoey, empty train station, or walk around in the heat, but we at least managed to find a cafe to spend some of the four (!!!) hours between connecting trains. Other than locals, everyone there was a tourist en route to Riga. After several hours had passed, we boarded the Latvian train (a boxy ex-Soviet one, with no air conditioning) and we travelled for three more hours until we reached Riga. The landscapes were full of fruit trees, fields, and worn-down looking villages. After a hot, sleepy few hours, we were disgorged into Riga city centre, checked into our hotel, and wandered the old town, marvelling at the plethora of ornate buildings.
16 August
Today's main task was to do laundry, and, after rejecting the idea of getting our hotel's laundry service to do it (€4.50 PER PAIR OF SOCKS), I found a laundromat ten minutes away. This was the easiest laundromat I've ever used — it took cards, the instructions were trilingual, detergent was included and automatically added! An absolute miracle, with a great bakery around the corner for breakfast while we waited for the laundry to finish. (Ask me about last year's debacle in a Milan laundromat for comparison!) With that out of the way, we crossed the river to the National Library, a striking building both inside and out, where we serendipitously found an exhibition on the history of the written word in Latvian. We then wandered along the riverfront, back through the old town, grabbing lunch and trying to avoid the rain. The main event of the day, however, was a fabulous tasting menu with wine pairings at this restaurant. This meal was fabulous — focusing on seafood, and fresh ingredients. We try to do a tasting meal once per long trip, and this was definitely worth it: amazing service and vibe, and great for people watching. I learnt a lot about Latvian food as well.
17 August
Today was all about serendipity. After the usual excellent bakery breakfast, Matthias and I started wandering around the residential area in which the Art Nouveau museum was located, intending to spend the morning there. En route, we discovered an event in a park with music, street food, and, of all things, charity basketball matches (involving teams of e.g. politicians, influencers, etc), all being broadcast on national television. We resolved to come back for lunch. The Art Nouveau museum is on a street filled with wildly decorated Art Nouveau houses which have to be seen to be believed (there are loads of pictures on my Instagram). This street, along with the museum itself, was probably my favourite thing about Riga, and ruined me for all other ornately decorated European residential buildings forever! After that, we went back to to the park for lunch, then wandered around various craft beer bars/breweries that Matthias had on his list. This kind of roaming — particularly outside more touristy haunts — is my favourite thing to do in unfamiliar cities.
18 August
Our last day in Riga, with a 4.5-hour train ride to Vilnius in the afternoon. We walked for ages along the river, learning unfamiliar parts of the city, soaking in the sleepy Sunday morning vibes. Another serendipitous discovery: a street food festival in a random carpark in the old town, which was perfect for a low-key lunch. We then spent an hour or so strolling along the canal in Bastion Park, people-watching and stretching our legs, before picking up our bags and heading to the train station. I cannot recommend enough Lithuanian trains, and the once-per-day Riga to Vilnius trip: capacious seats, air conditioning, outlets and wifi, and, because we'd splashed out for first class, free water, tea, coffee and snack — all for the princely sum of €34. I'll never be able to cope with UK trains again! We arrived late in Vilnius, made stupid dinner decisions due to tiredness and the late hour, then collapsed into sleep.
19 August
A lot of wandering, getting a feel for Vilnius as a city, plus two exhibitions in MO, the contemporary art museum: one on altneratively spirituality and conspiratorial thinking (great), one on gender, queerness and sexuality in Soviet times and after the restoration of independence, with art and photography from Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian artists. The photos — most of which were not intended for the public — were my favourite thing here, because they felt like a kind of hidden, more honest history. Lots of walking, lots of cute cafes and bars, including an amazing bagel cafe, tucked away in a side street and filled with books and art. Dinner in was in a rather touristy (but cheap) resaurant that proved great for people watching, as tourists and locals paraded along one of the main pedestrian streets in the old town, and huge flocks of crows converged on the roof of a nearby church, launching themselves from time to time into the twilit sweep of the sunset sky.
20 August
the last day of the holiday, and a wonderful way to close things off, involving my favourite activities: walking, and discovering new places to eat. After pastries at the Georgian bakery down the road from our hotel, we walked through the drowsy old town to the cathedral, next to which a group of confused Americans and Italians had misplaced their respective walking tours. We roamed around the grounds, then climbed the steep hill to the ruined castle and observation tower — lots of stairs! (There is a funicular, but I never want to pay for such things if there's a free walk instead!) We then descended and spent lots of time in a city park that straddled the river, watching ducks drift by and small children propel themselves on tricycles around fountains and rose bushes. We then climbed another hill to the Three Crosses monument, and walked to lunch, on a route that took us through an upmarket hillside area filled with cafes, little galleries and boutique shops, arriving at our lunch destination: a collection of static food trucks in the ground floor of a coworking space. I love these places (I've been to similar versions in Manchester and London; they're essentially gentrified shopping mall food courts), and this was an excellent example of the type! After that, we returned to chill in our hotel room for a bit before our trip's crowing glory: another tasting menu in a restaurant in the historic centre. Having spent the day walking through three very different parts of Vilnius, it's astonishing that one small city contains such contrasts!
And that about sums it up. That was a lot of transcribing, so I'm going to ignore any typos that I discover later! I feel really fortunate to have had such experiences, and particularly appreciate that Matthias and I are such keen walkers, since it allows for a kind of sponteneity and serendipitous discovery that balances well with my own impulses to plan and schedule everything to a rigid degree. Walking means you can revel in the unexpected, encountered en route to the planned activities!
I have a few final impressions of the trip and region as a whole, but I will leave that to another post — but as I say, I'm happy to expand on anything mentioned here in the comments! I also have extensive photographic documentation of everything documented in writing above, over at Instagram (
ronnidolorosa, where I'm always happy to be added by people from Dreamwidth, although give me a heads up if your username there is different to your Dreamwidth one, otherwise I won't add you back).
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Date: 2024-08-28 04:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-30 03:30 pm (UTC)